Nothing I'm about to say is meant as an insult against you. I'm going to make a few observations that you may or may not like. The point of these observations is not as commentary about you. They are about others I have met, and my negativity towards them is only towards them.
I remember a story that a friend told me long ago about a woman who lived to be a hundred years old. They asked her what was the secret to her long life. She said that she got up every morning and had a big piece of pie. Obviously, that didn't fit the narrative of the health food fanatics. They asked her how a big piece of pie every morning could cause her to live to be a hundred years old, and she said that the pie gave her something to look forward to every day. There was a reason to get up in the morning because she looked forward to the pie. Having a pleasure to look forward to every day added up to over a hundred years.
When I started my first job out of college, I had gotten about forty pounds overweight. At that time in my life, forty pounds overweight was huge for me. However, I believed in my future. I had cereal and milk every morning for breakfast. I realize that the health food fanatics would attack that breakfast. I typically had fruit for lunch. Apples, oranges, and bananas were the main ones. I had a cup of a green vegetable, typically green beans or broccoli and a cup of corn as dinner vegetables. For meat, I usually opened a can of tuna and ate the tuna on crackers. This food wasn't exactly satisfying, but it was pretty healthy. I lost weight and got in very good shape. I also used light weightlifting and bicycling to tone all of my muscles.
Over the years, I've stopped eating so well. When I had hope in life, eating broccoli or green beans didn't bother me. They were part of being healthy, and being healthy was part of living the good life that I wanted to build for myself. As I've gotten old and lost hope, I just can't bring myself to face a bowl of vegetables by myself. I was home for a week with my father, and when we went out to eat, I often ordered broccoli. Sitting there having pleasant conversation with my father and nephew, eating broccoli was fine. The world was okay, and eating healthy was okay. On returning to my home in Wyoming, I just don't care that much.
I understand the value of having one's own garden and having everything fresh. I just don't get that much pleasure from gardening. There are people who just enjoy working in the yard. I'm happy for them. I understand the benefits that they get from doing that work and from harvesting their own foods. I understand that they will be more likely to survive a SHTF or TEOTWAWKI situation. I just don't enjoy that stuff. I'm an old bachelor. My health has failed anyway, so I don't have much energy. If my choices are to spend my time being Farmer John in my back yard during all of my free time or dying, I'd rather die. Even when I was healthy and working, I had no interest in having a garden become my primary hobby. I was putting in enough hours at the refinery that I didn't have that many hours to pursue hobbies. To grow my own food would mean that my life would revolve around working at work and working on my garden. I realize that many people lived that way in the past. If they were happy with that, I'm happy for them. I'd rather die than live that way.
The other vibe that I get from many people in the "healthy eating" movement is that they are driven by their sense of superiority. Many people in life seem to be driven this way by one thing or another. Many church people seem to derive their reason for living from a sense of superiority that they get from church. I've met the real thing. I've met people who really do derive that sense of purpose in a humble way from knowing Jesus. I've also met many who are driven by a sense of superiority from their church activities. Many people in the health movement have the same attitude. They derive their sense of purpose in life from thinking themselves better than everyone else because of the particular diet and exercise routine that they follow. If they couldn't find some reason to think of themselves as better than everyone else, they would collapse emotionally.
If they've found something that works for them, I'm happy for them. I've just never found anything that makes me feel all that superior to everyone else. Maybe I just don't have it in me to find purpose in life in thinking myself superior. Whatever the case, I'm instantly suspicious when I get that vibe from anyone.
I don't ascribe the rise of processed food to some sinister "Big Food" industry. Famine has been part of human history since we became human. As we gained more control over nature in the 1800's and found ways to preserve foods, we had the tools to fight famine. As we developed methods to produce more food than ever before and to preserve that food, there was a sense of victory over a great enemy. Arguably, famine may be one of the biggest "serial killers" in human history, and the food industry that grew through the late 1800's and all of the 1900's was a blow against this ancient enemy.
