Food phobic nation

[undergroundpanther]

"Good nutrition is getting a bad name -- one that smacks of rigidity, guilt-making and extremism… Worse still, some eight out of ten (Americans) think foods are inherently good or bad... every single bite they take represents an all-or-nothing choice either for or against good health." (1)

This statement from the Tufts University Diet and Nutrition Letter over a decade ago accurately sums up the current nutrition atmosphere in the United States. Americans live in a constant state of anxiety and confusion when it comes to food. For many, if not most adults, a longing glance at a desired food is sure to elicit the following inner dialogue:



"I wonder how many calories, fat grams, carbohydrates, etc. are in that food.
I don't know if I should eat it…Will it give me heart disease, diabetes, cancer?...Will it make me fat?"



If the desire to eat ends up winning out over the fear, which it usually does, the anxiety, now intensified by the guilt of not having resisted, returns: "I've really blown it now…how many miles am I going to have to walk, run, bike, etc. to get rid of those calories…?"


http://www.techcentralstation.com/111403D.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I'd say overall, this country is pretty neurotic one way of the other.

If it isn't emotional problems involving food, it's sex. If it isn't sex and/or food, then it's money. If it isn't a sex, food, and/or money (or a combation thereof), then it's power.

I'd like to live in a culture where most people are comfortable in their own skin, don't judge how well they're doing by what the media or the government tells them, and live and let live. Oh yeah, Canada . . . .