Why are Americans getting so fat?
Although there may be many contributing causes – eating large portions, too much sugar, too much trans fat, and so on, there is another factor which is seldom mentioned because it is so hidden from public view – we are what we eat, and what we eat is also fat and lazy.
This is not by choice, but by design of our modern system of food production. We have chickens raised in crowded confinement facilities, pigs shoulder to shoulder in cages, cattle taken off of pasture and confined to crowded feedlots. And all of them are eating unbalanced diets laced with hormones and other pharmaceuticals. These creatures are deprived of sun, fresh air, sunshine, and exercise. If you look at physical and nutritional profiles of our meats, you will see a profile which mimics our own. Until the things we eat are raised in a natural, healthy way, we will NOT be healthy.
Consider a different approach to eating and open up a whole new world for you and your family.
Make the kitchen a focal point again – where your family comes to reconnect and relax at the end of the day. Let them enjoy the aromas of a meal cooked at home, served fresh, nutritious and in appropriate portions and types. Add a table topics session to your meal – where you enlighten each other about topics of interest. (We often opened the encyclopedia to a random page and learned something we would not otherwise have known.) Serve a glass of wine for the adults, and as the children get older, serve them a diluted glass. Teach the children how a proper table is set, and table manners. Incorporate them into the cooking process. Have this hour when phones are not answered and TVs are turned off. And while all of these good things are going on, put clean wholesome food on the table – in all of its seasonal diversity. This ritual not only satisfies bodily hunger, it promotes intimacy and affection among those that share it.
It’s not more expensive than serving processed food. It doesn’t take as long as going out to eat. You don’t have to do it every night. And if you are looking for a hobby, what better one for you and your family? Your children will thank you. And they will do the same for your grandchildren, because there is nothing that bonds a family and connects the future to the past more than the nightly celebration of life at the dinner table.