That processing food to make it last longer hurts some of the nutritional value is a problem, but I don't ascribe that problem to some evil intent. The companies making processed food realize that many people want to come home from work and pursue hobbies other than playing farmer. I realize that some who like to play farmer can't see outside their own perspective enough to understand how anyone else can be different from them and want to pursue different hobbies. I realize that those who derive a sense of superiority from playing farmer as a hobby can't see how others don't derive the same satisfaction from the same sense of superiority from having the same hobby. "Big Food" hasn't spent all of these years just trying to poison people. "Big Food" was just trying to sell a product that would allow people to pursue other things in life without starving.
On a more mundane note, I remember a practice that I started at a previous job where they were encouraging us to add steps to our daily routine. I started the practice of never using the nearest bathroom. In some buildings, there was only one bathroom, and I wasn't always going to change buildings to use the bathroom. Sometimes, I was in situations where I could bypass the nearest bathroom to take care of business. That practice added many steps to my day. I'm not a morning person, so I've never been able to get to work early enough to be in the closest parking spaces, but in one job, there were just a few trees at the far end of the parking lot. Most people parked near the building and returned to hot cars in the afternoon. I was one of a few weirdos who always parked under the trees so that our cars wouldn't be so hot after work.
I'm familiar with the same models who make the "no politics" warnings. I think several things are influencing that mindset.
I can remember sitcoms of the seventies that had episodes where guys would embrace political views, usually Democrat or leftist, in order to get in the good graces of women who held those views. Often, someone's punch line would be "You're not a believer in the Democrat Party. You're a believer in the skirt-chaser party." For many years, men would embrace or pretend to embrace certain political views just to win the favor of available women.
One of the changes in our current society seems to be that single men are rejecting that behavior. Fewer and fewer men are willing to embrace what we see as toxic philosophies and policies in an attempt to gain the favor of women who prefer those policies. If we think that what a woman believes is stupid, we say that it's stupid. If she has a problem with our disagreeing, that's her problem.
I'm not saying that this applies to any of our common friends, but I think many women are shocked and upset by this change. They feel that they've lost a power that they once had. Having lost that power, they realize that if they want to hold a position publicly, they have to defend that position with real thought and not just by smiling and fluffing their hair. Many of them are comfortable with real thought, but many others are not. Even those who are able and willing to think find the whole situation unpleasant. Rather than having to deal with that, they would rather pretend that those topics don't exist.
The other issue is that our society is more divided than ever. To take a political position is to risk alienating much of one's audience. To some extent, even being caught following someone with a political viewpoint could cause others to pressure these women to "cancel" the person with an "unacceptable" viewpoint. To many of these models, avoiding the topic entirely is better than facing that pressure. I'll never have twenty thousand people following me the way many models do. Having that big an audience must feel good. Having that audience drop to ten thousand because someone complained that the model was following a guy who posted about a controversial topic must feel bad.
The sad point is that our social media that allow people to express themselves without official gatekeepers are suddenly suppressing that speech informally because of the pressure of the "cancel culture." With every day that I live, I'm glad that I have one less day to live. The world is a horrible place.
I love your story about the woman that ate pie every morning because it gave her something to look forward to everyday. This is why I included the “We are what we think”. I do the same thing (have things to look forward to everyday even though they aren't officially the healthiest choices I could make). To be healthy, it is very important to find reasons for wanting to live (which have been in short supply after my wife passed away). It can be a challenge some days.
I'm certainly with you, I'm not a farmer, I hate growing stuff, well, actually in Minnesota I started to like doing a very TINY bit (not enough to live off of) but I moved and no longer have a situation where I can tend even my tiny garden.
As to the processed food industry, I've said before that in my view nobody wakes up, and rolls out of bed intending to do evil. So whether they are just arrogant pushing their ideas on others, or, like the food industry, simply pursuing profits, the result is harm to the rest of humanity. I'm inclined to disagree about food "preservation" techniques to prevent starvation. At first it certainly appeared to be a benefit to make "food" that didn't spoil rapidly. But household refrigeration has come along since then and it's no longer needed. I think at first they discovered the longer shelf life processes without realizing the harm it was doing. We can't really say the same about the food dyes and such that serve only to make products more "appealing".
Overall though, I do feel that big business pursues profit regardless of if they harm their customers. Look at the companies now jumping on the MAHA bandwagon. They aren't doing that because suddenly they care about customers health, they are doing it because it is good publicity.
