Halloween: Another Excuse to Eat Poorly
Halloween is just another one of those days that prove we give lip service to the problem of obesity and overweight. Everyone feels for the poor children and contend that they deserve these sugary treats, in moderation, of course. The problem is, this candy will be around in houses, office buildings, places of worship, schools, etc, for many weeks. Many diets will go by the wayside all in the name of a “treat.” Any sugar consumption above about 80 grams per day is bad for anyone regardless of the reason its consumed.
I recently had a conversation with a co-worker thinking about adding the gym to her life. I told her to just think of all the special occasions we have in the office where people eat poorly. There is always a holiday, retirement, baby shower, ethnic observance of some kind, morale and welfare event, etc. There are various sales put on by schools where parents bring sweets and order forms to get co-workers to support. These sweets are put on display and kept in common areas for employees to purchase. Someone always brings donuts in some department. The Starbucks and other stands sells bagels, lattes and all sorts of sugar-loaded indulgences that we can’t seem to live without and into that mix, we throw in Halloween. It’s just another excuse to eat poorly. Yet in the restrooms, there is the reminder to add physical fitness to one’s life for health reasons. Oh yeah, that’ll work!
Now the calorie-counters will argue, but it’s all about calories. If that’s true, then a person should be able to eat 2,000 calories of candy per day and be in perfect health, right? I mean hey, a serving of sugar is just 4 grams so what’s the problem? When confronted with such a common sense approach, the calorie counter would respond, well, the problem there would be one of balance, not calories. Oh, so if you eat a diet imbalanced with candy, you’ll have health problems and obesity. But with a diet of meat-only, you won’t have health problems or be obese yet you will be bored.
Methinks it’s time for a little boredom. The dear reader might be thinking, but I just couldn’t do that. No, what you’re really saying is that I won’t do that. It’s easy to talk about being healthy and most of want to lose a few pounds but few are willing to do what it takes to get there. There is always a reason not to. Equating sugary sweets to life is a prescription for death and disease. Make the decision today to reward yourself with good health and life. When everyone else is partaking of sweets, use your imagination and find other ways to entertain yourself. Food is not entertainment. Food is fuel and it’s about time we view it as such. Shut down the Food Network and all of these other silly things and let’s get back to life.
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