A Year of Blogging: July 21, 2011

July 21 was 'National Junk Food Day'. Although, apparently it shouldn't really be a 'national' day because there was no act of Congress that declared it. I think it was probably someone who just loved eating junk food. I'm not a health nut. I eat my share of junk food, or things that aren't the best choices. I try to do better. I'm usually better in the summer, because we are surrounded by fresh produce and I feel compelled to eat it. Plus, it's easier to fix a nice salad for dinner than to turn on the oven and cook something. Of course, I usually also have a bowl of ice cream at night- so that cancels out any good I did with the salad. When I was in elementary school, we learned about the Food Pyramid. The county had a nutritionist who came around to each school. She carried this cardboard looking tool box type thing with her. It had the food pyramid on it, and we learned what amounts we were supposed to have each day. Breads, cereals, and grains were on the bottom of the pyramid. This meant we were supposed to have the most of this. Next on the pyramid were fruits and veggies- the two groups split the level. We were supposed to have 3-5 servings of veggies each day, and 2-4 servings of fruit. The third level was dairy and protein. We were supposed to have 2-3 servings from each group daily. And then there was the top of the pyramid. Fats, oils, and sweets. The nutritionist referred to it as the 'ok sometimes' group. It was ok to sometimes eat these things, but in moderation. I remember someone in my class asked which category watermelon fell into because it was sweet and sugary. (We were very young.) How times have changed! We no longer have a food pyramid, now it's a plate with portions. The amount you should consume from any of the food groups depends on your age, gender, and physical activity. You do not find 'fats, oils, and sweets' on the plate. Yet our society continues to see waistlines expanding and an increase in heart disease and diabetes. Perhaps it is all the people of my generation who learned these things were 'ok sometimes' and just haven't figured out what qualifies as 'sometimes'. These people are now parents, who are passing on these bad habits to their children. Of course, this is a generalization. There are plenty of parents who are passing on good habits. In my own life, I see both. My sister provides fresh fruit as snacks for Sydney, and Sydney will often ask for a pear or an apple. Or strawberries, she loves strawberries. Sydney isn't really a big sweet eater. She will eat cupcakes, and she likes sharing Oreos and milk with my Dad. And of course she loves ice cream. But she also makes good decisions with her food because my sister has set a good example for her. Erich's sister has not set a good example for her son. In all the time I've known them, I've only known them to eat fast food. Erich's nephew is 12, and even when he was Sydney's age, he'd come to our house and reach for cookies. Usually, he wouldn't eat the lunch Erich's mom fixed for him, then he'd come to our house and see a package of cookies on the counter and tell me he was hungry. Not being a very nice person, I told him if he was hungry he needed to go back to his grandmother's and eat the lunch she made for him. Erich's nephew is terribly overweight, he is on ulcer medicine and is borderline diabetic. If his parents had a few less 'Junk Food Days' perhaps he'd be in better health. And if more parents set the example my sister does, then Cookie Monster wouldn't have had to tell us all that 'a cookie is a sometimes food'.