What You Should Eat, How You Should Live, What You Shouldn't Throw Away A Brief History of Health Nut Meddling
To be blunt, I am profoundly weary of other people dictating to me what I should eat, how I should live, what I should throw away (or not throw away) and what constitutes a good life.
There's a big push in this country for healthy living and now we have dictators telling restaurants what they can or can't have in their food. Day after day I hear these paranoid, spineless squeak toys on the radio talking in their "health" segments about what we should eat and what not to eat. These people are so afraid of death that they don't give a crap about life!
To put a finer point on it, why is it that, since this health craze began in the late 70's and early 80's, people are more obese and out of shape than ever before? When I was growing up in the 70's I never saw the massive consumption that I have seen in so-called modern times. Why is that, when we are supposed to be living healthier with our tasteless fat-free foods and our demands that we look like skeletons, this country is fatter than ever before?
When I was a kid, my family doctor used to jog every day. He died of a massive heart attack way before his time.
This nation is so transfixed on over-consumption that some dirtbag will actually cause havoc because McDonalds is out of Chicken McNuggets.
And the point behind this is not to accuse people of gluttony. Rather it is to say that if that's what they want to do, then they have the right to do it. Government and brainless, pasty lunatics in sandals should have no say in it. Go eat your grass and die in a nursing home. It all ends the same.
Last year, a major scientific study determined that diet and exercise will result in weight loss.
Holy crap! I wish I'd have thought of that! And all along I thought it was fasting and bulimia.
I wonder how many millions of dollars went to this study to come up with the bleeding obvious. And, conversely, I wonder how these millions of dollars could have been spent on - oh, I don't know - the HOMELESS¦or, maybe, on CURING DISEASE¦or even - wait for it - helping the millions who are out of work because of the disgusting economic situation we are in, orchestrated consciously by the Powers That Be.
At any rate, I am sick and tired of someone other than myself telling me what I should eat and how I should live so I can live a long and healthy life. What if I don't want to live a long and healthy life? I don't know about you, but I DO NOT want to live to be 90. I have seen what the ravages of age did to my grandfather, my grandmother, and my wonderful mother. Losing one's mind and having to depend on others is NOT what I call a long and healthy life. And please, please, please don't tell me that what I eat and how I live will put off the inevitable. I want to check out having lived, not having merely survived.
Someone in my life who is hell bent on dictating how I should eat and live, ignoring totally her rabid narcissism, said to me, "Do you want to spend your life sick and tired?".
I simply replied, "I am already sick and tired...of you."
Andrew T.Durham is a graduate of State University at Albany, with a degree in Psychology/Philosophy. In the late 80's to mid 90's he was instrumental in creating ground-breaking outreach/prevention programs, as well as being a highly successful public speaker. A former acupuncturist and clinician (primarily to inner city adolescents), he has also been a consultant to the Massachusetts State Department of Public Health and several non-profit organizations. He is an accomplished musician - proficient in 7 instruments - ,actor and author of 10 plays, 5 of which have been produced. He is currently a consultant for small non-profit agencies and lives in Rochester, NY
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