i remember

picking up at afterschool yesterday a grandfather was complaining about the daycare his g-daughter was at... going on and on about how the people running it have plastered everywhere "we don't eat anything with a face" and then belly aching about how can you get enough protein just eating corn, rice and bread... and... that was the extent of the foods he could list that didn't have a face... unbelievable... it was all i could do to pull out a few oft but effective vegan barbs like: How do cows get so damn big if they never eat any protein? They just eat grass! (many come back with:well they have 4 stomach and can process it) NOT THE POINT. We're pretty damn good a processing lots of foods, face-less ones even. One person arguing for the consumption of good meat protein used a gorilla as an example: "Do you know how much food they have to eat everyday when they don't eat meat?" My response is: "So what is the problem they can eat a plant based diet and still kick the strongest human's ass w/o breaking a sweat!"

Back to this old man. He was just going on and on. How incredible it was and how bad it is for growing kids not to eat meat. Ah for the love of all things good. I guess it is better for them to get FAT? It was just yet another case of ingrained ignorance. He has ever good intention for his grand kids, but, does he have the knowledge or the desire to learn and update what he knows?

A while back there was a news bit i caught about sodium levels in the diet. And how the UK has taken steps to mandate limits of sodium. The phrase that caught me there was processed foods. Limiting the sodium in processed foods. How about something novel. LIMITING PROCESSED FOODS. forget the sodium part, it is a secondary or lesser issue. Processed foods are the evil. Reduce processed foods and you reduce packaging, you reduce waste, you reduce extra consumption of energy/fossil fuels. and you control what is being taken in.

The childhood obesity thing on NBC (click around for the link, they got video) came down to two parts:

Prevention guidelines for doctors:
1- Check BMI
2- Routine Cholesterol Screening
3- Weight-related Guidance

Prevention for parents:
1- Encourage 1-hour daily exercise
2- Encourage Family meals, daily breakfast
3- Breastfeed exclusively for 6 months

Important stuff... for the health of the kids, and the health of the nation... our future.

be educated, be aware, be active
g