Food has become the focus….more than the occasion.
Go to any celebration, get together, party or event and the food is the topic of discussion. What kind of food are they serving? Who catered the event? Is there enough to go around? Can we get seconds? More and more today, we see food as the centerpiece of any outing away from home. Food has become a large part of our society’s gathering staple-even more so than the actual gathering. But what we aren’t considering is what all of this food is doing to our health and society as a whole. We have become a society of obese people, and no one wants to address the elephant in the room.
I play a game from time to time. Not a happy game or a competitive one. It is a game of seeing a man or woman out in public. When you see one of the two you can almost spot their significant other if they are in close proximity by their shape. More and more when you see the health of the parents, then the kids look just like they do as well. In the 21st century, this means that not only are the parents overweight, but they are passing their bad nutritional habits on to their children. This is a dangerous precedent and the future of our health and country are at stake because of it.
The average American male is still the same height as they were in 1990. But would it surprise you if I were to tell you that the same male is now almost 30 pounds heavier today than in 1990? It should shock us to the core. But it doesn’t. It has become so normalized that we give it an excuse because “Hey everyone else is bigger as well” and the new “I like a DAD Bod” is being used to make it “seem” cool to be unhealthy. This kind of thinking is what my Dad used to call ignorant thinking. Dad used to say when I said someone else is doing something; He would state, “If they jumped off a building would you”? Man, I hated when he said it because he was speaking the truth that made sense.
I refuse to see this as a normal progression because of the food industry. Sure, restaurants, fast food joints, and convenient stores are everywhere. We love as Americans to blame things on other people, especially what we like to call “Big Business”. This is an easy way to divert personal responsibility from our behaviors and habits to others. “Poor ole me, those bad, capitalistic, greedy bastards shoving bean burritos and hamburgers down my mouth. My health issue is really their doing.” This is how we teach our kids to never take responsibility for their actions.
There are close to 325,000 obesity-related death in this country alone each year. Almost every single one that is obesity-related can be stopped, fixed, or prevented with proper food choices.” But I have a thyroid issue that makes me fat.” I call BS. That is NOT the ”only” reason. We have been bombarded with- ”It’s someone else’s problem and not my fault.” We get fat, we sue the food companies. We get burned by a coffee- we sue the restaurant. We smoke cigarettes or vapes and then sue the tobacco company. No one made you eat it, spill it, or inhale it. But, for sure you can find an ambulance-chasing attorney to take your case. What a great country.
I have been told that it isn’t people’s fault if they are poor that they are overweight and have major health issues because of their food choices. When I was teaching school at a CPS/Foster kid school we spent a few weeks researching and debunking this lie all together. “Well, they aren’t taught that they can make better choices with their food so in reality, it is the government, the school district of the food company’s fault.” Are you kidding me? You mean to tell me that this is your argument and you want us to keep a straight face. Again, if you want something you will learn how to get it. Also, learn that it is cheaper in most cases to eat good food, that is healthy food, and save money for your household.
Insurance companies are charging more for people’s insurance, and we complain. They are charging more because people are going to the doctor more and taking more medications than ever. The majority of health issues go away with a proper diet and more activity. We have become a pill-popping society to cure what ails us. “Sure, I am overweight, but I need the medicine to survive.” What you need is to get active, make better food choices and get the unneeded weight off of your body. This does a lot more for your overall health that a monthly trip to the pharmacy counter.
There is an exchange in the movie “A Few Good Men” that reminds me of this situation. People use the excuse that they aren’t taught proper nutrition at school, by the government, or even at home. So, it really isn’t their fault that they end up in a fast-food, drive-thru line. The exchange happens with a Private in the Marines being questioned by Kevin Bacon a prosecutor for the government. When asked where in the handbook can he point out the term “code red” (this is an unwritten way of soldiers keeping soldiers in line) and the private says under oath that there is no chapter on code reds. Bacon passes the witness to Tom Cruise who then asks the Private where is the chapter on the “Chow Hall” (Cafeteria). The Private smirks and says, “There isn’t one”. Cruise then says, “So you didn’t eat for the entire time you were on the Base?” The private says of course he did, “three squares a day”. Cruise asks how did he know where the cafeteria was and the Private says, “I followed the other soldiers to the Chow Hall…that’s how I knew”. There is no excuse for our eating healthy every knows the basics but not many want to follow. And we have the whole information-packed device in history at our fingertips….the internet.
