Illegal Eating

Recently, a smoking ban was passed where I live which bans people from smoking in public places. The idea behind this is that smoking is clearly bad for you and anyone who is smoking around someone else is forcing that person to share in their bad habit whether they want to or not. I can totally understand the need for this and as a nonsmoker I applaud society for making this a reality.

So if you ask most nonsmokers why they don't smoke, I'd be willing to bet a lot of them will tell you all about the unhealthy risks involved, not the least of which is lung cancer. They might tell you that it just seems silly to partake in that particular "pleasure" because the risks and illnesses are so well documented. The ironic thing is that that same person might take you out to eat at McDonald's later that day.

The effects of eating nothing but junk food and trans fat and processed foods is just as documented and just as deadly. More so, if you consider that heart disease is above lung cancer, I believe, on the list of top causes of death in America.

Now it's clearly easy for me to stand on my soapbox right now because I'm all about health and nutrition these days as my regular readers know, but I won't claim to be a perfect eater by any stretch of the imagination. I know that there are others who could look at my diet and still find all sorts of problems.

My point is, that most people don't look down upon eating junk like they do smoking and I'm not sure why. Sure we all know that it isn't good for you, but whereas most people look with horror at someone who smokes around a baby, hardly any of us think anything about a parent feeding french fries to a toddler. (My kids have had fries plenty of times, but I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't change that)

I'm guessing a junk food eating ban isn't going to be on the public docket anytime soon, but I have to wonder when the perception of healthy versus unhealthy eating is going to change? Will it be ever? Or is it just to hard sometimes to differentiate good food from bad food? Everyone knows that the only safe cigarette is no cigarette but I think nutrition is not quite so obvious for most people. I have already read one book recently that has told me that despite all my diet changes, I'm still not doing the right things for my body.

So anyway, just say no the next time the fast food dealer in your area tries to get you hooked..