Let me preface this rant with two points:
1) One bad meal doesn't make you fat. Or unhealthy. Or a bad person. Heck, there is no such thing as 'bad' food per se.
2) It is up to us as responsible adults (assuming that is most of this readership!) to make our own decisions about what we consume on a daily basis.
HOWEVER....
I have noticed a disturbing trend over the past couple of years towards what I call the 'glorification' of highly palatable, extremely high calorie, fast foods. Think doughnuts, burgers, pies, hot dogs, ice cream etc. I'm not talking 'standard' food servings, I'm talking things like those below: -
It appears that burger joints, pizzerias and fast food outlets of all descriptions are creating insanely calorific offerings in a bid to out-do one another. And I wouldn't have a problem with this if it weren't for the fact that as a nation (Australia in this case, but the same can be said for almost all developed nations) we are plain fat. The Sydney Morning Herald ran the following article on the 5th of July. This article dug up some startling statistics: -
1 in 5 Australian children are overweight or obese by the time they start school
The average slice of cake in Australia has increased so much in size in recent years it now contains almost 1,000KJ (240 calories) more than it did 2 decades ago
Australians are eating 66% more PER SERVING of pizza and cake than they did 2 decades ago.
I could go on here about all the health risks associated with being overweight and obese, but I think all get the picture. It is bleak.
During the Cold War era, there was an almost endless build up of nuclear armaments by the USA and the USSR in what would be termed 'Mutually Assured Destruction', or MAD, by John von Neumann. MAD relates to the fact that each side has enough nuclear weaponry to destroy the other side and that either side would retaliate with equal or greater force resulting in both combatants mutual, total and assured destruction. MAD is an extremely apt acronym, given the absurdity of the situation if pushed to it's logical conclusion. I believe what we are witnessing now is akin to MAD, only our destruction is being assured by burgers and pizzas so big they could feed a family for a week! Burger joints are coming up with crazier and crazier offerings in a bid to 'out-do' the competition. But what is all of this competition doing to our waistlines?
Surely we have to draw a line somewhere. Can't we see the folly in this continuous quest for the 'dirtiest' burger, largest pizza, the ice cream with the most toppings etc? It has to stop. It's MADness.
