After a lifetime of bad habits, my arteries are announcing that they've had enough. My days of dairy and sugar and everything deep fried in lard are over. The adjustment is very hard, and I haven't been very good at it.
It doesn't help that virtue is so much more expensive than vice.
I notice that what I pay for a small plastic container of virtuous nuts could buy 2 big sinful bags of the late Morrie Yohai's Cheese Doodles. What you pay at Whole Foods or at a small farmer's market in New York for produce could feed a family at Mickey D's. I can see the obesity rate increase noticeably on the Bronx bound 4 train after passing 125th street.
Meanwhile, McCaren park in Billyburg is filled with young corporate lawyers fresh out of ivy-league law schools who look like they just walked out of Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia. They look like sun bronzed decathalon champions who would make a statue by Phidias look out of shape.
I know that bringing up class is a big naughty no no in this country, but it appears to me that it plays a big unacknowledged role in nutrition and fitness debates these days.
A little sample from Olympia, the famous diving sequence:
I think you're right, but suspect that it's always been like that. Traditional American food has always been fatty and salty, hasn't it? It was always bad for us, but at least its caloric content was partially offset by the rigors of pre-20th century life. Lots of people still eat the food that their farmworker ancestors ate, but then spend the day on the couch. The more "cosmopolitan" classes have been exposed to more nutritional information, "foreign" foods that are healthier than traditional American fare, and the idea that physical fitness is a mark of disposable income and leisure time.
ReplyDeleteI think processed food is saltier (w/ worse fats, and execrable high fructose corn sweetener).
ReplyDeleteErgo, the food today IS worse---besides the fact that we're more sedentary [...JCF typed while sitting on my lard @ss :-X]
Take care of yourself Doug (et al).
BTW, I've never seen Olympia, but that footage is wonderful - it's like watching angels fly or something.
ReplyDeleteNo film to be seen, but I think you are quite right! Class is the biggest part of the problem... if only because we don't think about it.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear you too have joined the club - and yes it is hard!
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