Sunday, April 4, 2010

Being Killed Slowly By The New Ignorance




This 1st Grade Class
Doesn't Recognize A Tomato or Potato



This video clip is from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution new Friday night series. Incredible, isn't it?

Now let's jump into what some hot new research elsewhere shows:

Fatty Foods May Cause A Cocaine-like Addiction

"A new study in rats suggests that high-fat, high-calorie foods affect the brain in much the same way as cocaine and heroin. When rats consume these foods in great enough quantities, it leads to compulsive eating habits that resemble drug addiction."

Well, doesn't that explain a lot, and why so many behinds hang over the seats at every eatery and theater in every mall in the country.

And no, it won't explain jack if you're a bigot, and if you categorize all white West Virginians (as seen in the film) as being stupid, which is as bad as thinking of all black folks as dumb. If you have that hater mentality, maybe you'll like this far-fetched futuristic scenario I thought of:

"Oh, they're crackheads?"

"No, fatheads."

"Lock their azzes up anyway, for the children's sake."


Well, there ain't enough jails or rehabs to hold 'em all.

Politics aside, people are people first. All of us are in this ride together, and like a sinking ship, we'll go down together if we can't repair it and set a new course. The problem is not with the passengers, but the design of everything we absorb, from all things media, to the foods we consume.


Now I'm going to view this clip from one African American perspective - mine - and give you yet another reason to laugh at me.

The first thing I thought was thank goodness are hardly any of those kids are black. This is because we can't enjoy watching a fellow black person's shortcomings or for him or her to screw up on YouTube and laughing about it without reading 180 comments about how it applies to all of us. Well, we all have some area of not knowing something.

When I went to a far away, predominantly white university long ago, at not quite 18 years of age, I was 5'6 and weighed all of 115 pounds. Sounds skinny by today's standards, but back then I was considered "slender". Anything over 140 at that height was considered "fat" on a girl. My oh my, but how times have changed...

Next to the dorm was a really nice cafeteria. The food was free, and you could eat anything and as much of it as you wanted, including the soft custard style ice cream cones. They had a wonderful variety of what would now be described as 'home cooked' because the foods were fresh. I couldn't understand why the sistas at my table often bitched about the food; they didn't think it had that home cooked feel to it, but they came from rural areas or their folks did and probably used different seasonings.

My mom, on the other hand, was a born and bred DC gal, just like her mother, and she worked 8 to 5. What she cooked was all I ever knew, so it tasted good to me. Her menu was very limited, and salt, pepper, and hot sauce was the extent of her seasoning.

So one evening, I'm pushing my tray through the cafeteria line, and I see a really funny looking vegetable.

"What's dat?", I ask the black cafeteria worker.

"Dat? You don't know?"

"No ma'am," I replied politely, shaking my head.

"It's broccoli."

I let the word roll around in my mouth to get a feel for it, while she was trying to figure out if I was pulling her leg.

"Hmmm, broccoli," I repeated. "Never heard of that vegetable. How's it taste?"

"You'd have to try it, you little retard to decide for yourself."

I loved it. The next time I talked with my parents, I asked them why they never bought any.

My mother did what she usually did when something involved race and class: she played stupid. It was her way of protecting me.

"Uh, I don't know," she lied. "Never thought about it."

My parents had been long divorced, so later I asked my dad. He seemed a little uncomfortable too. What the hell could be so complicated about broccoli? I nudged him gently.

"I like it," he said, "but, well, it's white folks food."

"Oooh," I said. "Like salad!"

"Yes."

"Well, since you like it, why didn't you buy it or get Mom to buy it?"

"I don't know if they sell it in our stores," he explained, "and she was kind of touchy about me bringing home leftovers from any of the white parties I used to work at to pick up extra money."

He need not explain any further. Like him, she was a child during the Great Depression. Leftover food from others, even if it didn't come off someone's plate, reminded her of poverty and her widowed mother's struggle to survive, especially between her two marriages.


*****************

From Land of Milk & Honey To The Land of French Fries, Fast Food & Tears

This is only one way how food habits take root in a family, and continue from one generation to the next regarding clear food preferences.


To this day, I don't see white folks elbowing me out of the way at the kale bin at the grocery store, and even fifteen years ago only one of my white coworkers knew about it, but otherwise the
world changed in the blink of an eye, cutting through race and class.

Grocery stores expanded into huge chains. Fast food restaurants became the norm, and they fried up everything, even those pre-made "hot apple pocket pies". Cheese became very big. Fry anything and load some cheese on it, and wa-laa! Even better, you could wash it down with a thick milkshake, or a diet soda if you were "watching your waistline."