Yes, I certainly know models that avoid the hot topics in order to not lose followers (and photographers to hire them). Certainly I can understand that from a financial point of view. Luckily my photography is for fun, not profit, and many of the models I know share my views on some of the hot topics. (others I'm happy to not work with)
I'm disappointed that more people can't just talk and explore ideas even though they disagree.
"Now, I love beautiful women as much as anyone but shouldn’t it be more relevant that we post thoughts and not just images of nude women?"
Sadly, people are more lazy than ever. It takes time to actually read, let alone UNDERSTAND, an article. Whereas it takes only seconds to look at a photo, naked woman or otherwise. It may take 3 minutes to read the article, but people now would rather watch a 5 minute video of someone else reading the article aloud. (The 2 extra minutes are for the intro, ads, and commentary at the end)
"What if basic nutrition was a fundamental of early education (grade school)?"
Once upon a time they DID teach VERY basic nutrition (though I question the validity of the "food pyramid"). BUT, somewhere around 1985ish the "health" classes changed focus from nutrition and basic biology to "sex ed" with the birth of the AIDS era. Much like many topics taught a hundred years ago, they have been replaced with "social" studies and topics of certain agendas (there's the political stuff tying in)😁
Yet again, you come across with "food for thought" to make me actually pay attention to what I'm putting into my body. Damn it! Seriously, since my diagnosis of diabetes, I have paid more attention to what i put into my system (especially in the last 15 years of the 37 I've been diabetic). One of the most important lessons I ever received is that there is ALWAYS room for improvement and growth.
{laugh} I'd be happy with more people *misunderstanding* my articles! Everyone is free to interpret them and "understand" them differently. I'm all about trying to rub two brain cells together to generate thoughts!
Unfortunately you are correct, more people would waste the extra time watching advertisements and intros than to read something themselves.
I try, I really try to keep my articles short and easy to read so they aren't a "strain" on anyone.
"Food for thought" is definitely the goal! We can always *improve*! As the decades roll by, I wish I'd improved more sooner!
As to the food pyramid... urgh... more propaganda to sell people on grains.
Nothing I'm about to say is meant as an insult against you. I'm going to make a few observations that you may or may not like. The point of these observations is not as commentary about you. They are about others I have met, and my negativity towards them is only towards them.
I remember a story that a friend told me long ago about a woman who lived to be a hundred years old. They asked her what was the secret to her long life. She said that she got up every morning and had a big piece of pie. Obviously, that didn't fit the narrative of the health food fanatics. They asked her how a big piece of pie every morning could cause her to live to be a hundred years old, and she said that the pie gave her something to look forward to every day. There was a reason to get up in the morning because she looked forward to the pie. Having a pleasure to look forward to every day added up to over a hundred years.
When I started my first job out of college, I had gotten about forty pounds overweight. At that time in my life, forty pounds overweight was huge for me. However, I believed in my future. I had cereal and milk every morning for breakfast. I realize that the health food fanatics would attack that breakfast. I typically had fruit for lunch. Apples, oranges, and bananas were the main ones. I had a cup of a green vegetable, typically green beans or broccoli and a cup of corn as dinner vegetables. For meat, I usually opened a can of tuna and ate the tuna on crackers. This food wasn't exactly satisfying, but it was pretty healthy. I lost weight and got in very good shape. I also used light weightlifting and bicycling to tone all of my muscles.
Over the years, I've stopped eating so well. When I had hope in life, eating broccoli or green beans didn't bother me. They were part of being healthy, and being healthy was part of living the good life that I wanted to build for myself. As I've gotten old and lost hope, I just can't bring myself to face a bowl of vegetables by myself. I was home for a week with my father, and when we went out to eat, I often ordered broccoli. Sitting there having pleasant conversation with my father and nephew, eating broccoli was fine. The world was okay, and eating healthy was okay. On returning to my home in Wyoming, I just don't care that much.
