Advertising and Our Weight

It's everywhere you look. You watch prime time TV and you'll see an ad for Burger King and a SpongeBob Squarepants toy, or McDonalds and a Shrek toy. America's children have a growing obesity problem, yet all around us are more ads for junk food. My two year old daughter even understands that. We walked down the cereal aisle, and there's a Playhouse Disney cereal (she pointed at the box and said Mickey). It's no wonder that America is having a problem with obesity and weight. If you sit down and watch tv, how many ads do you see for eating healthy? How many ads do you see for junk? Even the ads that supposedly show something healthy aren't always healthy. I know you've seen it. TV ads for FiberCon (or was it Metamucil?) where you see the woman pulling a cart of broccoli and one of milk? They imply that you can't get your day's serving of vegetables without going overboard. There also used to be an ad where you'd see all of the adults doing nothing but munching on vegetables. Talk about exageration. It's no wonder that Americans think it's too difficult to eat healthy. It's no wonder that the perfectionists among us just give up. After all, if we can't do it right, then why bother? Yea, right. Why bother? We feel much better when we eat like we should. Even the tiniest change makes such a big difference in our energy levels. That's a good reason to bother. As for the best reason... that's asleep in the other room. We need to be there for our children, teach them how they should eat so they can be there for their children. I'm not talking about living forever, or even living on borrowed time. I'm talking being able to go out and play tag with the kids, going camping with them and actually being able to have fun. That's what life is about.