Children of the Corn












All Americans have eating disorders. I know very few Americans who have any idea of what is a healthy and balanced meal. All Americans are addicted to sugar and salt and the taste and texture of processed food. It's what we are familiar with, it's what we have been fed as soon as someone was able to put a spoon into our mouths.

It is a huge ordeal to find food that does not have some sort of refined sweetener in it. In fact, most foods contain five or six sweeteners in them, the most common is high-fructose corn syrup. There's a very interesting reason behind this. Check out this article. //http://www.usc.edu/org/InsightBusiness/articles/print/article1.htm

Consumption of food in this country is generally viewed either as an entertainment or an inconvenience. The only time we as Americans celebrate in the act of sharing a meal is during a holiday. Then we just gorge ourselves and the pleasures of eating are lost in the excess.

A few years ago, I wanted to become a nutritionist. I figured I could fight the system from within. I returned to school and less than four weeks into the program I realized that there is absolutely no way to beat the system. That healthy food and a healthy culture are really beyond our grasp as a country. Corporations and their promises of effortless results and rewards, no matter how far-fetched, will ALWAYS win over taking responsibility for your health and your life.

Two things struck me this weekend regarding food. I was at a vegeterian restaurant with my husband and there was a sign on the wall saying that healthy food was "the food of the future". It occured to me that although these people who frequent this place might have a better sense and practice of health, I highly doubted that many of them have or will have the drive to make this the food of the future. That would require us to not only eat healthy but also take the extra step to make this into more than a fad. This requires things like voting with your voice and your dollar.

How many of us belong to CSAs (food shares from local farms) or even frequent farmer's markets? How many of us are active in voicing dissent for food politics or farmland subsidies or protest food marketing in our schools? Until this happens, we will continue to head towards a future where food is less and less whole. Especially, and this is the second thing that struck me as I watched my family indulge my two year-old nephew with slice after slice of sheet cake, when we actively taught poor habits and ignorance from the very beginning.

A good site to check out for food politics is Michelle Simon's Center for Informed Food Choices. http://www.informedeating.org