| We are a large people. 65% of us are | | | | something for nothing or, at the very least, at a |
| overweight, 30% actually obese. How did we | | | | discount. If we can obtain just a few more |
| reach this point? | | | | ounces of something for negligible extra money, |
| We ate ourselves into a prison of our own fat. | | | | we pounce on the larger size. If we're offered |
| Why? | | | | two for the price of one and a half, we don't |
| Well, we certainly didn't sit down and decide that | | | | have to stop and think. If we can save money by |
| we wanted to gain weight, did we? We had no | | | | buying a whole package, even if we don't want all |
| pressure on us to fatten ourselves for some | | | | of it, we'll do it because it makes economic sense |
| eventual slaughter. On the contrary, as our | | | | (ah, the birth of super size!) |
| collective girth increased, we paradoxically | | | | Where did we get the idea that bigger is better? |
| elevated scrawny to a cultural icon, happily | | | | Is it the national legacy of the depression when |
| dismissing the corseted matronly figures of the | | | | we swore we'd never "do without" again? Is it a |
| past two centuries. | | | | natural spillover from our thoughtless squandering |
| Where did the disconnect between our reality and | | | | of the world's resources? Is it the speed and |
| our ideals begin? | | | | stress of our competitive lives that logically leads |
| We can blame the processors who milled out the | | | | to our attacking our food with the same disregard |
| vitamins and minerals we need. We can blame the | | | | for restraint we show in business? |
| preservers who cut back on fiber and freshness | | | | Whatever has brought us to this point, it is time |
| in favor of additives and chemicals. We can blame | | | | for us all to cry "enough!" We may fear terrorist |
| the packagers who added sugar and starch to | | | | attacks or biological warfare but it is our daily |
| everything. We can blame the fast food industry | | | | over-consumption of food that is killing us. |
| for frying everything and we can blame the | | | | Diabetes, clogged arteries, and other |
| beverage companies for their addictive colas. | | | | obesity-related illnesses cost 350,000 American |
| While all of these made their contributions to our | | | | lives a year and the figure continues to climb. The |
| current plight, one source of our caloric distress | | | | associated medical costs are staggering and |
| runs through everything: portion size. | | | | threaten eventual bankruptcy for the Medicare |
| We eat hamburgers - not the gigantic, multi-patty | | | | system if not reined back. |
| ones, just a standard burger - that are 3 times as | | | | Several states and school districts are attempting |
| big as those of 30 years ago. Our orders of | | | | to apply brakes to a junk food society out of |
| french fries are at least twice the size of their | | | | control. A change in the structure of our farm |
| cousins in the 1970s. Pizza no longer has cheese | | | | subsidy programs has been suggested - to |
| only on the top but its crust is also filled. Large | | | | reward the growers of healthy crops and penalize |
| soft drinks are the size of watering cans instead | | | | those who raise the building blocks of edible |
| of baby bottles. Recipes that once announced | | | | garbage (sugar and corn syrup). Taxation, as has |
| "serves 8" now report "serves 4" with exactly | | | | been used to curb the purchase of cigarettes, |
| the same ingredients. Bagels and muffins are 3 to | | | | could change the consumption equation by hitting |
| 4 times as large as their predecessors (and any | | | | our wallets (and a 1 cent tax on every soft drink |
| fan of Seinfeld knows that only the tops are | | | | sold in the United States would raise 40 billion |
| worthwhile). Thank heavens for hormones that | | | | dollars a year). |
| can produce the 20 to 30 pound turkeys we | | | | However, the great change will only come when |
| demand for our holiday dinners. | | | | each of us, individually and collectively, start |
| Compare the small boxes of frozen vegetables | | | | cutting back. |
| that so awed us in the 1950s with the huge bags | | | | We need to insist, repeatedly and loudly, that |
| available today, awash in butter or cheese sauce. | | | | restaurants serve child and senior size plates to |
| The TV dinners we precariously balanced on | | | | adults and split orders without extra charge |
| rickety tray tables are now heavy enough that | | | | (where are the class action lawyers when you |
| those same tables wouldn't hold them. | | | | need them?) We have to demand that small sizes |
| Restaurant meals have grown as well, with a "to | | | | of meal components are offered. We should start |
| go" container almost standard because few | | | | boycotting those huge "economy" sizes of |
| eaters can finish them (although we try terribly | | | | everything from soft drinks, to frozen potatoes, |
| hard). Far from their smorgasbord roots, buffets | | | | to cooking lard, and potato chips. |
| have become almost obscene in their offerings. | | | | And the buck finally stops at our own plate. For |
| Whatever happened to nouvelle cuisine? Has the | | | | our health, our longevity, and our looks, we must |
| fastidious gourmet been completely swallowed by | | | | limit how much we eat of anything. If we cut our |
| the voracious gourmand? Is gluttony no longer a | | | | intake in half, we will be doing ourselves, our |
| deadly sin? | | | | children, and our society a great favor and our |
| We love nothing better than a good bargain: | | | | bodies will thank us for it. |