As a nation, we devote enormous amounts of time to dieting and nutrition. The literature on the subject has expanded exponentially in the last thirty years, and just when you think the well has finally dried up, some clever physician or grinning aerobics instructor makes a mint convincing the American public that they have been doing it all wrong, eating the wrong foods in the wrong order, exercising the wrong muscles, running at the wrong pace, drinking too much water, and so on. Of all the professions in the world, that of food renegade requires the least qualifications. All of us are experts, really, intimately acquainted with the subject from birth.
Unfortunately, most diets fail, and we tend to ignore nutritional guidelines. Because scientific studies appear to contradict one another, we take up the task ourselves, and tally our own data. But our parochial observations endanger truth. We all know someone who died at the age of eighty-five, cigarette in hand, nibbling on greasy bits of cholesterol to the bitter end. Genetic factors weigh heavily in the determination of our longevity, and fate makes a mockery of our earnestness. But for those who rely on their own record keeping, I recommend spending some time in a hospital. Take careful note of the people receiving the most serious care. Many of them are old indeed, but to what end?
The way we eat in this corpulent country is so important to us that we would rather die than depart from it. Nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, many of them children. There are over twenty million diabetics in this country, and a huge fraction of them are either undiagnosed or non-compliant. They know the risks of departing from the regimen, but still they do it. It seems incredible that a person would sacrifice his life, even the lives of his children, to the unregulated consumption of deep fried animal flesh or chocolate brownies, and yet people go readily to the grave for these morsels, and suffer no compunction on their deathbeds. What does this mean for humanity? In my view, it can only mean that the pleasures of eating should not be discounted as a possible life purpose, a noble ambition, something deserving of the ultimate sacrifice, like freedom, justice, and democracy. After all, Americans understand these sacrifices better than any other citizen of the developed world. They have died for freedom, justice, and democracy, and their flabbiness now suggests that they have found another cause.
If this is true, then the diet industry, and the marketing trends that highlight healthfulness, must be the ultimate hypocrisy. Since it will inevitably fail, the diet has no practical purpose other than the expiation of guilt, an exercise in assuring the mind that the body has not suspended self-preservation indefinitely. A diet is the body’s way of staying fat, by legitimizing fat, and convincing the mind of its irreversibility. Our obsession with nutrition is a sham; we know exactly what we should be eating, but we don’t eat it. We would rather suffer and die prematurely than eat exactly what our bodies are designed to eat, what our bodies were eating for thousands of years, before affluence came along and made McDonalds possible.
If you get a chance, check out weighins.com. It’s a supportive close-knit community for people wanting to lose weight. With a free membership you can join a weight loss challenge (like the Biggest Loser tv show). You also get a free calorie counter and a personal diet journal. I like it much better than sparkpeople.