Where Have Our Food Morals Gone?

"Even if its processed and 'poison', I'm still gonna try it!!!"


    Have you ever said this before?? I hope not. Yet there are folks out there who insist on eating foods that are bad for them, no matter the cost. You name the reason, and they will use it: 



-- "I can eat what I want. It's a free country."
-- "I just don't have the time. I'm a busy mother, and it's enough to just get food on the table."
-- "I'm sick of the food police trying to tell me what to eat!"
-- "You only live once!"

    Recently on Facebook, one page administrator posted the recipe of a contributor. All three ingredients in the recipe were processed and contained several harmful additives. Here was my initial comment: 

    "I'm sorry, but with a name like "FBPageName", I expect stuff on this page to be homemade. This stuff might be a favorite, but it's definitely not homemade. Cool Whip contains some pretty bad stuff. I'm not putting you down, it's just that so many people are obese and unhealthy in this country, and we will not get better until we change our relationships with processed, "convenient" food. It starts one meal at a time, in each home. I understand that everybody wants the occasional treat, but even those can be made with whole ingredients! :) "

    My comment was met with numerous rude and dismissing replies, including one who made this excuse: "I'm not overweight. I can eat what I want." These people wanted me to leave the page and leave them to their devices. I couldn't help myself: I gave one last comment and left it at this: 
    "Sorry folks, but if you have a business that sells chicken and waffles, and you're famous for it, then hardly anyone will come for anything else. Same goes with having a website or FB page. We have a responsibility to be true to our customers/readers. (By the way, you don't have to be fat to be unhealthy) I am obviously in the minority here, but I also feel offended. (but what do you folks care?). I was not rude or putting anyone down, as I mentioned in my first comment. And yet, because I disagreed with the post, you folks want to tell me I'm not welcome here? Do we not all have the constitutional right to disagree? And shall we not politely hold up a mirror to each other so we see how we appear to others? Sometimes we need a little constructive criticism to make progress. Why is it so bad to eat good food? You're right, I could just move on and unlike this page. But why? I like it!"

    Maybe I shouldn't have said all that. But seriously, why is it so bad to eat good food??

    Here is YET another problem with the way we eat: OUR ATTITUDE. Is our pride getting in our way? My answer is unequivocal: Yes. We are a prideful people. We can eat the way we want, because dang it, this is a free country. Well, guess what? We have eaten our way to the worst numbers of obesity, heart disease and cancer in all of history. And how do you think we got here? Is it just a sign of the times? No, it is due to the horrible choices we have made in the grocery store.

    Granted, genetic modification is its own demon, and it's hard to completely avoid them. Apart from that, we eat terribly mostly for the sake of what is convenient. That busy mother is just lucky to get food on the table. But if it's full of horrible stuff, isn't it defeating the purpose? I mean, won't those kids get sick and end up taking up more of her precious time? Kids who eat real food are typically healthy kids. The ones who eat processed crap all the time end up sicker, and more often.

One person in this thread went so far as to say, "Even if it's processed and 'poison', I'm still going to try it!" 

Look, I like cupcakes as much as the next guy, but this kind of reasoning is very destructive. I don't eat cupcakes every day. I don't even eat them every week, or every month. I understand the desire to just let loose to wild and free abandon and just eat what you want. But the above mentality is dangerous. It gives us the freedom to slowly kill ourselves with the food we eat!

And really, what a ridiculous reason to eat horrible food: "You only live once!" Shouldn't that be the reason for making better choices?

Gah! Folks, I have no solutions for this rant of mine. What do we do for folks who insist on living under this black veil of evil eating? They lash out when you try to politely show them the light! I realize I should just move on. I know that they don't care. But how do you GET them to care?

I am really trying to be diplomatic here. I don't want to make anyone upset. But how do you tell people that there are better options out there? How about it? Please comment below and tell me your ideas... 
I'm racking my brain!

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