We used to be 'customers'. Just as slaves got renamed when they hit this country, now our new name was 'consumers'. Ain't that revealing? The ad companies symbolically painted a target on every American's back and made us targets for selling processed foods.

When that trend first began, my mama and I were watching a food commercial. It looked so good, whatever it was.

"Mama, we should get some of that!"

She replied, "How come they never advertise carrots?"

Dang she could be funny, even in those teaching moments.

Microwave ovens, pre-packaged frozen foods, and more abundant, mass-produced foods invaded the culture. We can thank or curse technology, insecticides, hormone growth chemicals and genetically modified foods.

For the first time, all races and classes could buy anything in any grocery store, no matter what the neighborhood racial demographics were in your zip code, and, thanks to desegregation and an influx of immigrants, people could shop everywhere.

Sadly, for the first time, an awful lot of people lost the art of eating well... we now have white kids who don't recognize broccoli and black kids who don't recognize kale, and neither who knows what a potato looks like. I'd venture a guess that this ability was killed in The Land of French Fries.

What we're seeing in the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution clip is a second or third generation of kids whose grandparents undoubtably knew all about vegetables and healthy eating, because healthy eating was all they had.

I'm won't speak about the kids in that video per se since I don't know their folks, but I will of the next generation of millions of Americans. We have way more food options, and processed foods are tasty and addictive, and have trumped out the healthy foods.

Like killing and plucking a chicken, or milking a cow, the art of consistently choosing wholesome foods has become obsolete among many adults, possibly including a well known black blogger we lost several days ago, Undercover Black Man, who in real life was David Mills, writer for The Wire and co-producer for an upcoming series, 'Treme.

UBM once said to one of his favorite verbal sparring bloggers, "Yo DV, go eat your veg-gies while I grub on some scrapple and head cheese. Yeah, I might get cardiovascular disease, but when I die they'll still be talkin' 'bout me...", to which DV, a food purist, replied, "When you die, I keep living..."

Now, I love me some wild debates where bloggers challenge one another (with the exception of trolls), but that conversation haunts me because it was prophetic. I get the impression that it's killing DV that UBM is gone, only at 48 years old with so much life, and so much fun to fight with.

I think of the many friends I know who have weight-related health problems, some quite serious. The thing is, I worry about them, more than I do myself, and that makes me nice, but a bit of an idiot.

You see, it's easy for me to do double-think when it comes to my own health, i.e., "I can be more vigilant tomorrow, next week, next month, if I get sick... oh, eff it, I probably won't get sick and I'm not really fat... just need to lose 20 pounds, and my blood pressure only gets high when I'm really stressed, and yada yada yada."

It's all bullshit, the same you hear from any addict.

Not eating healthy has hit a new low and apparently become The New Ignorance among many of our children. How can they not be ignorant, when adults somehow forgot to mention what real food looks like?

How can they, or we, "recover" when high calorie, fatty foods cause a cocaine-like addiction?

And that, my friends, is not gender, race or class-based. Truth be told, alcohol and drugs aren't either. All that mess hijacks parts of the brain, the part that says more, more, more!

Finally, here is a non-partisan, race and class free area that affects us and our kids on a biological level. Can't get any more basic than that. Here's were we can find common ground, and maybe, a way for us to repair that sinking ship together. What an opportunity.


Addendum:


Here are three bloggers I like whom specialize in delicious recipes, which happen to be healthy. Check them out:

Flavor Diva

Traveling Tastebuds

Dragon's Kitchen


Honorable Mention To Coolio:


Ya know, sometimes the only way to start is to start where someone is. For that 'hood brotha or sista in your life whose eyes glaze over their Big Macs when you mention the phrase, "healthy eating", send them to Cookin With Coolio. While his style and humor ain't for everyone, he most definitely knows his veggies and his way around the kitchen. Aside from a few artery-clogging recipes (especially his garlic cheese bread), his stuff looks good.

23 comments:

  1. I am nodding my head up and down while saying yes.

    How can they not be ignorant, when no one (very few) mentions what real looks like!

    Killed in The Land of French Fries and Ignorance.

    "it leads to compulsive eating habits that resemble drug addiction."

    YES YES YES! It's the addiction, not the drug!

    "And that, my friends, is not gender, race or class-based"

    And that my friend Keep it Thrill, is a rap, in my opinion. You put all the right ingredience in this meal, and there were plenty.

