An Evolutionary Look at the Obesity Epidemic and the Future of a Technological World
July 12th 2009 14:32
“Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough.”
~ Janwillem Va De Wetering
~ Janwillem Va De Wetering
In a world that celebrates abundance as the mark of a successful society; the rewards that come with too much of a good thing should not be a surprise to anyone in the conversation.
When we truly look deep into the eyes of the Obesity Epidemic the causal observer will see these things staring us back in the face...
We are no longer a society of hunters and gathers as food is now a commodity with accessibility equivalent to the weed that grows between the crack of a delicately manicured sidewalk or the presence of rats and vermin in a dark alley behind a restaurant.
We live our daily lives with this realization but never stop to ask the question about the price a society has to pay for overabundance.
Too much of a good thing almost always equates into a weaker version of the original product as expediency replaces a delicate craft of preparing products that promote the health and well being of the consumer to cultivate society.
As society has grown so have the waste lines of the men, women and children that embody the image of a nation that has produced engineering feats our ancestors could not have imagined in their wildest dreams.
For every man we put into space or planet our rovers touch down on we have to bring ourselves back down to the reality of figuring out where we lost our understanding for the basic fundamentals of the world.
The fundamentals that give us a clear understanding of the dynamics that go into the obesity numbers and the demographics that continues to paint a clear picture of the epidemic that clearly has a grip on our society.
The epidemic that is preying on the people who have the least money, time and information to explore healthy options as the pandemic grows on a global scale.
From our glass houses we point fingers and laugh at these demographic groups with out a clear understanding of the realities that come when the option between “smart” shopping at a grocery store is sacrificed for the practicality of an extra value meal to feed all the mouths that need to be fed.
It’s not my place to judge anyone’s lifestyle but when we hem and haw about these numbers and get riled up about it’s affects on the health and well being of our next generation there has to come a point and time where we step back and look at the fundamentals.
The fundamentals that allow our corporations to target these socio economic groups with a fast food joint on every corner of an economically oppressed area with the handing out of a free pass that say’s it’s business as usual.
The fundamentals that has our politicians saying everything that needs to be said during election season about creating programs to get America fit again or helping the children of these families break the cycle of obesity and the ever familiar fall back on partisan arguments after getting the keys to the castle.
This should be the point where I say it’s up to each and every one of us to eat the right things, exercise and spread the knowledge to our family friends and neighbors…
The message is clear and we all know what it will take to fix the problem on a personal level but the problem isn’t with the people who “get it” nor is it with the men, women and children who have a lack of options.
The problem is with the evolution of our society and our lack of willingness to take on the systematic culture of convenience.
It’s far too easy for us to grab a $3.00 extra value meal as opposed to taking the time and energy to formulate a grocery list for the week that will promote our overall health and well being.
As long as we are a society based on having things in minutes as opposed to getting things right these reports will continue to come out and the problem will filter from the very top to the bottom where there is little choice except for basic survival instinct.
In yesteryear survival instinct meant living on land cultivated with dirty hands, hunting and growing your own food but in the concrete jungles of today the land has been replaced with the block and the wild animals have been reduced to genetically engineered, chemical injected, quickly processed food that can be prepared in 5 minutes.
The dreams of our forefathers have fallen upon us and even the worst hard luck story has access to food with a few pennies scrapped together.
It is up to each and every one of us to re-evaluate the entire situation with a sense of understanding if we are to ever find a solution.
Beyond finding a solution the other option is to allow evolution to take its course as the average waste line grows, ignorance spreads, corporate greed continues to fester and the average life expectancy shortens.
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