I think that this might be something to think about.
Some of you say on here, if people choose to be fat slobs, they have the freedom to keep pounding down those db chzburgers...
And you're absolutely right, they do, if people want to be the size of a bus, you have my blessing.
But i think everyone should be able to admit the following, it doesn't work. And regardless of whether you have the freedom to commit a certain action, doesn't mean you should, our lifestyles and our diets simply are not conducive to a healthy, and strong society, at least in general, many people do take care of themselves.
So at the end of the day, when you know that something is in essence destroying society, you have 2 choices, keep doing it, or eventually let it destroy you. There is no advantage for a country to have the obesity rates you do, no positive spin you can put on it.
I think you make a very good point. Our eating habits have become less about good healthy eating and more about convenience...time management. And the way the commercial markets have manipulated food comsumption, IMO, is via the concept of time management..."How can I get a healthy breakfast or lunch quickly at a reasonable cost?" McDonald's anyone?
"You are what you eat...you get what you pay for."
Captialism is the economic engine that runs this country. Greed fuels capitalism. To maintain a high level of greed we must manage our time wisely and that means providing more and more avenues of convenience in the marketplace. One sure way to do that is via the food chain.
Now, before anyone reads me the riot act, I'm not against capitalism. If I could parlay an event in my life, i.e., 15-minutes of fame, into a multi-million dollar venture I'd do it in a heartbeat! Or if I were blessed to have the drive, determination, wisdom or the good fortune to create wealth for myself, I'd do it. But God hasn't blessed me in that way. So, I don't begrudge anyone who has come into wealth. Not one bit! But...
I am saying that at one time in our nation's history we took great pride in being farmers even planting our own private gardens and we were a healthier nation. But the need for doing things bigger and faster has turned us into a junk food nation where "time and convenience" to a large degree has supplanted good health and healthy eating for the sake of expedience.
The First Lady makes a very interesting argument though it may not have been articulated well. And even if she did manage to say all the right things, most Americans on both sides wouldn't take her serious. Why? Because most people - even those who consider themselves Constitutionalist and defend defense spending - don't understand how our military works under Goldwater-Nicoles, the federal Act that changed the readiness standing of our active and reserve forces in a post-Vietnam era.
The reserves don't just support the active duty forces; in many ways they become the additional combat forces to our military units, those additional boots on the ground. However, what many of us forget is that these reserve units come directly from our private sector. And if our private sector is overweight and out of shape this does affect the readiness of our military when reserve forces are called up. The other side of this issue is the shift in the recruiting process. While it's true that many of our servicemen and women do volunteer for active and reserve duty, post-Vietnam our military moved away from taking anybody (i.e., the judge gave the juvenile dilinguent a choice - join the military or do jail time; guess how many choose jail time back then?) to recruiting troops from more affluient areas, i.e., our high schools and colleges, with the idea that doing so would produce better soldiers. To a degree, they were right. However, in pulling from such a narrowly diverse field of "applicants" - because we have to remember what this nation is also pushing upon our kids -- get your education, go to college and make something of yourself - we've unwittingly reduced the number of recruits our military can actively screen. It's a catch-22 really...
Keep the draft and take anybody in time of war OR allow people the freedom to decide for themselves if serving their country either on active duty or as a reservist is in their best interest. I guess what I'm trying to say is from a certain point of view we are creating a generation of individuals who may be alittle less prepared physically to defend our country and if we don't start taking the health of our nation alittle more seriously we may end up with a military that has fewer healthy patriots to choose from. I'll even go out on a limb and say this:
I think Hitler for all his evil had a good point when he essentially decreed, "A healthy nation is a nation ready to come to her defense." However, I say unequivocally he implemented that concept in the wrong way.