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  2. As always more food for thought. I agree the food issues cut through many of the barriers though I will say when it comes to healthy as the moment, I do think class can play a role. As you know I live in Maine and I work with low income youth and their families...now Maine is a rural state and compared to when I lived in Chicago healthy real food is easy to find for certain folks.

    Seven years ago I joined as CSA which is best described in some ways as being a farm coop. Farmers markets are plentiful, hell a drive down a road might reveal a fresh farmstand. Basically I don't have to look hard tp get fresh local food but guess what its not always cheap. As a result the families I work with rarely eat such foods.

    We give the kids a daily snack that consist of fruits, veggies, and a sweet...well many of the kids like in that clip don't recognize many of the veggies and even some of the "exotic" foods. A few weeks we had blood oranages which I love and not a one kid would eat em. These are kids whose parents are honest that little Jimmy gets McD's or cup of noodles.

    Yet I do recognize that we also are living in a time that even when folks have a bit more cash flow that are not always able to cook. Cooking real food in many ways is a lost art...I grew up with a Mama who cooked yet she didn't exactly teach me to cook. I learned as an adult on my own and before she passed, she helped me perfect my skills.

    I think cost and time is a huge barrier to cooking especially for younger folks. Yet the impact of not cooking is impacting us all...kids rarely used to have issues with obesity, we ate real food and we went outside. I am almost 40 and coming up I didn't have any cable, computers or video games.

    Its like we have had an entire shift in how we live..imagine if folks cooked and if after dinner the family went on a walk rather than hopping on tv or the computer.

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  3. Carey, Well, the research didn't exactly mean "it's the addiction, not the drug", but certain foods kick off cravings for more, more, more in a very similar way. Addiction to high fat foods, however, make you fat, which cause health problems, which is different from problems caused by some other addictions. For example, if one is so hung over from heavy drinking the night before, they may not be able to go to work. This doesn't usually happen from eating too much pizza and fries. :)

    BGIM, You're right, to some degree it class issues affect what we can afford to buy. The thing is, a pack of chicken breasts or legs and a 5 lb bag of potatoes will make many meals if cooked in strips with toast on the side. The cost of snacks is what bumps up my budget the most.

    Speaking of which, hope y'all who celebrate it had a good Easter dinner. The highlight was lamb kabobs and mash potatoes with coconut milk added.

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  4. Yikes, that video is funny, but also scary. I hope Jamie's project has some success, but it's mainly the parents he has to persuade. They are the ones who can put pressure on the school to serve healthier food, not the other way around.
    A lot of kids nowadays don't know the origin of their food, especially meat. I think the parents want to shelter them too much and not tell them it comes from the cute little calf or chicken.
    That "White people food" thing sounds so strange to me. Still, if you were so slender in college, your parents must have been food-conscious. You're right, a person had to be seriously underweight to be labeled as skinny back in the day. In my country, the rule of thumb for women was: the number of centimeters you have over 1 meter, minus 10 - that was the ideal weight. 5.6 is 1.68m, so your ideal weight was 58kg (128lbs), you still had a 13lbs buffer. Of course, the amount of muscle mass can change that rule. I haven't been in that zone in over 4 years :(.
    I for one, blame mostly junk food and sugar for the general weight gain, mine included. I eat surprisingly healthy (the main dishes), until I see sugar, it's like crack to me. And only the best too, a cupcake doesn't cut it, I need Godiva's and Leonidas chocolates, which is not easy on my wallet. If I could give up sugar, I'd be great. And if you could develop a psychotherapy method that targets sugar addicts, you'd be rich, a lot of that from my Godiva money ;).
    I think you are the first person I hear who likes broccoli, especially at the first try. I can only eat it fresh and very finely chopped in a salad. If it's steamed, the smell makes me think of a locker-room after a soccer game. We do eat nettles (boiled), have you ever tried them? They taste a bit like spinach, but have more texture, and are very healthy. Can't find them in Canada, unfortunately. And I love wild mushrooms, they are the best. We used to go pick them every autumn in the forest, but now people have gotten more wary of them. I'm not afraid of poisoning, I'll eat those little bastards with garlic like candy.

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  5. Well Kit, it's true, the research didn't exactly say that, but I did. The researcher's should be careful using analogies that can be very misleading and harmful.

    So, how does a person kick this eating habit/addiction that's much like that of Heroin and Cocaine? You know, the cravings.

    I mean, certain foods kick off cravings, right. So, never eat those foods again? Or, just eat them in smaller quantities? I mean, can an alcoholic have a couple of drinks?


