There has been a lot of focus in the news lately about obesity.  The government has published a new version of the food pyramid aimed at tailoring our nutrition needs to our exercise level.  The CDC’s has reported that obesity kills about 400,000 Americans per year by contributing to heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and various other diseases.  I’ve also read that other countries populations are getting fatter as they adopt a more Western diet and I think they are talking about fast food here.  Of course, who hasn’t heard about the lawsuit in 2002 by people claiming that McDonalds made them fat.  Yeah, right, like McDonalds forced them to go eat there 4 or 5 times a week.  Come on people, it is called moderation.  Everything can be eaten by a healthy person, but the key here is moderation.  Having a slice of cheesecake once a month is not the same thing as eating the whole cheesecake once a week or even nightly.  How about exercise?  When I was a child, my brothers and I were outside from sunup to sundown or as much as possible.  Today’s children come home from school and either get on the phone or the computer or watch T.V.  I know that children live on my street, because I see them getting in and out of their parent’s cars, but what I don’t see is them riding their bikes or playing basketball.  Too often people want to blame someone else for their own or their child’s obesity.  They want blame the schools and pull the vending machines.  How about making your child’s lunch at home and sending it with them to school?  How about taking responsibility for the eating choices that you and your child make?  Maybe you can start by eating healthy yourself so that our children learn by example (oh, heaven forbid).  Or, or, or, you can take 1 hour a week out of your schedule and take your child to the park and actually play on the equipment with them, or get them to walk with you.

Ok, I really didn’t mean to go off on a rant on obesity, but it is quite a sore subject with me because people want to stuff their face and then blame the ads on T.V. or the fast food restaurants when they become overweight.  Whatever happened to owning up?  For being responsible for our mistakes???  It reminds me of the little ghost depicted in cartoons that has “NOT ME” written on the front of his shirt.  Too many people today want to say “NOT ME” when really it was them.  No one forced them to put that much food in their mouth and no one (but themselves) can make them stop.  I know that sometimes I post recipes here that are fattening, like the crab stuffed shrimp, but I also posted that the serving size was 6 shrimp per person and that I was stuffed on 3.  Also, I mentioned that the dish was very rich and was relegated to a “Special Occasion” dish.  Salad is a main staple at our house and is served almost every night.  Usually my plate is about 2/3 salad and 1/3 anything else, I also eat fruit for breakfast and either a salad or some kind of low-fat soup for lunch and snack on dried plums (he, he prunes), dried apricots or some other kind of fruit and walk 4 miles 4 to 5 times a week so I can afford to eat 3 very rich crab-stuffed shrimp occasionally.

Before I piss anyone off, and I probably already have, I wanted to offer my own theory as to the cause of America’s obesity.  Are you ready for this?????  Are you sure????  It’s Cookie Monster!  Yes, you heard me right; I’m blaming Cookie Monster for America’s obesity.  I think that PBS, Sesame Street or at the very least Cookie Monster was heavily sponsored by the Cookie Industry.  They probably gave large amounts of dollars to support Cookie Monster and his growly grumbly “Eat more cookies”.  Most of us here, to some extent, grew up with Sesame Street and Cookie Monster’s gravely voice and big blue hands stuffing his face with cookies.  Any and all cookies, no cookie was safe from him and he wasn’t very good at sharing them.  I think Cookie Monster was sending us subliminal messages to eat more cookies and that we should all ban together and sue Cookie Monster because I’m sure that listening to “Me eat more cookies” all those years has cause my brain to be conditioned to craving chocolate chip cookies. 

Gotta go, need more cookies!