Influence & Choice to Become a Lardbutt

Eating a part of healthy diet based on sound nutrition principles of balance, variety and moderation.

I don't want to be shrill. I know my little corner of the Internet here is probably not going to change any one's minds when it comes to politics. Like money and sex, politics is one of those topics best saved for only those closest to you, and if your on different ends of the spectrum, tread lightly and listen before you speak. Food is political. If that statement annoys you, feel free to skip away to Fox News, I guess. Oy, did I just show my hand?

I eat fast food once a week. It keeps things interesting, and I'm able to pat myself on the back and say, "Hey, Fatty, you are not a food snob!" Currently, I rotate through Subway, Golden Krust and McDonald's. It's a fine addition to a part of my literally "balanced" diet, something all the reps from Big Fast Food recommend when questioned about the perceived/relative/comparative/insert non-shrill word here lack of nutritional value in their products.

"Many nutrition professionals agree that McDonald's food can be part of a healthy diet based on the sound nutrition principles of balance, variety and moderation." - McDonald's

What they won't say is that many nutrition professionals also agree that the part that McDonald's food plays in an actual balanced diet is maybe once a month or to once a never -- less is good, none is best. Sensible nutritional advice says we have no lack of fat, salt, or meat in our diet, so cutting some out is always a good thing. So what Ronald McDonald is really saying:

It's on you, suckahbutt!

What McDonald's is really saying is that a healthy diet is an individual responsibility. One makes their own choices, and one could choose to be healthy. Sounds like a reasonable way of looking at things, except when you look at the flip side. If it's all on the individual, then those who chose to (or even inadvertently) influence the individual are off the hook.

Yep, I'm going there, suckahbutt. Sorry, Sassy Black Woman Stereotype!

Let's get REAL, mammacita. McD's is not in the nutrition business, they're not in the health business. They're in the sell-as-many-burger-pucks-to-benefit-our-shareholders business. It's on YOU to fit nutritionally void, high fat, low quality calories into the balance of your diet. You feel compelled to eat McDonald's 10 times a week? Not McDonald's problem, only McDonald's benefit.

And there lies the rub. If you go to a bar, drink 20 shots of Yager, roll into your car, then drive off a cliff and die, your family can sue the bar and probably win. Roll into McDonalds, stuff yourself silly time after time until die of gout, and we shrug our shoulders, it's not such an obvious and direct relationship. But there IS a relationship. McDonald's profit, the entire industry of food profit, people get sick, and our failing medical safety net picks up the slack.

And what if the government were to shift into action, bolstering the medical safety net by taxing every one -- both individuals and businesses who have made poor/profit-motivated choices to help get us to this place? John Schnatter, CEO of some shitty fast food pizza chain, recently announced to his shareholders:

"Our best estimate is that the Obamacare will cost 11 to 14 cents per pizza, or 15 to 20 cents per order from a corporate basis," Schnatter said. "If Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders best interests," Schnatter vowed.

Shitty pizza left, douchy CEO right

 Schnatter would blanch at the idea that he and his shitty pizza company hold any responsibility for the health and well being of his customers. I guess there is a core philosophical difference between a shlubby 99%er like me and a master of the shitty-pizza universe like Schnatter:

• Me: We're all in it together. Good health is a societal responsibility. Good Government for all.
• Schnatter: Everyone for themselves. Good health is a personal responsibility. Nanny State wants my money, wah wah wah.

Fact is, despite all the bad publicity that Morgan Spurlock heaped on McD's with his documentary, Supersize Me, McD is still supersizing. Every time I go, the person behind the counter asks, "Do you want to make that large?" I grunt no, I assume personal responsibility for my health.

My other t-shirt says, "Free to believe in Determinism"

But the choices I make are shaped by my environment. My environment is shaped by rules and regulations, laws and fees that make McDonald's hamburgers really cheap and fresh vegetables not so cheap. My choices are also manipulated by advertising and media who target our instinctual urges for fat, sugar, salt and things that are not so great for us.

To say my choices are mine and mine alone would be a staggering statement of ego and self-delusion. People aren't getting fat and sick because they want to be, they're getting fat and sick because of poor choices shaped by environmental, economic and political forces that manipulate so-called free will. Anyone (Republi-cants, cough cough) who try to tell you otherwise are just the devil trying to convince you he doesn't exist.

No, the tax code does not give preferential treatment to corporate industrial farms  to grow commodity crops at the expense of smaller farms that grow crops for eating by people. Nothing to see here, make your own choices, move on, thank you and come again!

THE COUNT:+/- 2,200
Woke up hungry, hungriest I've been this early in memory. A little proud I was able to skip an evening snack and keep within my budget yesterday. Also woke up still sore in my pull-up back muscles, so delaying my 2nd lift of the week to tomorrow -- soreness is damaged muscle that is healing a.k.a. coming back bigger and stronger, and breaking it down some more before it regenerates would be counterproductive, not lazy (which for some reason I ask myself, even though I know it's not.)

Had a very busy day, cooked a batch of knishes for a documentary, cooked off more in the afternoon for a client, made brownies and ice cream for desserts for a dinner we have been invited to tomorrow and for over the weekend. Ended up eating knishes during the day, took myself out to veg dim sum to cool down after. Have no idea how many calories went down my gullet, estimations were based on how hungry I was left. I was a narrowly hungry by bed time, so I couldn't have been too far off.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, kolon bloe with whole milk, 300 cal

AM SNACK: 10:45am, homemade potato knish, +/- 150 cal

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, fried spinach knish, +/- 300 cal

LINNER: 4:45pm, mixed gluten, mashed taro treasure boxes, mock shrimp rice rolls, mini lotus leaf sticky rice, water, +/- 1000 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, almonds & chocolate chips, water, +/- 425 cal