    Food is a drug.

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  6. Carey, You said, "Well Kit, it's true, the research didn't exactly say that, but I did."

    That's called misquoting, which is separate from opinion, analysis or commentary. It can mislead others and create problems and confusion when no distinction is made between the two.

    Re: your questions, which others may also interest others, this may help: 7 Things To Know About Food Cravings

    Marianne, Yeah, changes in diet created a much heavier, thicker generation. To anyone over 40, people (especially toddlers, kids and teens) look huge when we compare how people looked when we grew up.

    Bill Maher and quite a few others specifically blame high fructose corn syrup - the the increased use of this matches perfectly with the population developing obesity. You and others might also like
    this clip with him.

    You mentioned the "white people food" sounding strange to you. Yeah, I guess it does, since you grew up overseas.

    Here's a quick history of the origins of soul food from wikipedia: "Enslavers fed their captives as cheaply as possible, often with throwaway foods from the plantation, forcing slaves to make do with the ingredients at hand. In slave households, vegetables were the tops of turnips and beets and dandelions. Soon, slaves were cooking with new types of greens: collards, kale, cress, mustard, and pokeweed. They also developed recipes which used lard; cornmeal; and offal, discarded cuts of meat such as pigs' feet, oxtail, ham hocks, chitterlings (pig small intestines), pig ears, hog jowls, tripe and skin. Cooks added onions, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf to enhance the flavors."

    What's interesting is that many of the veggies are excellent in taste and nutrition, although a lot of blacks don't touch the pig now beyond bacon, ham, pork chops and sausage. Notice they used the word 'lard', which is fat to fry the food in. Maybe it was the 70s when the stores began replacing Crisco with vegetable oil. Oddly, the switch didn't make people thinner.

    Then in the 80s, companies began putting high fructose corn syrup in everything as a sweetener because it's cheap. The result has been really fatter people.

    Hmmm, one can say the entire American population is being fed like the slaves were - cheaply, but with far less nutrition.

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  7. Wow, the food I grew up with is surprisingly similar to the one in that wiki quote. Poor man's food. Only the entire country was poor, so it didn't feel like we were that poor. It was the food that used to be eaten only by poor peasants a century ago (intestins, chicken feet and necks, cornbread, cheap greens that grew wild - hence the nettles- or required little care, beets, pig skin, tripe soup is one of our national dishes).
    I agree, modern sweeteners messed everything up. I didn't gain weight until foreign sweets and snacks, especially American, became available and affordable in my country. Mars, Milky Way and Snickers achieved what my mom's shitloads of homemade cakes and cookies didn't. Now I am selective about quality, but I wasn't always. Thank you, USA! :P

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  8. Carey, I'm watching you on video now giving a presentation. Man, you can tell the hell out of story! You're always asking me to help you with fine tune your writing, it's a little different, just remember those tips so you don't get in hot water.

    Meanwhile, I'm studying your showmanship! Bro, you are so funny and your audience is hooked! Will email you after I watch both. Thanks for this.

    Marianne, Hmmm, that's interesting. I knew things were rough in your part of Europe but never thought about in terms of food, even though I should have. I hope you do a post on those times.

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  9. I agree with all the above, and also It's true that with todays hurried lifestyles,many feel that there is not enough time to prepare whole foods. It's sad because as you well say, our health is suffering. The wrong food can kill.

    Have you ever seen a fat 95 year old?

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  10. This doesn't surprise me at all. As a food producer and supplier I am painfully aware of how ignorant people are about where food comes from and how it is produced.
    Geez, just lo0ok around at all the obese slack jawed morons running around these days. Modern humanity is a fucking train wreck.

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  11. Well Kit, I am sure that you will not find it hard to give me the good, the bad, and the ugly, of my performance. I mean, if the way that you kick me around your blog is any indication of your fear, you ain't scared :-).

    Yes, you have to know that I appreciate your tips, I really do. This writng thing is like learning how to dance with only one leg.

    I have to be honest, everytime I watch that video, I laugh just as hard as the crowd.

    But Kit, you are growing. I mean, the first time I said something that remotely appeared as if we were "slipping & slidding, winking & blinking" you had a conniption fit *LOL*

    Maybe we should explain to your readers that I am NOT in an X-Rated video. Or, we can just keep them in suspense. Yeah, that's the ticket. And then maybe you can show me how to edit that to small blubs, and then post it?

    "My hair is combed, and I have a new pair of shoes... I NEED LOVE! Somebody love me now" *wink*

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  12. Carey, We know you're flirty and love to fake out folks with innuendos, but that's funny.

