Most of American citizens, no matter how well traveled or educated, revert to ways of “poor” eating when the need for comfort or celebration arises. With America being a country made mostly of immigrants, (I am speaking mayflower days and up), poorer, or cheaper classes of foods creates our lifestyles of today. When our long deceased relatives were here, they could not afford the luxury of eating fresh vegetables and lean meats daily. They “made do” with what they had. Flour and cornmeal filled hungry bellies. Where the meat was short, the biscuits were not.

If I were to question why you liked certain foods the most, you won’t know why.  Answers like, “Because it’s good. It’s the way mamma taught me”.

Where did she learn it? She learned it from her mama, who learned from her mama, who learned it from her mama and so forth. Hence, in this modern century we eat “poor” foods. It is important to keep in mind that generation ago; people were more physically active than we are. There were no computers to give them carpal tunnel syndrome. The invention of “corporate stress” had not been discovered.. Most of us in this nation have relatives that did hard physical labor on a daily basis. Even if you come from a wealthy family, there were days before the electric stove. Meal preparation was a backbreaking chore. If there were house cleaners, then putting on the corset burned an extra 5000 calories a day! Not only do we continue to cook according to family tradition, we remember the family members who cooked the best.

Even death does not stop the praise of someone who cooks well. If they prepare your favorite food, and cook it better than anyone else cooks, you will always remember them for that. They could scale the Eiffel tower and you will not care, as long as they come down long enough to cook for you. I could care less whom a person is, they cannot make blackberry pie like my granny! If given a choice between attending a social event in honor of someone, or sit at my granny’s with a fork and pie plate, guess who wins?

There is no denying our country is overweight. We cannot rule out the fact our society promotes weight gain. If you doubt this, then go on a diet, and watch TV while you are hungry.

Here is a hint: turn off the television! It is sheer torture to see commercial after commercial selling food. For us Americans, it hard to believe but some counties are not destined to be fat. Their culture does not promote it. Not only does our culture promote weight gain, it demands it. And as long as we drink a diet coke with the meal, we know we are trying our best,( as a good citizen) to combat it.