Let's keep it a blessing

Food [food]-noun 1. Any nourishing substance that is eaten, drunk, or otherwise taken into the body to sustain life, provide energy, promote growth, etc.

I seriously think that food is one of the greatest blessings we have been given. It's something that everyone needs and it brings happiness! Eating is one of my favorite hobbies and probably always will be :) Food is a blessing but for some people it's a curse. The other day in biology we were discussing obesity and my professor showed this extremely graphic video of an open heart surgery. The heart was covered in fat and the doctors pulled a three inch long strand of solid fat out of this guy's artery. I'm a little squeamish anyway but seeing that made me nauseous. Don't get me wrong, I love pizza, choclate, chicken nuggets, and the occasional trip to Wendy's but watching that grossed me out.

What has happened? I really am curious at how 2/3 of American adults became overweight. And I'm not trying to go on a soapbox rant but our reality is a little sad. In my biology lab class every week, we have a discussion question and after talking about obesity, our question was "Should the government regulate the sale of junk food?" Just the concept that government intervention is needed to help people eat healthier is slightly pathetic. What happened?

Heavenly Father gave us amazing bodies. We are told constantly to not deface our bodies with crazy piercings and tattoos. We are warned of the consequences that will follow if we don't obey the Word of Wisdom. All of these things are meant to keep our bodies pure. So why shouldn't eating healthy fall into that category?

Coming to college has made eating healthy a lot harder. Eating unhealthy is a lot cheaper and way more convenient sadly. But I think having my parents be really strict about food growing up has really helped me to try and maintain the same diet. Even though I missed out on trick or treating, candy, and desserts growing up, I don't feel like it was "loss." I'm glad my parents placed such an importance on eating healthy. And I'll most likely do the same with my own children (in the far future).

Just for fun: A couple years ago, I received an interesting email. It had pictures of the food eaten by different families from different countries. It blew my mind. So I'm posting it for everyone (my few followers haha) to see.




Italy




Egypt



Chad (Africa)



USA