Just So You Know

Obesity and cooking....

"Foods that are “energy-dense,” providing many calories per pound because of their high sugar or high fat content, are much cheaper than non-energy-dense foods such as fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, and whole grains – the very foods recommended as the basis of an optimally healthy diet. In addition, low-income neighborhoods often lack access to supermarkets, farmers markets and other sources of fresh, unprocessed foods, and children in such neighborhoods may not have safe places to go to burn off extra calories through physical activity."
Susan Okie M.D.
Fed Up! Winning the War Against Childhood Obesity

It’s hard to think that the signs of poverty and poor financial management in the future will be the weight of the children. In the distant past, obesity was a sign of wealth; it showed that you had the ability to buy more than subsistence level food. It’s one of the reasons Rubens painted heavier women. However, in today’s society, fitness and being lean (but not anorexicly thin) is a sign of wealth since those people have the time and the money for gyms and personal trainers, not to mention access to fresh, unprocessed food and the time and the resources to have nutritious food prepared for them.
The fast food climate contributes to the obesity problem and for the first time, the life expectancy rate is falling in industrialized nations. We’re reaching the point where our lifestyle is becoming toxic and killing us instead of helping us to live longer.
Let’s face it, how many working mothers have the time and energy to make the meals that their parents did? How many of today’s parents were raised in a home where the microwave was king and real cooking didn’t occur. It’s amazing how the meal that my grandmother fixed on the stove were so much tastier than the ones my mom made in the microwave.
In addition, how many of today’s parents really didn’t learn how to cook. How many of them grew up in the post Home Economics at school world and didn’t learn to cook from either home or school. How many are like me where we were told by society that it was a good thing that a woman didn’t cook like her poor downtrodden, unenlightened, unfeminist mother? It took my husband to teach me how to cook. After all, there shouldn’t be much that he can do better than me, right? Well to this day, he still cooks better than I do, mainly because his father taught him. My kids will be able to cook. Both the boys and the girl have learned from their father because let’s face it; their mother does the credit card at the fast food place better than the kitchen and the range.

posted by Shondratasha @ 11:13