Why is that we can’t just say no? I mean what is the pull, really? Why, in a nation of so much education and opportunity and knowledge, is it so hard for us to say no to food? Food has become a vice comparable to sex in our society.
Neither are bad. But we have taken good things meant for sustenance and for pleasure and we have abused them, used them in excess and depreciated their value.
And for what? A momentary pleasure. The way my aunt’s famous homemade cheesecake melts in my mouth, the way the fizz of soda feels in my throat, the way the juices of a bacon bleu burger sink into my taste buds. It’s a really good momentary pleasure. Some have even referred to it as a “food orgasm.”
A piece of cheesecake, a can of soda and a juicy burger are not vices. They’re delicious food. A piece of cheesecake, a can of soda and a juicy burger at every meal, those are vices.
We know the consequences. We may do dumb things, but we’re not a nation of dummies (hmm, is that an oxymoron, someone intelligent who does dumb things?). We know what happens. Feeling tired more often and extra rolls of fat aside, we have diabetes, heart disease, gastric reflux, erectile dysfunction, hernia, kidney failure, stroke, depression and gallbladder disease to deal with. Those are just some of the results of our overindulgence.
And yet living on the same dirt and occupying the same planet as us are the majority of the earth’s population. For them, a choice and abundance of food, let alone sufficient food for proper growth and sustenance, is a completely foreign concept.
I know all that. I’m aware of the facts. I know how dangerous my overindulgence can be to my body and my health. I know how selfish it can be as I feed what doesn’t need to be fed (me!) instead of feeding those who do need to be fed. And yet I still have not perfected the art of just saying no. Three simple words – just say no. More often than I’d like to admit, I can’t do it. Rather, I don’t do it.
