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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Calorie Confusion: Have Your Say

Now that you've read the opinions of our panel, have your say by leaving a comment.

3 comments:

  1. AustinJanuary 13, 2010

    Wow, I am completely amazed that Art and I aren't completely on opposite sides of this issue.

    Rest assured that as soon as Jeff serves us up a juicy political story, we will be back to normal.

    Art being completely out in liberal la-la land and forcing me to provide the necessary real world common sense.

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  2. Art HastingsJanuary 13, 2010

    No probs with your position on fast-food calorie info, Austin. But I was curious about this:

    > I also don't need the government to tell me that lighting a paper stick
    > on fire and sucking the smoke through a fiber-glass filter is not good
    > for me either.

    Does that mean you're not opposed to the legalization of recreational drug use, at least for marijuana?

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  3. Art HastingsJanuary 13, 2010

    Nikki:

    I can explain the "fascination" or "obsession."

    You are living at a blessed time of life, when even the bad things one eats usually have little or no effect. Someday, between five and 30 years from now, you will start to see the effects: you'll see and feel them yourself, and/or your doctor will give you some unwelcome news. It will become much more difficult to keep from gaining weight, or to lose it if you want to. You may discover a family strain of diabetes or heart disease starting to express itself.

    Suddenly, food is not just all fun and games anymore. It becomes a dangerous friend, even a sometime enemy. You'll have to change your attitudes and behavior, not to mention your choices. It's a little like the switch from dating around to getting married: in exchange for some safety and security, you'll have to make some compromises, because if you keep being indiscriminate, it'll cost you, more and more, and possibly big time.

    I never had to worry about what I ate for a good 40 years or more. Then my weight started to climb a little. I got a slightly elevated cholesterol count. I had a couple hernia surgeries and a knee operation, so distance running lost its appeal (and disappeared as an easy option for keeping me slim).

    I suspect the battle is much harder for other Americans, not just because they're less accustomed to being conscious about their choices -- less inclined to be skeptical about what everybody else does -- and most of all because they have children who can eat whatever they want without immediate visible costs (at least the ones who haven't already become obese) and who mostly want to eat trash "like everybody else" (at least, according to the ads assaulting them on TV and in movie theaters). That's gotta up the ante for where you go out to eat with family.

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