Health Food in the American Diet?

Looking back, I can remember that during my first year in junior high school, the Principal announced with much fanfare that the school would be initiating a new "health food" program. Now, we students would have access to "health food" during our recess breaks from a stand in the playground. "Wow" I thought. Finally some nutritious food at school, but I had no idea what "health food" was. The two weeks seemed to pass ever so slowly until the day of the opening of the new "health food stand." Having had no examples of health food at home, at school or in the media, at recess I ran over to the stand in great anticipation of finding out what health food was. What I saw was an assortment of candies such as Three Musketeers bars, Milky way bars and the like. Even as a thirteen year old, I new that what they were giving us wasn't right. What disappointment I felt as I realized that after all that hype, the high school administration had let we students down.

Fast forward a couple of years to a high school experiment in which a hamburger was left to soak for a day in a container of Coca Cola. The result was disgusting. The beef rotted and decayed in a disgusting way and the lesson was driven home that carbonated soft drinks rot a persons gut. Thirty eight years have now passed since that high school experiment, and today, soft drinks and unhealthful foods and candies and their accompanying exploitive advertising campaigns are being blamed for an explosion of obesity in the United States. That's thirty eight years! What has taken us so long to get the message that there is a difference between wholesome foods and fast foods and candies?

The answers to the above question are quite complex, having to do with corporate greed, a society that moves so quickly that families are dispersed and individuals haven't time enough to properly shop, cook and eat, and there are a good many psychological aspects of human nature at play. At last, however, there is some light shinning into the abyss of the American fast food diet. Bill Monning, who now chairs the Health Care Committee of the California State Legislature has co-authored legislation that will tend to reduce the consumption of sweetened beverages and divert some proceeds to health related issues.

View the video above to see a soft drink demonstration conducted by An McDowell and Bill Monning.