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 Whose
Body Is It Anyway?
Nancy Salvato
August 8, 2003 |
A Quarter Pounder (without the onions, please) and fries,
is worming it’s way into my conscious thought today and I’m thinking about
suggesting to my spouse the idea of McDonalds for lunch. I don’t eat it that
often, those who hang around me can attest to that, but it’s quick and easy
on a day when I have so much to do. So why do I have to give the idea that
much thought? Ahhh, but there is so much baggage that comes attached to the
idea of eating fast food for a woman, so many reasons not to take the
plunge. Almost every fashion magazine that is sold today will remind me that
I’ll eventually regret forgetting to aspire to having a rock hard body
without any indication of cellulose, dictate my nutritional needs for the
day. Every item of clothing seems designed to show members of the male
gender my every flaw and leave nothing to the imagination. So, if I am to be
fashionable and remotely attractive to the males of my species, this is
"butt” one reason not to give in to McDonalds.
But the list of reasons grows longer than that. It is well known to the
health conscious consumer of today that junk food contributes to hardened
arteries and potential heart attacks. Almost every magazine geared toward
those who can and do read will tease potential consumers with
headlines that remind us about the dangers of fat, Trans fat, saturated fat,
unsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and how these affect the ultimate
health and fitness level of a person’s body. There are hidden fats, fats on
labels, processed fats, essential fatty oils, non essential fatty oils,
Canola, Safflower, Crisco, Olive oils, and of course, there is the grease,
so often associated with fast food restaurants. For those who will not read,
but watch television, the networks often join this bandwagon. The most
recent story I remember seeing was on The O’Reilly Factor when Bill
decided to let his viewers hear about his discovery of how bad OREO cookies
are…and his is a conservative political news program.
I
was once told it is fairly simple to be aware of how the foods you put into
your body work once they’re inside. Here is how it goes. Wash a casserole
dish that has greases burned onto it and feel how greasy your hands get in
the process. Think about how long it takes to get that casserole dish clean.
Now wash the bowl that held the cantaloupe balls. How easy was that? Try to
imagine the work that goes into eliminating the grease from your body. It
can clog a disposal, it can clog an artery. Not too hard to picture…right?
I have found that a meal which is derived from any of the food groups, but
which has been subjected to very little processing (potato vs. French Fry)
usually fills me up for a much longer time period and I don’t seem to suffer
from acid reflux as much from these types of nutritional choices. I feel
more energized for a longer period of time. Translation, I’m less inclined
to be a slug. When I eat processed foods, sometimes they feel like they’re
sitting between my throat and my stomach and they’re stuck. Finally, I know
that processed foods contribute to acne, something that my 40ish age does
nothing to repel (and teenagers think they have it bad!).
If I give into my craving for a hamburger and fries, I’ll probably feel like
a nap and a big bowl of sugar a few hours later because the sugars in all
the carbohydrates will give me a quick burst of energy but then I’ll feel
tired and crave more sugar because I’ve raised my insulin levels. How do I
know so much about this stuff? I read. I don’t have a degree and I’m sure
someone who knows more about this stuff will say I’ve oversimplified it but
my knowledge in this area is sufficient and I can make an educated choice
about what I will have for lunch. Ultimately I will make the decision based
on my mood, my taste, my urgency to eat, my feeling about my body at that
particular moment, and the funds I have available and I will take into
account what I have learned about food and nutrition to help me make this
monumental of choices.
Well, it’s perfectly clear that I have no one to blame but myself for what I
choose to put in my body. And those who would like to blame others for what
they put into their bodies found that their lawyers "couldn't get a federal
judge to bite on their claims that McDonald's food was responsible for
making their clients fat”. I applaud the judges who took time out of their
busy days to stop this litigation from going any further. I believe there
has to be an end to frivolous lawsuits that not only "eat” up this
democratic society’s time and money, but further perpetuate the attitude
that the citizens of this country deserve something for nothing by virtue of
being a citizen of this country. The judges on our state and federal
payrolls have full case loads and their time should be put to better use.
Lawyers shouldn’t be trying to extract money from those providing a service
for providing that service. The food industry should not have to answer to
litigation which isn’t meant to right an injustice. For that’s not what the
system of law in our country was intended. Citizens of this country have to
take responsibility for their own actions. The objective of law is meant to
ensure our freedoms not curtail them. Litigation should serve to correct an
injustice under the law.
Now these same lawyers are claiming that they don’t want "to get rich from a
large money settlement, (they)… are proposing a fund that will educate
children about the nutritional facts and contents of McDonald's food." I
have to ask the question. Why is this McDonalds’ responsibility? Isn’t this
the responsibility of the parents who raise kids and allow them to eat
McDonalds (as much as they do) to, at the same time, make their kids aware
that there are better foods available to them? Shouldn’t the parents make
sure that their children understand about the "evils” that lurk in this
world? I remember learning, in my home, to be weary of too much dessert as
well as other potential harmful things to kids like "talking to strangers”.
I learned these things in a family that understood that I was their
responsibility, and not the responsibility of the schools or the government
or (in this case) the fast food enterprises. And just as an aside, there is
plenty of information available about the nutritional facts and contents of
McDonalds’ food. Even food calculators have this information on them!
Information is out there for those who understand their civic responsibility
to peruse or disseminate it.
Hmmm, back to the idea of lunch. Maybe I could sue the fashion industry and
the food nutritionists for making the choice so agonizingly hard! Not!
Nancy Salvato is a middle school teacher in Illinois and an independent
contractor for Prism Educational Consulting. She is the Educational Liaison
to IL Sen. Ray Soden and she works with national and local organizations
furthering the cause of Civic Education. She is a columnist for American
Daily, The Common Voice, GOP-USA, OpinionEditorials and The New Media Journal.us. Her
writing has been recognized by the US Secretary of Education. She has been published in
The Washington Times, The Washington Dispatch,
Iconoclast, Free Republic Network & Townhall.com., as well as other
nationally and internationally published media outlets.
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