Sometimes, I wonder how ANYONE in this world is not overweight! When I go to the supermarket, I should probably stick exclusively to the border section, because two thirds of the central aisles are loaded with unhealthy junk. When I go out to eat, I have to select from approximately four options out of a seventy-two option menu because everything else contains abundant amounts of empty calories. When I need to grab a quick bite to eat, my options are practically nonexistent: everything comes with fries, the salads come with fattening dressings and artery-clogging toppings, and the “healthy” options still often lack nutritional value.
Now, I am quite aware that I can get custom orders, I know Subway exists (though not in close proximity to my job site), and that I can make substitutions to ensure that my food is healthy, but why should I? Shouldn’t people have more healthy options readily available? Why must nearly every grab ‘n go type food be deep fried? Why are fruit juices, protein bars, beef jerky, and granola bars the healthiest choices at the quickie mart? Why must chefs at fine restaurants cook their steaks with enough oil and butter to feed a small country and THEN re-top those steaks with MORE butter once served, thinking it is being nice? Since when was raising people’s blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides a NICE thing to do? Since when was increasing someone’s chance of a heart attack or stroke courteous in any way? And most importantly, since when was it nice to make people fat?
Contrary to what you may be thinking, I am not fat. I am currently on the lower end of the “healthy weight” category thanks to my healthy choices, though I used to be twenty pounds overweight due to being busy, stressed, and eating the standard American diet. It’s so easy to put away 2,500 or more calories in a day without even eating that much food. It isn’t entirely our fault that we are an overweight nation – we are products of our environment, and when healthy selections are as hard to find as deep meanings in hair metal songs, it can certainly be a challenge to make them every day.
Subscribe to NightengaleShane
quote (Why are fruit juices, protein bars, beef jerky, and granola bars the healthiest choices at the quickie mart? )quote
Beaf jerky is not really a healthfull food loaded with nitrates and salt (prolly bettre off with a big mac)
Fuirt juices - umm not really a healthfull option either. you take the juice of 15 apples and sqeeze it into a bottle and you are eating 15 apples but non of the fiber or vits and mins loaded in its skin and pulp. Prolly just as well of had a soda.
But your question can very simply be answered as they aint gonna sell it if no body will eat it. To get people to eat it is gots to be good and for it to be good it gots to be not good for ya well according to you. Its this way by design, you these foods that are fatning are really the best foods for you. The scrumptous taste loaded into these foods are to get us to desire eating them becuse they are good for us. They in fact are soo good for us they make us grow at amazing proportions with only tiny amounts.
Want an healthful not fattening snake look no further than the nearest tree…. reach out peel a peice of bark and there ya go nurtition with out the calories. But look out the tree huggers may get upset.
mark on January 17th, 2008 at 2:47 pm | Link
Mark - I am quite aware that beef jerky and fruit juices are not healthy foods. I’m actually a certified nutritional consultant, so you are preaching to the choir here. HOWEVER, they ARE about the most nutrition-rich foods you can find at a quickie mart, which was my point ;o) Fruit juices, while full of (natural) sugar still often contain vitamins C and A, which are good for you. Soda contains nothing. Beef jerky, while full of sodium, is a GREAT source of protein, which has been proven to greatly assist in the building of muscle. And sodium is not necessarily bad for you, as long as you drink 64 oz of water a day.
But LMAO @ the rest of your comments… your sense of humor is certainly intact :o) Oh… those tree huggers… *thinks of Mary Katherine Gallagher* …maybe I’ll soon discover what it’s like to eat a tree out…
Aidyn (NightengaleShane, original poster) on January 17th, 2008 at 4:55 pm | Link
I have the answer to your problem! Go onto www.medimeals.com and you will find a healthy alternative, I promise. You can have meals(based on the Mediterranean diet) shipped to your door or office and when you heat one up, all of your co-workers will want to know what you’re eating!
Tania on January 28th, 2008 at 7:54 am | Link
cheap food sells. expensive food spoils. we are but rats in a corporatist maze.
strange on July 6th, 2008 at 5:45 pm | Link
can we talk about thruway rest stops for a second too? i’m from central new york, go to school in downeast maine, and it’s a ten hour trip each way. if i get off the thruway, it’s longer. so, to save time, i grab food at rest stops. there is really unhealthy, really ****ty pizza. there is some sort of fried chicken palace, which is not helpful either because it is also unhealthy and ****ty, and i am a vegetarian. there is either a dunkin donuts or a starbucks. then there is a gas station convenience store specializing in those strangely colored hot dogs on the rollers and doritos along with a slurpy fountain. ALL I WANT IS A ****ING SALAD.
jdiz on November 3rd, 2008 at 8:03 pm | Link
Wow mark, that may have been the stupidest post I’ve ever read on the internet. Congratulations.
Jeff on January 30th, 2009 at 12:04 am | Link
For healthy eating it usually always comes down to making it yourself. True, that means shopping the outer isle of the store, where the fresh produce is located. Farmers markets are great, make a patio garden and grow a few items such as salad greens and tomatoes. You can even trellis a cucumber or melon plant and use a little sling to hold the melon. Look into Dr. Mcdougalls food plan. That is a great place to start.
Dorcus Lin on February 9th, 2010 at 8:23 am | Link