Today, we celebrate Independence Day or the Fourth of July or July Fourth as I use them interchangeably to represent the holiday that we in the United States celebrate as a result of declaring our independence from Great Britain in 1776. They say there are always two sides to any story. As someone that grew up in the United States, the side I was exposed to was that of the victor of the American Revolution. I can only guess that the story might be a little different in Great Britain.
My goal with this first blog post is not to discuss the American Revolution. There are numerous websites for that. Instead, as I observed the foods being eaten today such as hotdogs, chips, potato salad, and such it got me thinking; “Why do we eat this crap?”
I have been on a personal journey for almost two years now to try and eat better and learn more. It is through the latter that I have come to the conclusion that I have been on the wrong side of the story. In school, I was taught the food pyramid you see above. It is still thought to be a healthy way of eating even today. I remember when it came out how my mother started talking about how we needed to quit eating so much fat. I remember the first fat-free food she bought; it tasted awful. From what I have learned over the past year from books and documentaries about healthy eating, I can only conclude that what I was taught in school about healthy eating is ALL WRONG.
I have decided to make today MY INDEPENDENCE DAY from the Standard American Diet otherwise known as SAD. The SAD diet is not healthy. I will be the first to admit however that it is TASTY and that is the problem. The food industry has spent millions if not billions of dollars to find the bliss point of the foods they produce. Processed foods are hard to resist. They have helped me to become extremely obese. I plan to change that by basically flipping the food pyramid on its head. I hope to use this blog to help me on my journey. Maybe it will help someone else out there too.
As a side note, I am not an English major. I am writing more for me than the world, but if you would like to correct my grammar just leave me a comment. I am not offended by it.