Eat It

What has been on my mind these past few days you may ask?  An excellent question.  Lately I have been thinking about the problem with obesity that we see in the good ol' US of A.  A strange thing to think about for sure, however, a couple of things have sparked this thought process.  The first thing to lead to my deliberating the issue is the fact that I struggle with obesity myself.  As a teen and 20 something I was in pretty decent shape. As I approached my later 20s and beyond I gained a ridiculous amount of weight.  To this day I constantly battle with the desire to get back to a healthy state.  The second spark came from listening to NPR this morning.  I listen to NPR on my satellite radio as I drive to work.  Usually the program "Fresh Air" is on for my morning drive.  Today they had author Michael Moss on the show.  He has written an article entitled "The Extraordinary Science of Junk Food."  In this piece he exposes the efforts made by the big food manufacturers to get consumers to buy more and more of their products.  These two ideas collided in my brain and began the thought processes.
When I think about the problem my brain initially goes to the fact that you can almost draw a line in the sands of time and see where it all began.  I think specifically about my dad's dad who was not overweight at all, but ate pretty much fried everything his whole life.  My grandfather never went to a gym, or worked out to some wild exercise DVD.  The man pretty much ate what he wanted, and did what he wanted.  This is the place where Michael Moss' expose comes into the scene.
His article discusses the science that the big food manufacturers (Kellogg, General Mills, Coke, and all companies such as these)  put into developing products that people would consume over and over.  It discusses something called "the bliss point."  The bliss point is the perfect combination of salt, fat and sugar that causes people to eat more of a product than they normally would consume.  Apparently, there have been conversations within and amongst these companies in regards to how their products have contributed to the obesity epidemic we see today.  As is expected none will take full responsibility, but some may admit to some small degree of responsibility.  I also found it interesting that some of the leading scientists that developed these bliss points for each company, now have regrets about their work.
There are many groups who have discussed the need for these manufacturers to decrease the amount of salt, fat and sugar their products contain. The general response from these companies is that they have a responsibility to their stockholders to produce a profit.  I know for some of you "profit" is a dirty word, but as I'll discuss in a minute there is valid concern here.  I will admit that it is easy to simply point our fingers at the big, bad corporations, but maybe we should take some responsibility as well.
As consumers, we do have the right to purchase what we want. However, my observation is that it has become more and more difficult to determine what is good and what is bad to eat.  Even as rules are created to force companies to be more open about what their product contains, we have nutritionists who cannot agree on what is good for us. Plus, the research shows that the combination of salt, fat, and sugar found in products today tend to "trick" the brain into eating more of them than we should.  I hesitate to use the word "addiction," but the results are similar.
To me the question we need to ask is "how do we solve the problem?"  One solution would be for the manufacturers to voluntarily reduce the sugar/fat/salt content of these products, but that brings us back to the discussion of their fiduciary responsibility to their stockholders.  They fear that if they make these changes then people will consume less of their product, and thus they will lose profits and could potentially find themselves working in the "red." Being a voluntary situation won't work because there will always be those entities who will not play along, and thus all of them will fall back to the same habits they have now.  I admit that I do not have a problem with companies making a profit.  To me it is the same as you and me going to work to make money.  However, I do believe that profits should be made with a modicum of ethics.
Another solution that comes to mind is to pass legislation that requires these companies to decrease the levels of fat/sugar/salt.  The down sides to this solution are that you now involve the government, who will have to create some agency to over-see these companies and ensure they are doing what they should do.  Sounds quite expensive to the tax payers.  It also makes me question what would happen if in fact all of these companies begin to lose sales, as they predict they would, and end up having to cut costs. The number one cost in a company is usually payroll.  Therefore, it could create a situation where many of these companies begin letting workers go.  In an economy that is already struggling to get back on its feet, having thousands more people out of work can't be a good thing.
I also would argue that we, the consumers, need to "reprogram" ourselves by being more mindful of what we consume.  Maybe we should reach for more fruits and whole foods to eat rather than reaching for chips, and other processed foods.  We have not always had this "addiction, " and in my opinion, we can get rid of it.  Will it be easy?  Heck no, but with small steps we can make the changes necessary to decrease our intake of these foods.  I also think that we need to battle the influx of all of this junk food into our schools.  We do not need soda machines or vending machines in our schools.  Our lunchrooms do not need to offer the kids ice cream, or pre-packaged pastries.  When i would go have lunch with my daughter at her school, I was shocked to see what would happen.  The students would purchase their lunch, or maybe they brought a lunch, and MOST of them would also buy some sort of sugary, fatty junk food.  The lunch would go in the trash, and they would eat the junk food.  That would be their entire lunch.
We need to re-educate ourselves about proper nutrition. We need to push for better choices, especially for our children. I take full responsibility for my bad eating habits, and the poor choices my child makes when it comes to eating.  Go to a restaurant, and the child's menu is the following: mac and cheese, hamburger, hot dog, chicken fingers, or cheese pizza.  That makes no sense.
I do not proclaim to know the answers necessary to solve the issue, but I do think about it with some regularity.  I'd like to hear your thoughts on what steps we need to take to solve the issue.
NO song today, but here is a link to the article that began my thinking
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

