Obesity and addiction

[Trek420]

Cycling has been good therapy. I like training and working hard. I've learned how to eat a balanced diet and that food is fuel for our bodies. In other words, eating is not bad or shameful.

That ^. I think for some there is/may be an addiction to the couch, the screen, the remote, the ever larger big screen TV is like a siren song for some tempting them to the rocks ...

Some foods are addictive. I've seen friends struggle to give up soda. It's tough, like kicking a heroin addiction not that I'd have any way to know about that.

My thoughts about healthy foods especially here in these United States are complex. Maybe I need to write a cartoon novel or cookbook. I'll try to condense. I'm 56 years young, arguably obese, I used to think "fit but fat" but now really doubling down to lose the weight. I'm a former souse chef, have a love for good, local, sustainable, delicious foods. What I see a lot is this:

Ever been in the supermarket produce aisle or even a farm market and seen folks with that deer in the headlights look? Or had people stop you and ask "What can you do with that?" "Uh, a potato? Ok, here goes, you can ..."

We (and when I say we I mean most Americans) know we should eat food that's made from food but most don't know what to do with it. The food industry (let's call it an industry) has us so removed from food that many don't know what to do with a pear, fennel and a walnut. We don't know how to prep, how to be creative, how you can make quick, fast, easy, affordable meals from real food.

We're losing the kitchen counter lessons of our families. I'm not saying mothers should be home cooking, My dad cooked too. We're losing the lessons of our cultures. Those need to be passed down from family and community, up from the kids, all around.

And let us not forget that many areas of this great country are food wastelands where produce simply is not available. People there are largely poor, busy, working class and there's your friend fast food "gotta buck, you're in luck". Fast food bills itself as the friend of the busy and working poor. Those need to be erased.

The only thing I'd change is the title. It needs to be "Teach everyone about food"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go_QOzc79Uc