    Sagacious, Yeah, I'll never forget a post you did on animal food processing, and as much as I eat tilapia, I have to NOT think about your warnings on this farmed fish to enjoy it.

    You know, you might enjoy Jim Kunstler's current post where he says something like the cheese doodle crowd will be the first to die off when the collapse occurs.

    Cactus Rose, Once I got back into the grove of cooking every meal and making our own lunches, I realized it's an illusion. The amount of time to do this is no different than walking or driving somewhere and ordering the food.

    This is even true of microwaving: takes approx the same time to boil or heat up in a pan with a lid over the food to warm it up, a minute or two more at most. I think it's the washing dishes that people balk at more than anything, and have discovered there is an art to clean as you go. Heck, except for the Thanksgiving-style meals, my kitchen is clean before we sit down for dinner, and again three minutes after we're done.

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  13. "You'd have to try it, you little retard, to decide for yourself."

    Thanks for starting off my day with a laugh.

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  14. And Kit, you're good. If I had your skills at deflecting silly people(and flirty men), I'd be on top of the world. You let it bounce off of you, and keep on rolling.

    Anywho, I have to comment on your comment to Cactus Rose. See, you've been raised right.

    I've heard it said that if your kitchen is dirty, then your house is dirty. Now, they meant that as an analogy to a person's heart, character and/or morals, but the message can used in various endeavors of our lives. And yes, literally the kitchen and how it relates to the rest of the house.

    You said your kitchen is clean before you eat and minutes after you are done. That's old school. In our home (my parents home), nothing could/would happen after a meal, until the kitchen was back to how we found it. In my opinion, women that live by that code, are a jewel to be treasured.

    When I transpose the before and after concept to everyday life, I can't help but think about keeping a clean heart, going into a relationship and then quickly admitting guilt or wrongdoings when they occur. That way, the "kitchen" is clean (ready to go) for another great meal, and we don't have to look back.


    I also agree with "I realized it's an illusion. The amount of time to do this is no different than walking or driving somewhere and ordering the food"

    I don't wish to be disrespectful to anyone that disagrees with that, but I think it comes down to laziness. Well, it is harder to work the mind than it is to say... "Give me 3 Jumpin' Jack Fat Burgers, and a diet coke"

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  15. Kit, I swear we are cut from the same cloth, I cannot stand dirty dishes. I won't lie and say I am the best housekeeper but I don't play with a dirty a kitchen or bathroom. Frankly I believe in washing the dishes as a I go along, my hubby doesn't get why I do it. But I swear looking at clutter in the kitchen even as I am cooking messes with my mind.

    I agree that in many cases one could throw together a meal in a relatively small amount of time. A salad with some grilled chicken takes no time. Or you plan ahead, I have a busy evening and as soon as I get off this computer I am about to put together some lasagna for tonight. So all we will have to do at 6 or so it put it in the oven. Or for the super busy I say the crockpot is your friend, now that is the one gadget every working person needs in the kitchen. Throw some spices, veggies, meat and bam 10 hours later you have a meal and its healthy. You can even do roasts and things like beans in a crockpot, just last week I made pintos in the crockpot. Total prep time was under 20 mins and I had 2 nights of dinner and I make homemade corn bread which literally only takes 5 more mins than a box of Jiffy.

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  16. Lately, I've been thinking much more critically about the foods I eat. After watching the documentary "Food, Inc.", I scrutinize nutrition labels like never before! I've cut out fast foods out of my diet a couple of years ago, but trying to find genuinely healthy foods that don't contain any processed crap is a nigh insurmountable task.

    Watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, I would be far too tempted to give those folks a swift backhand for not knowing what a friggin' vegetable is. Makes my blood pressure spike, ugh!

    Here's a link I came across that talks about some of the major food additives that populate our food supply. Check these out when you get the chance, Kit:

    http://www.treelight.com/health/nutrition/AmericanFoods.html
    http://www.treelight.com/health/nutrition/PartiallyHydrogenatedOils.html

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  17. Can I come in with some good news? Jamie Oliver has a t.v. show about teaching people to eat healthy. The Biggest Loser is a wildly popular show and trans-fat has been outlawed in New York City. People are starting to act!

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  18. Devon, Thanks. I find his Friday night show different and sometimes fascinating. (Readers, that video clip in the beginning of this post is from his 1st show.)

