I have my Google Alerts set on many topics. Education, physical fitness, physical education, fitness business, but obviously, one is set on fat and obesity. I get a daily alert with between 20 -30 articles from the internet that speak to ‘fat’ as a topic. It’s a topic that’s not going away anytime soon. Over the past several months, at least one article a day read like a campaign speech. It made me physically sick on more than one occasion. It has become a practice of insanity to read this rhetoric.
Banning Soft Drinks Creates Imaginary Enemies
Lawmakers in many states believe banning soft drinks, and junk food in schools is a good idea. These lawmakers are creating a cold war against an enemy that does not exist, and I’m getting tired of the bullshit. They are making an enemy where there is none. It is reminiscent of lying in the face of the American public about weapons of mass destruction.
Instead of spending money and time on imaginary enemies, why aren’t these same lawmakers taking that money and making it mandatory for schools to include physical education in their curriculum? The real enemy is “lack of movement,” not products. The more you move, the less fat you will become from ingesting products filled with “high fructose corn syrup” and the myriad of sugar substitutes. I’m not saying these aren’t bad for you; there needs to be a better focus.
It’s Not My Fault
Creating “make-believe enemies” by banning soft drinks does not help in the de-fattening of America. Instead, it only disguises another excuse, “It’s not my fault; it’s those damn soft drink companies. They shouldn’t be allowed to make their stuff taste so good”. My question is, why not? We live in a capitalist society where people have a choice to both buy and consume products or not. Blaming companies for making products or blaming advertisers for doing what they’re supposed to do is idiotic at best. We must use our intelligence and weed through the hype, maybe read a label or two. Then choose to either consume the product or not. For decades, as a society, we’ve known that junk food and sugary soft drinks are not good, but people still buy and stuff their faces with them.
Prohibition Makes It More Appealing
If we have learned anything from history, Americans will want what they can’t have, think Prohibition. Banning soft drinks in schools and public places will not do one thing to curb fatness or obesity. It will encourage these impressionable children and young adults to go after these products enthusiastically. The more attention brought to this subject, the more the underbelly will grow. Let’s get congressional hearings about that lack of physical education in schools and what that is doing to America instead of concerning our congress with steroid use in Major League Baseball. Why is there no cry for “Board of Education Superintendents” heads to cut physical fitness and fitness-related extracurricular activities? Where is the President when we need exercise in our schools, not the creation of campaigns against “soft drinks of mass destruction”?
It’s Time for Physical Education
Let’s create task forces that establish physical education curricula for schools not banning soft drinks, and if there is no money for teachers to do it, then why can’t parents volunteer their time to run Boot Camp exercise classes for students? One, two, or ten parents from each school district could quickly provide enough movement to burn fat and decrease the fat and obesity rate in half within the following year. You read that correctly within the following year. We can win this war. It just takes small groups of us that give a shit about our young people to take the time and encourage physical fitness.