A Complaint

Last night I went to 7-11 with my roommate because he wanted to get some cigarettes and I wanted to get a snack that was relatively acceptable. I ended up getting a couple bottles of white zinfandels and an egg salad sandwich. I walked around the store for about 5 minutes before picking these items. It was at this point when I realized, "Hey, how come when I was in Taiwan it wasn't this hard to find something to eat?"

The truth is, there is a lack of healthy options in America wherever you go. It's kind of beginning to bug me because it feels like no matter where you go, you will be bred towards obesity. Just like "Fast Food Nation" portrays, the only remaining way to eat healthy seems to come from home. And even that isn't healthy sometimes.

I think general America does not understand what true "health" entails. People think less calories automatically equates to the healthier option. While this is not entirely false, it certainly is far away from the truth. There was a period of time where I worked very closely with one of my friends who is an exercise diet genius. Through this time, I've learned so many things that boggle my mind. While I'm not the best example of someone who eats the healthiest or exercises on a consistent basis, I do not think that discredits anything I'm writing.

These days every place seems to have a nutrition menu as if it somehow makes eating there more healthy. Of course, the real reason fast food and sit down places offer this information is because they do not want you to somehow hold them responsible for making you obese or diabetic. There's nothing wrong with this. What bothers me is that 1) most people do not possess the adequate knowledge to make the right choices and 2) America is the only country like this.

You order something off the menu and all it offers you are calories and fat content. Furthermore, there is a whole string of lies that the FDA does not want you to know. For example, by now everybody knows that trans fat is bad. Well how many people know what trans fat actually is? Also, when a bag of chips says "0g trans fat!" it doesn't mean there is guaranteed no trans fat. It just means that it's below the FDA minimum required to put "0g trans fat!" on the bag. Having "0g trans fat" actually means "<0.5g trans fat". It might seem like a negligible amount, but it all adds up to one big lie.

We are trained to think that no trans fat, low calorie, low fat diets are good when in fact you need to take into account grams of protein, carbohydrates, and sodium levels. No protein means high body fat percentage. Lack of carbohydrates means lack of brain function since your brain can only function off carbohydrates. High sodium levels can result in heart disease. This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are so many misconceptions about health that it's no wonder America is the most obese country in the world.

When I was staying in Taiwan (for only 2 weeks I might add) I was not particularly watching out for my diet. I simply went to the store everyday and picked out some stuff to drink and eat. Combined with some walking, I ended up losing about 2% of body fat over my stay there. I ate hot pot. I ate rice. I drank beer. But in general, all those meals I ate were smaller in portion as well as healthier. When you eat here in America, every portion is easily twice if not three times as big as in Asia. If you go out for dinner, it'd be difficult to eat less than 1500 calories, 50% fat, 150% sodium, and 150% carbohydrates unless you were consciously watching out for it. Even so, try going to a place like Outback or Yardhouse and finding something on the menu that is below those numbers.

I don't know what spurred me to suddenly have this inner rage against the American diet and health industry. Maybe it's because I go on diets and fail miserably all the time. I admit I do not have the best self control when it comes to food. But in all honesty, I do feel that if I did not live in America, my body type or lifestyle for that matter would be a lot different and I would worry much less about coronary disease, obesity, diabetes, my BMI, my body fat%, etc. What a great country we live in.