    I'm amazed that trans fat has been outlawed in NYC. While it extends the shelf life of foods and makes for easy baking and is used in many processed foods as "fat free", it generally doesn't occur naturally.

    For folks who don't know, from wiki: "Unlike other dietary fats, trans fats are not essential, and they do not promote good health.[1] The consumption of trans fats increases the risk of coronary heart disease..."

    V-Knowledge, Thank you so much for mentioning the documentary, Food, Inc. Watch that trailer, folks!

    V, thank you for those other two links and hope readers who are serious about wanting to feel better, not just diet, will use them, beginning with this one, and also this one.

    You know, I almost didn't post this article, but I'm really glad I did. I learned more than I really wanted to, and the reason is that ignorance is bliss while we psych ourselves out that we can learn about or start something tomorrow but never seem to get around to it. There's a reason we're hungry more often that we are or get sick, and a half hour to hour of reading will explain why.

    BGIM, Glad you mentioned the virtue of cooking meals ahead of time. My mom got me in that habit and I learned that the freezer was good for than ice cream, lol.

    Carey, Thank you, and that's an excellent article you posted since then cravings for food, love, and other things.

    Chris, Yeah, I was little retard back in the day. Still am, sometimes.

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  19. suburban white womanApril 10, 2010 at 1:49 PM

    Food and nutrition is one of my favorite topics.

    Kit, I also had broccoli for the first time in college. My mother just never served it. She did make all meals from scratch, however. She didn't work outside the home and spent hours at the stove every day.

    I am thin, by genetics and by lifestyle. I don't sit still for five minutes. However, I was a sugar addict at one time. I define sugar as "table sugar," cane sugar. The first, second or third ingredient in ice cream, cake, cookies, soda pop.

    Several years ago, I stopped eating it. At first my goal was to give my body a break for 3 months. However, I realized I had a serious problem, so after the three months was up I never went back to my "drug."

    I FELT GREAT. The effects in energy level, quality of sleep and MOOD and concentration took a few days to kick in and never really waned. And the cravings the first several weeks were enough to put me off the roof. It was incredible how I would think and think and think about my trigger foods.

    For lasting change, I think people need to change their eating habits for one reason and one reason only -- to FEEL good today and tomorrow. Not to lose weight, not to live longer. Those goals are so far in the future, abstract. Feel good -- sharp quick mind, deep sleep, energy ALL AFTERNOON, no bad temper or crying jags.

    As for UBM ... I have read DV for a long time. Never post there though. I think it is miserably awful for the folks UBM left behind to grieve, but to me ... I think he died at the perfect time. He was at the top of his game, looking forward to his next big win, and died an instant, painless (probably) death doing what he loved to do. He was blogging about enjoying food a day or two before he died. So it wasn't organic chia seeds on unsprouted lentils wrapped in bluegreen algae. So what. Seems to me he was a man smart enough to choose his own risks eyes wide open. I am much more on the DV side of the food continuum, but I don't think that people who choose to junk out -- if it's done out of will, not ignorance -- are necessarily "wrong."

    Just know your poison before you pick it. Once I found out where fast food beef comes from I quit eating it. Before that, I had some naive assumptions about it.

    My friends tease me about some of my choices (no alcohol, no factory farmed meat, etc.). They say "you gotta die of something!"

    They don't understand it's not about dying. It's about feeling as good as possible NOW.

    The Jamie Oliver clip is very, very disturbing and distressing.

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  20. Clearly those kids aren't from Alabama or Georgia or Mississippi or they probably would have reached into their lunch boxes and pulled out some fresh tomatoes or potatoes.

    Seriously........that's sad.

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  21. Reggie, Yeah, it is said. The thing is, they're from the fattest city in the nation, Huntington, WV. I know dang well a lot of their grandparents had vegetable gardens or bought or sold produce from the side of he road. How times have changed...

    SWW, At only 48, do you know for a fact that he was at the top of his game?

    Don't answer that; it's a rhetorical question. Now I'm gonna go watch his show.

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  22. Coal Miners earn $75k a year but many of their children still seem under-educated.
    With this new wealth (and the long work hours) the need for quick calories become more and more necessary.
    Most people had never read that report so a change was not actioable.
    But this not limited to wealth either.
    Many of the poorest states are also the fattest.
    Again, cheap fast calories which are often addictive.
    We are a country of overfed but undernourished people.

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Hi, this is Kit.

I haven't posted since summer 2010, and comment moderation has been on for a very long time.

My old blogger friends (you know who you are) are welcome to email me.

I can be reached at:
kitsmailbag@gmail.com.