Our generation, and the one before, are killing themselves slowly with their food choices. We are the most regulated generation ever by our own government to protect ourselves from….wow ourselves. “Smoking kills”….so let’s charge larger taxes and increase the smoking age to 21. “Drugs are bad”….so let’s put people in jail that don’t follow our rules. What we aren’t pushing is a personal responsibility for our own lives and health. The government thinks we are so dumb and uninformed that they have to do it for our sake. But, in reality, what they have created is a system that makes people dependent on them for so many things that we should take care of ourselves.
Everyone knows when they look in the mirror or step on a scale what got them to that point of being overweight. What is the first thing people do when they want to lose some weight? Start reducing food intake. It isn’t rocket science and we all know how we got there and somewhat what it takes to get out of it. So why do we allow society to kill themselves? Since the Covid Pandemic started in 2020 we have lost 1 million to what has been attributed to Covid 19, but we have lost close to the same amount to obesity-related issues that could be treated with a reduction of weight-with proper food. But the media is silent. The government is silent. The politicians are silent. The political dividers are silent. We are terrified in the 21st century to offend people and many would consider it an offense to point out, “You are fat and unhealthy and you are killing yourself and it is your own fault.”
Unless we are honest with people and point it out it will continue. “Well, it is their bodies so let them do what they want”…Don’t get me started on this saying. The list is long that this is used for. If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck and quacks like a duck-brother it is a duck. Quit making people that are fat and obese ok with killing themselves. We are sensationalizing bad health under the veil of not wanting to offend people. Why do we not just allow an alcoholic, a drug addict, or any addict to continue and leave them alone-it is their own body right? We try to sidestep the issue and say, “Well their illness could hurt others if they are addicts so we must punish them or tax them with “proper” drugs regulated by the government.” I hate to break it to you but obese and morbidly obese people are hurting others around them as well. Checked your insurance rates lately? These people are our family, friends, and co-workers. The ones we love and care about are killing themselves and we stay silent. This is just one of the things we all have to deal with because of the bad choices of society.
“Don’t fat shame people! Fat is beautiful”! These are just a couple of outlandish statements you will hear now in our society to cover up people killing themselves. We have skidded towards making obese individuals normalized with magazines, commercials, and billboards making them “Feel better” about them feeling bad about themselves. It’s like we all know it makes people sick, unhealthy, and medicine induced, but it’s OK because offending people is the new way of taking away people’s personal responsibility to handle their own health. Maybe we should have a weight tax? We have a soda tax, cigarette tax, alcohol tax, and so on… Maybe we should exempt businesses from taxes that decide to be in the business of decreasing the obesity epidemic in our neighborhoods. Just thinking out loud. Hell, we incentivize everything else, how about we incentivize healthiness.
I refuse to be intimidated by the “Cancel culture” or let people be themselves crowd. If you are overweight and especially morbidly obese it is your fault. Do something about it. We even give people disabilities for obesity issues nowadays. Now-now not just for being fat but if their personal choices have made them so obese they can’t work (C’Mon Man!) or has resulted in a medical condition that was created by their being obese they get a check. I refuse to accept this. Stop eating and get moving. Get help…talk to a counselor…talk to a trainer…get to a YMCA…Get off the couch and walk the hallway, but refuse to be a death statistic waiting to happen.
We teach our children to tell the truth. We expect our representatives to tell the truth or we “fact check” them. Let’s fact-check what obesity is doing to our citizens of the United States. Teach them to be healthy. Call them out when they lie to us or themselves about their weight. Don’t just sit there and let a loved one or friend slowly kill themselves. If they had a gun to their head we would stop them? Now that they have the 21st-century eating habits we just sit back and watch them play Russian Roulette with their hearts and bodies. Yea we really care about our citizens so much….. don’t we?
The Coach John Brent
