As of late, when I order a drink in a restaurant I'm sure to ask, "So how big is that medium size?" I've started to ask about portion size of not only drinks but the main dish as well. I don't want gargantuan portions even if your charging me $2 bucks for 17/2 pounds of food. I want a normal portion - something that I can eat then and there. No thanks, I won't be taking this home and eating it for the next two weeks. Yet we wonder why we are one, if not the fattest nation on the planet.
Who are the worst offenders? And let's just set aside the fast food joints - you know the ones. They have some clown or other strange apparition telling our kids it's healthy to consume a gallon of soda with their meal; as long as they have the apple covered in sugary caramel sauce for dessert. We already know they have some of the fattest, sodium laden, sugar filled food in this solar system. The current more is better places are pasta eateries. All the pasta and bread sticks you can possibly force into your gullet - all for the low low price of $9.95!
It's not bad enough that we are pelted with ads on TV and in print. Our kids are pretty much forced to eat overly processed food in our public school system. The government puts this in front of the schools for dirt cheap and does not offer any good for ya kind of food. So when your school budget is cut more and more what are you going to do? How will you feed the kids? For the most part, no one is really putting up a fuss about this, even as our kids get fatter and fatter. This will be the first generation that will have roughly 20 years cut from their life span due to obesity! Gee, feels good to know we are creating a "faster future" for the little children doesn't it?
How many times (this is a rhetorical question as there is no possible way to count how many) ...so how many times have politicians said this or that is "for our children's future"? They say it, but don't really mean it. If they did, our kids would be eating much better in school.
I remember at my school when I was a kid. Mac and cheese so thick that it kept your mouth shut for at least a good 10 minutes while your worked your way through it. That was some "stick to your ribs" kinda food. Granted, we did get some sort of veggies. Since they were canned they did not really look or taste like they were born to look or taste. I hated the peas the most. Just mushy, bitter little green bits. Egad they were awful. Even today canned veggies are not for the faint of heart. If fresh can't be found, go frozen. Better taste and normally much less sodium too!
Of course now that I've ripped on the government and school system, let me take a moment to point out that kids who bring a bagged lunch from home are often worse off. Have you seen what some parents send their kids off to school with? Nothing but chips, the juice box that is really sugar water with a bit of "fruit juice" in it and cookies. Or maybe it is one of those "lunchables" kind of thing that has more chemicals in it than the chemical plant down the street - you know the one, it's just down near the river pouring all sort of strange crap in the water supply. Parents - what are you thinking about? Hell, even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is better than most of the stuff you send them out into the world with!
Well, enough of this for now. I say this because I know I'll be talking about this again. I need to start planning on a campaign to force parents to only take chips and a little juice box to work for lunch. Ya, great brain food, at least that seems to be the popular consensus.
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