Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that in past centuries when people hunted, gathered, or even cooked their own food (rather than having the line chef at McD's do it for them) it was considered a symbol of status to be not just hefty, but even fat. Looking into the past when "eating like a king" was a literal expression, because if you were a king, you could afford to eat big meals, and for the most part, no one else could afford it. The king was fat, everyone else was skinny. Only the rich could afford to be fat. In other words, fat was hard, skinny was easy. Nowadays its basically a 180. Fat is easy, skinny is hard. So in the past everyone wanted to be fat, now everyone wants to be skinny.
As stated in "Eat This Now!" there is enough food produced daily for every American to consume 3,900 calories every day. 3,900. Ok. Now go look at the "nutrition facts" on the back of any food you can find. If you'll notice it all says "based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet" to maintain a healthy weight, 2,000 calories a day is ideal. 3,900 is not. Now clearly not all people consume their entire 3,900 calories, but as Ms. Brink and Ms. Querna stated, if the food didn't get consumed we wouldn't be producing that much. So basically, if one day I don't step up to the 3,900 calorie plate (plate both literally and figuratively), and only eat 3,500, that means that on average, someone else is going above and beyond the call of duty and eat 4,300 calories. What a ridiculous thought.
In the olden days of fat kings and skinny peasants, three meals a day was a farfetched dream. Nearly unnatainable for 99% of the population. Average Americans today eat five. The culture has changed. People want to be skinny, they really do. Unfortunately most of america (about 2/3s according to Mr. Rosenwald) has decided that instant gratification and comfort are more appealing than their desire to be skinny.
I'm going to close this in a semi-rant, directed at everyone who says the marketing geniuses in the world make it an unfair uphill battle, and that once you are fat it is simply not possible, because "I just get so hungry." I'm calling you out right now. You see that perfectly placed candy bar at the grocery store? So do I. Do you think that us skinny people don't like candy? I know I do. But I don't buy it. I get hungry, that's a function of life. Everyone gets hungry. Deal with it. In the end if you're overweight, thats fine with me, just don't complain about how you're trying to lose weight but you just can't do it because there's too much money going into advertising food. It's a cop out. Take control of your life. If that was a fair argument you could say "But officer, there's so much money going into advertising alcohol, it's not my fault that I'm hammered, send Annheiser Busch that DUI ticket, it's their fault. I just get so thirsty"
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I don't think you were ranting at all. Everything you said was completely valid. I especially liked the Busch analogy. That made me laugh out loud beacuse I could see some idiot trying to make that argument. I feel like some smokers who are suing tobacco companies use that argument as well. The sad thing is, some of those lame arguments actually do hold up in court.
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