The Choice? Stressfully, It's Yours

It is commendable that Congress has passed the oddly-titled 'Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act' so that the 264 House members that voted for it can pat themselves on the backs as official do-gooders. At the same time, the 157 naysayers are finally exposed as silent partners in the company that manufactured those nasty burritos that I used to buy from those window vending machine in the bowels of my college dorm. Do they even have those anymore?

Whatever, my point is that I knew the burrito was bad for me, but at 18 not only did I think I was indestructible, I figured my digestive tract was as well. So I would scrounge up the fifty-five cents, punch the numbers, grab the burrito in its cellophane sarcophagus, microwave it until molten, then run like a banshee up the stairs to my dorm room, head on a swivel lest some smart aleck jack me with a sock full of pennies and steal my treasure. I had my priorities, you know. I'm trying to think back to those days to determine whether any healthy choices existed in other windows of said vending machine. Oh, there may have been a dehydrated apple next to a rancid mystery meat sandwich, but that's not much of an alternative.

What I'm attempting to sort through is this: given the vast present-day improvement in packaging fresh-cut fruits & vegetables plus--and this is key--keeping the merchandise fresh-looking & on a constant restock, will the student, whether primary grade, high school or collegiate, make the right decision when it comes time?

I'm not so sure. School ain't what it used to be. It's damned stressful, all the way up the ladder. It never stops. And it doesn't seem like they ever have fun. I'm a little too young to have experienced the fountain pen ink trick, but I was a spitball-through-the-Bic-pen expert. A kid tries that stuff now? Hah--he's suspended, ostracized, sent to the school counselor and given the Rorschach test just for starters. When I was bad I just sat in the corner for a half-hour, tried not to laugh, and then it was over.

But I think it's human nature that when 'the man' (a '60's euphemism but I trust he still exists) has his thumb down on your head, growing up in school or as an adult in business, the path of least resistance is for comfort food, and the bottom line is that it's cheap & contains lots of carbohydrates. And when little Aiden (#1 boy name for 2010) can't find Madagascar on a map resulting in a D on his geography test, what is he grabbing in the lunch line when he's already assured himself he's the ultimate screwup? That's right, the mac-and-cheese, the pizza, maybe even the dreaded burrito. That six cents extra per meal provided by Uncle Sam won't be nearly enough unless it will coat every healthy item in the cafeteria with a layer of chocolate sauce.

It's all about the chosen path, the fork in the road, free will to take it a Libertarian step further. And this dilemma is not relegated to the youngsters either. Weight Watchers International has just launched their new 'PointsPlus' system where the big revelation is...fruits & vegetables are zero points. OK, they were very few points before, but talk was that dieters didn't want to 'waste' any points on fruits & vegetables, in order to save them for the good stuff. See? It's the mindset, ludicrous as this logic may seem.

Just telling someone that something's good for them doesn't make them eat it. I have to give three pills a day to my nine-year old cat & he doesn't listen either. My guess is that he's too stressed out about his eventual demise and is waiting for the tuna.

Later,

Jay