Obesity is a word that we hear at every turn and yes it pertains to many of us. We are all scolded for eating too much, eating the wrong foods and not exercising enough.
We are directed to various “diets,” which are soon condemned as “fad” diets. They often result in muscle weakness and all sorts of metabolic problems so we quickly abandon them after a slight weight loss.
The choice of exercising can also result in problems, like various physical injuries because our bodies are not accustomed to the activity.
I wonder if we should take all the blame for being overweight. Is it the amount of food we eat or could it be what is in the food we eat? Let’s consider this: the food we eat is often raised with the aid of chemicals and steroids. They are used to promote growth and weight, especially in livestock.
If the meat we eat has growth and weight additives in it, are those attributes not transferred to us? Along with receiving these weight stimulants in our meat diet, waste from the same animals is used to fertilize products grown in the fields. Does anyone know how much of the additives we are actually ingesting?
Placing all the blame for overweight children on the parents is unfair. Yes, the younger generation today spends way too much time playing with electronics: It burns very few calories to send a text or scroll an IPad. They may also have forgotten how to play baseball, throw a football or ride a bike.
But, schools promote and encourage the use of electronics, even provide them. Kids are told to complete their homework on computers and send it in electronically. How can we place all the blame on parents when kids in a classroom don’t even get the exercise of operating a pencil sharpener? Remember the old wood-covered No. 2 things that looked like stir sticks? Do they even make pencils anymore?
And if they do, better not sharpen them because that might get the keys on the computer all black. Maybe using the eraser end to tap the keys would be OK.
What happens at lunch breaks at our schools these days?
Kids sit wherever: cafeterias, picnic tables outside, texting one another — even if someone is right across from them! OK, our kids are chubby but we still want them to have strong bones. So we insist they drink their milk. Milk has even replaced soda in many of the vending machines at school. Do you think the feed the milk cows are fed could be a contributor to our kids’ early weight gains?
Recently, I decided to try ground turkey instead of ground beef, thinking of losing a few pounds. Well that was not such a good idea: My wife and I were both adversely affected by it. We checked on line and found several negative reports. One said that 90 percent of the ground turkey tested contained dangerous bacteria. So what is being done about that?
Do you remember when DDT was outlawed and why? Is anyone checking out today’s additives?