the culture of victims

I've grown up in an interesting time. The age of pop culture. American pop culture is consumer driven, basicly, commercials and brands names saturate ever nook and cranny of our existence. Facial tissue is most often called klenex, bleach is clorox. If you say golf, everyone thinks of Tiger Woods.

And then you get to the food and all the pop culture icons. Ronald McDonald, Cap'n Crunch, the Trix rabbit, the Pillsbury Doughboy (my personal favortie), Betty Crocker, Aunt Jemihma, and the list goes on. These icons, the well-crafted hawk thier products to us in commercals and print ads. Sometime they even sell thier likenesses in the form of toys. And the branding begins.

It goes further than that though. You think of fast food you're thinking about McDonalds. We've grown up in a time where the marketers put playgrounds in the restraunt, not to be nice to the kids, but to sell more burgers.
"Mommy! I want to eat at McDonald's." And why not? Toys with the meal, an indoor playground, and sugary foods, a kid will go nuts to eat there, and parents will give in. The kids are programed at an early age to see McFood as comforting. Happy childhood memories are associated with eating there. So when those children are adult, they will bring thier kids to McDonald's to gorge on grease, sugar, and salt.

When you take it a step further, and realize that McFood will give you McHealth problems in the long run, the big clown and his junkie food peddleing cronies look more and more like villians to us. Are they really that bad?

Blaming McDonald's for you being fat and at-risk for heart attacks is alot like blaming the apple tree in the garden of eden for Adam disobeying God and getting in trouble. Adam made his own choice, just like we do everyday. We seldom choose the right way, we opt for the easy way. We all went to school and learned about nutrition. We all know that fast food and sweets will make you huge. But it tastes so good. Then, you get another icon....Richard Simmons (ick) sitting there crying with some woman that looks like a beached whale talking about how junk food ruined her life.

We have a society of victims, it's not the person who ate fast food everyday and had a heart attack's fault No, it Ronald's fault. Ronald McDonald mad you fat. The Pillsbury Doughboy was his accomplice, The took your money and your health and made thier getaway on the Budwieser Clydesdale Horses.The Marlboro Cowboy just hypnotized you into smoking until cancer takes your life, he was riding a horse too.

Are they really the ememies? No, if there is a villain to be found it is within ourselves. Our tendancy to over-indulge, to neglect ourselves. A cookie or two from the pillsbury doughboy will not hrt you. Eating a whole plateful in one sitting will. That's why they are called treats. If you decided to eat at McDonald's one night a week, you'll be fine. Eating at McDonald's five days a week is fast tracking yourself to an early grave.

The typical American diet:
Breakfast : sugary cereal, danish, fast food, or nothing
Snack: Candy bar
Lunch: Almost always fast food (we're in a hurry, right?)
snack: wow, lotta snacks, but all them high carb foods run through you.
Dinner:Almost always something bad.
Midnight snack: something nice and sugary to sleep on.

Add smoking to that and wow. You are well on your way to becoming a statistic.

The concept of moderation in all things is not new. Buddah was telling that one thousands of years ago. If you eat the right foods, you just about can't get fat without first having a medical condition.

I'm a fan of low carb diets. I don't eat low carb all the time, but voiding bread, sugar and drinking plenty of water helps me. I have yet to dedicate myself to it thoroughly enough to be "thin", but I ve lost over 20 lbs.

In the end, people can always say no, but they don't. No one but themselves should have to pay for the poor choices they make.