My wife is a dietitian, so we eat pretty well in our house. Sour cream has been replaced with yogurt. No white bread, just wheat bread with at least 3 grams of fiber. There are cartons of soy milk and almond milk in my refrigerator. Our ground beef is always 93/7 lean. Egg beaters typically replace real eggs, and any sausage or bacon I fry up is made from turkey, not pork.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t fret – I used to be the same way. I loved my fatty slab of meat and cheesy mashed potatoes drenched in gravy with buttered corn on the cob on the side. In fact, I still eat this kind of food once in awhile. Just not everyday, like I used to. Marrying a dietitian will do that to you. But I thank her everyday because her meal planning and healthy recipes keep me thin, trim and feeling great. And what my wife tells me makes perfect sense – watch the portion sizes, eat fruits and vegetables with every meal, and don’t overindulge on sugary sweets, my weakness. It’s a mental battle every single day, and sometimes I give in to temptation (I should buy stock in Quik Trip maple glazed cinnamon rolls!). But overall, I’m better off having my wife control my diet than having me control my diet.
The reason I bring this up is because I read an editorial in the Kansas City Star two weekends ago about food control. It talked about how some school districts are forcing kids to put fruits and vegetables on their plates and banning sugar from entering their hallways. A school district in Colorado told parents if they wanted to bring a birthday cake to their kid’s classroom, it had to be made from a district-approved recipe. It mentioned how New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is banning convenience stores from selling soda in anything larger than a 16 ounce cup. The author questioned whether it was right for the government to restrict our freedoms to choose what we eat and what we drink.
He has a good point. If we let government dictate our diet, then what’s next? But upon mentioning this to my wife, she passionately explained why it’s not only appropriate, but necessary for government intervention in the American diet.
“The obesity rate is climbing, and it’s because people don’t think about what they eat,” she said. “They eat fast food because its cheap and convenient, but do they know how many calories they’re putting in their bodies? Many people don’t even know what a calorie is or how to measure it or what they do to your body! Do you?”
Uh, not really, I said.
“Kids are not getting fruits and vegetables at home. Parents just aren’t offering it to them, so why not force them to put it on their plates at school? No one is forcing them to eat it. But if it’s there and they’re hungry, they’ll eat it, and guess what? Maybe they’ll like it and encourage their mothers to buy green beans, peas and pineapple the next time they go to the store. Fruits and vegetables have nutrients your body needs, plus it fills you up so you don’t gorge on cake and cookies.”
Okay, so maybe the kids need to be told to eat their fruits and veggies, but what about controlling the size of soda an adult can get?
“Why not? Who needs 44 ounces of sugar in their body every single day? No one! Soda is so unhealthy for you and if you buy a 44 ounce Coke, you’re going to drink it all. But if you force people to only buy a 16 ounce soda, it doesn’t mean they can’t go back and get more soda. The thing is, people are lazy and most won’t go back to get another soda. That’s less sugar they’re putting in their bodies which will slow down their weight gain and encourage them to drink water, which is much better for you.”
My wife made many other intelligent arguments, the greatest being that we are proving, as a society, that we can’t be trusted to control our intake. We are gluttons who tend to give in to our temptations. Obesity rates are higher than ever and rising. She believes that restrictions on sweets will help us control our cravings and create an overall healthier population.
Then this last week, we watched a documentary called “Forks Over Knives”. I must admit, I watched about 45 minutes of it and then fell sleep. They kept repeating the same point, which is that fatty foods and meats contribute to cancer while an all plant, all whole grain diet can reverse the effects of cancer and other diseases. It was fascinating (the part I watched)! I’ve never felt so guilty for eating so poorly. I look at my kids and think, man, if I can add five to ten years to my life by making some simple changes in my diet, then why not? So I eat steak once a month instead of once a week? There are a TON of good tasting vegetarian dishes out there. While I don’t want to be a vegetarian (I love eating beef, pork and chicken way too much), I figure by adding more healthy recipes into my diet, I can some day meet my grandkids and maybe my great-grandkids.
I guess my point in all this is, take some time to assess your diet and find ways you can make small healthy changes. Drastic makeovers, like giving up soda cold turkey, rarely works, but if you can slowly wean yourself off unhealthy foods and replace your diet with more fruits and veggies and whole grains, you’ll feel better, look better and live longer. Isn’t that what we all want?
Contact Matt Stewart at matt.stewart@wdaftv4.com