I understand the value of having one's own garden and having everything fresh. I just don't get that much pleasure from gardening. There are people who just enjoy working in the yard. I'm happy for them. I understand the benefits that they get from doing that work and from harvesting their own foods. I understand that they will be more likely to survive a SHTF or TEOTWAWKI situation. I just don't enjoy that stuff. I'm an old bachelor. My health has failed anyway, so I don't have much energy. If my choices are to spend my time being Farmer John in my back yard during all of my free time or dying, I'd rather die. Even when I was healthy and working, I had no interest in having a garden become my primary hobby. I was putting in enough hours at the refinery that I didn't have that many hours to pursue hobbies. To grow my own food would mean that my life would revolve around working at work and working on my garden. I realize that many people lived that way in the past. If they were happy with that, I'm happy for them. I'd rather die than live that way.
The other vibe that I get from many people in the "healthy eating" movement is that they are driven by their sense of superiority. Many people in life seem to be driven this way by one thing or another. Many church people seem to derive their reason for living from a sense of superiority that they get from church. I've met the real thing. I've met people who really do derive that sense of purpose in a humble way from knowing Jesus. I've also met many who are driven by a sense of superiority from their church activities. Many people in the health movement have the same attitude. They derive their sense of purpose in life from thinking themselves better than everyone else because of the particular diet and exercise routine that they follow. If they couldn't find some reason to think of themselves as better than everyone else, they would collapse emotionally.
If they've found something that works for them, I'm happy for them. I've just never found anything that makes me feel all that superior to everyone else. Maybe I just don't have it in me to find purpose in life in thinking myself superior. Whatever the case, I'm instantly suspicious when I get that vibe from anyone.
I don't ascribe the rise of processed food to some sinister "Big Food" industry. Famine has been part of human history since we became human. As we gained more control over nature in the 1800's and found ways to preserve foods, we had the tools to fight famine. As we developed methods to produce more food than ever before and to preserve that food, there was a sense of victory over a great enemy. Arguably, famine may be one of the biggest "serial killers" in human history, and the food industry that grew through the late 1800's and all of the 1900's was a blow against this ancient enemy.
That processing food to make it last longer hurts some of the nutritional value is a problem, but I don't ascribe that problem to some evil intent. The companies making processed food realize that many people want to come home from work and pursue hobbies other than playing farmer. I realize that some who like to play farmer can't see outside their own perspective enough to understand how anyone else can be different from them and want to pursue different hobbies. I realize that those who derive a sense of superiority from playing farmer as a hobby can't see how others don't derive the same satisfaction from the same sense of superiority from having the same hobby. "Big Food" hasn't spent all of these years just trying to poison people. "Big Food" was just trying to sell a product that would allow people to pursue other things in life without starving.
On a more mundane note, I remember a practice that I started at a previous job where they were encouraging us to add steps to our daily routine. I started the practice of never using the nearest bathroom. In some buildings, there was only one bathroom, and I wasn't always going to change buildings to use the bathroom. Sometimes, I was in situations where I could bypass the nearest bathroom to take care of business. That practice added many steps to my day. I'm not a morning person, so I've never been able to get to work early enough to be in the closest parking spaces, but in one job, there were just a few trees at the far end of the parking lot. Most people parked near the building and returned to hot cars in the afternoon. I was one of a few weirdos who always parked under the trees so that our cars wouldn't be so hot after work.
I'm familiar with the same models who make the "no politics" warnings. I think several things are influencing that mindset.
I can remember sitcoms of the seventies that had episodes where guys would embrace political views, usually Democrat or leftist, in order to get in the good graces of women who held those views. Often, someone's punch line would be "You're not a believer in the Democrat Party. You're a believer in the skirt-chaser party." For many years, men would embrace or pretend to embrace certain political views just to win the favor of available women.
One of the changes in our current society seems to be that single men are rejecting that behavior. Fewer and fewer men are willing to embrace what we see as toxic philosophies and policies in an attempt to gain the favor of women who prefer those policies. If we think that what a woman believes is stupid, we say that it's stupid. If she has a problem with our disagreeing, that's her problem.
I'm not saying that this applies to any of our common friends, but I think many women are shocked and upset by this change. They feel that they've lost a power that they once had. Having lost that power, they realize that if they want to hold a position publicly, they have to defend that position with real thought and not just by smiling and fluffing their hair. Many of them are comfortable with real thought, but many others are not. Even those who are able and willing to think find the whole situation unpleasant. Rather than having to deal with that, they would rather pretend that those topics don't exist.
