America the Beautiful

Francis William Arellano

American disagrees about a lot of things, but we rarely quarrel when it comes to our food. For a nation built on grand democratic virtues, there is still nothing that defines us quite like our love of chow time. We have plenty of reasons to fetish our food-not the least being that we’ve always had so much of it. Is it any wonder that what might be our most evocative patriotic song is “America the Beautiful,” in which an ideal like brotherhood doesn’t even get mentioned until the second-to-last line, well after rhapsodic references to waves of grain and fruited planes. The song defines of what it means to succeed and a big part of that is access to an environment in which there is a lot of food to be consumed. The problem is, all those calories come at a big price. In 1900 the average weight of college-age male in the US was 133 lb (60kg); the average woman was 122 lb(55kg). By the year 2000, men had plumped up to 166 lb (75kg) and woman to 144 lb (65kg).
Humans, like most animals are hardwired not just to eat but to gorge. “We’re not only programmed to eat a lot,” says Sharman Apt Russell, author of Hunger: An Unnatural History, “but to prefer foods that are high in calories.” To eliminate the problem of obesity among our youth and in America we have to make a stand to not gorge ourselves on every garbage food that comes in our way. Stop the temptation and devote a healthy diet that you can create and sustain a healthy lifestyle.
Till next time, Good Morning Good Evening And Good Night!