No Time for Awards

Somehow I found myself watching the Oscars last night.  I do not quite understand how this happened, but will chalk it up to the fact that I could not find anything else to watch.  After about 45 minutes of it, I decided that reading was a better use of my time. There may have been a time in the past when I enjoyed awards shows much more than I do now.  However, I really do not perceive my past as being filled with great amounts of joy from watching them.  I am not making any bit of judgement on those of you who do enjoy them at all.  As I've said in the past it is our differences that make the world an interesting place.
For starters, do we really need hour after hour of pre-awards show coverage?  I feel the same about the Super Bowl and other events.  I really do not care what the people are wearing, and I do not care to listen to endless analysis of the movies that have been nominated for awards.  If I saw the movie, there is a pretty good chance that I figured out the plot, and even caught any twists involved in said plot.  I do not need someone from E! television spelling it out for me.  I'm certain the script was not written by some super-genius who writes above the average person's level.  If I did not see the movie, I definitely do not want someone telling me anything about it.
I also do not need to watch the actors and actresses arrive to the red carpet.  I pretty much can deduce that if they are in the audience then they managed to find their way to the auditorium.  While I'm sure it is fun to pick apart what the actors/actresses are wearing, I find little joy in that.  Although there are moments when you do wonder if they walked by a mirror on the way out of the house, or if their driver gave them a "WTH?" look.  I'd probably have a hard time not saying something myself. Probably why I am not linked to the world of celebrity in any way.
I guess one issue I have is that much like College Football Bowl Games there are just way too many awards shows.  How many times do we need to award an actor/actress/movie?  I'd say once is probably enough. What do I know?
Luckily, they have tried to pare down the time it takes to get through the entire show.  However, for me it seems a little rude to have this show congratulating people for doing a good job, and then you begin playing music over their thank you speech and eventually turn the microphone off.
After watching the little bit of the Oscars that I did watch it struck me that the most painful part of it is watching these people.  Here are people who get paid millions of dollars to make movies.  (my issue is NOT with how much money they make)  I find it painful to watch these people struggle to read a telepromter, and struggle to even act like they are interested in what is going on.  There seems to be so much dead air, and a lot of standing around as if they aren't sure what to do with themselves. 
Honestly, I think it's the difference between stage actors and film actors.  In the earlier days of Hollywood, most screen actors had been stage actors and were used to improvisation.  They were great at thinking on their feet.  It seems to me that maybe today's actors aren't so inclined.  At any rate, for me it makes watching these shows unbearable.
I would make a list of the movies that I enjoyed from last year, but I'm having a hard time remembering which movies I did see. LOL  I must be getting old.  I did see "Cool Hand Luke" last year, and I thought it was awesome.

times are a changin'

I have to admit that I often struggle to keep up with a blog.  This is probably the third blog that I have started in my lifetime.  I suppose that my struggle stems not so much from not having anything to say, but more from wondering if anyone really cares what I have to say.  I imagine I should not worry about such things, but alas I do.  I also feel a bit of pressure to be "entertaining," whatever that means.  Maybe I'm a humorous person, but I'm not so sure about that.

This past week has been a real adventure for me as many different things seemed to take place this past week.  First thing to happen was I had to go and "shadow" a doctor for the company I am about to work for.  I'm not sure what the purpose of this event was as I've been practicing my profession for 17 years and I'm sure I know what I'm doing.  I had to shadow this guy for two days.  Super nice guy, and I enjoyed the people in the office, but it took boredom to a new level (and not in a good way.) 

Next to appear on the calendar was Lent.  For those of you that are not well informed about Lent, welcome to my part of the world.  Many people seem to believe that Lent is simply observed by devout Catholics, however that is inaccurate as many people of the Christian belief systems observe this period on the calendar.  Lent is basically the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.  To observe this time period a person is supposed to give up something that is common to their everyday life.  I believe that the intent is to take your focus off of earthly distractions and return our focus onto Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he made for all of us.  Do not quote me on this as I am no theologian.  Honestly, I have never really observed the time, nor given up anything for it either.  I used to joke that I was going to give up heroin for Lent, but few really found the humor in that. (not that I do heroin, thus the joke.)  This year I gave up my facebook account for Lent.  I spent way too much time on facebook, and could never really explain exactly what i was getting from it.  I was a bit concerned that I would really be miserable, but the reality is that I have not missed it too much.  You are allowed to take a break from you observation on Sundays, so today I have logged back onto facebook and was a bit surprised to find that out of the over 100 notifications I had, maybe 2 of them interested me.  that is in no way a comment on anything other than the fact that decreasing my time on facebook is a good decision.

The third event for this week was Valentine's Day.  this is an exceptional day for those of us who are single. Lucky for me I did not have to go to work or anything like that, so I was not surrounded by all of the reminders of being single.  I spent the day at home for the most part, went to a matinee movie where I was the only one in the theater, then treated myself to a beautiful Valentine's dinner at What-A-Burger, which is apparently the antithesis of valentine's dining as I was also pretty much the only person here as well.  I did send some flowers to a friend of mine, and I believe that those made her day as she said she had never received flowers at work before. I found this to be quite tragic as she should receive flowers more often. I like to believe that they made her day, so that made Valentine's day slightly better for me than usual.

All in all not a bad week, other than I have apparently been magically transported from my apartment to live in a kennel as i am surrounded by the incessant barking of dogs.  a bit maddening if I must say so.  This coming week I begin a new job, i'm sure it will be as exciting as it can be for my profession. (which is not all that exciting.)
sorry for the neglect, and for the rambling thanks for listening.  I have seen several new movies recently, and hope to pass on my much anticipated review for each of these.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uabb3istM3g

I like this version of this song because it is such a shift to see Ritchie Blackmore play this type of music rather than all of the Deep Purple/ Rainbow stuff he did way back when