The other issue is that our society is more divided than ever. To take a political position is to risk alienating much of one's audience. To some extent, even being caught following someone with a political viewpoint could cause others to pressure these women to "cancel" the person with an "unacceptable" viewpoint. To many of these models, avoiding the topic entirely is better than facing that pressure. I'll never have twenty thousand people following me the way many models do. Having that big an audience must feel good. Having that audience drop to ten thousand because someone complained that the model was following a guy who posted about a controversial topic must feel bad.
The sad point is that our social media that allow people to express themselves without official gatekeepers are suddenly suppressing that speech informally because of the pressure of the "cancel culture." With every day that I live, I'm glad that I have one less day to live. The world is a horrible place.
I love your story about the woman that ate pie every morning because it gave her something to look forward to everyday. This is why I included the “We are what we think”. I do the same thing (have things to look forward to everyday even though they aren't officially the healthiest choices I could make). To be healthy, it is very important to find reasons for wanting to live (which have been in short supply after my wife passed away). It can be a challenge some days.
I'm certainly with you, I'm not a farmer, I hate growing stuff, well, actually in Minnesota I started to like doing a very TINY bit (not enough to live off of) but I moved and no longer have a situation where I can tend even my tiny garden.
As to the processed food industry, I've said before that in my view nobody wakes up, and rolls out of bed intending to do evil. So whether they are just arrogant pushing their ideas on others, or, like the food industry, simply pursuing profits, the result is harm to the rest of humanity. I'm inclined to disagree about food "preservation" techniques to prevent starvation. At first it certainly appeared to be a benefit to make "food" that didn't spoil rapidly. But household refrigeration has come along since then and it's no longer needed. I think at first they discovered the longer shelf life processes without realizing the harm it was doing. We can't really say the same about the food dyes and such that serve only to make products more "appealing".
Overall though, I do feel that big business pursues profit regardless of if they harm their customers. Look at the companies now jumping on the MAHA bandwagon. They aren't doing that because suddenly they care about customers health, they are doing it because it is good publicity.
Yes, I certainly know models that avoid the hot topics in order to not lose followers (and photographers to hire them). Certainly I can understand that from a financial point of view. Luckily my photography is for fun, not profit, and many of the models I know share my views on some of the hot topics. (others I'm happy to not work with)
I'm disappointed that more people can't just talk and explore ideas even though they disagree.
"Now, I love beautiful women as much as anyone but shouldn’t it be more relevant that we post thoughts and not just images of nude women?"
Sadly, people are more lazy than ever. It takes time to actually read, let alone UNDERSTAND, an article. Whereas it takes only seconds to look at a photo, naked woman or otherwise. It may take 3 minutes to read the article, but people now would rather watch a 5 minute video of someone else reading the article aloud. (The 2 extra minutes are for the intro, ads, and commentary at the end)
"What if basic nutrition was a fundamental of early education (grade school)?"
Once upon a time they DID teach VERY basic nutrition (though I question the validity of the "food pyramid"). BUT, somewhere around 1985ish the "health" classes changed focus from nutrition and basic biology to "sex ed" with the birth of the AIDS era. Much like many topics taught a hundred years ago, they have been replaced with "social" studies and topics of certain agendas (there's the political stuff tying in)😁
Yet again, you come across with "food for thought" to make me actually pay attention to what I'm putting into my body. Damn it! Seriously, since my diagnosis of diabetes, I have paid more attention to what i put into my system (especially in the last 15 years of the 37 I've been diabetic). One of the most important lessons I ever received is that there is ALWAYS room for improvement and growth.
{laugh} I'd be happy with more people *misunderstanding* my articles! Everyone is free to interpret them and "understand" them differently. I'm all about trying to rub two brain cells together to generate thoughts!
Unfortunately you are correct, more people would waste the extra time watching advertisements and intros than to read something themselves.
I try, I really try to keep my articles short and easy to read so they aren't a "strain" on anyone.
"Food for thought" is definitely the goal! We can always *improve*! As the decades roll by, I wish I'd improved more sooner!
As to the food pyramid... urgh... more propaganda to sell people on grains.
Great points and info on food/nutrition.
Thank you. These are points we need to remember over and over again. We have too much pressure to take the easy way out and buy convenience foods.