Re: obesity epidemic spawns a new tourist industry

July 4, 2003

It's just so much easier in the US (and many other parts of the

world) to become and stay obese than to eat healthy and stay fit.

You walk into your local supermarket and every shelf is lined with

calorie dense/nutritionally poor food. It's much cheaper to live off

this average food (and I use the term loosely) in the market than to

seek out and plan nutritionally rich foods/meals.

I know one of my problems when taking the first steps out of obesity

was finding much of the food listed in Dr. Walford's books. Even

after finding it, I had to greatly adjust my budget to squeeze it

in. Now, it's not so bad. We have a great health food store that

has great bulk bins and fairly reasonable prices. It's just that for

every one health food store (why is healthy food a niche market

anyway) there are dozens of fast food joints, mega marts and super

stores with cheap poor quality food.

We have become used to highly processed food that is quick and taste

good. It's a paradox in our current times that the worst food often

times taste the best. While the best foods aren't as exciting to our

taste buds. We not only desire nutritional bankrupt foods but we want

them in abunance. Look at the " all you can eat " buffets around

dinner time and they the parking lots are overflowing. Gluttony is

big business and this new obese tourist locale is only part of the

main trend. Industry will produce products and services that appeal

to a wide market and the overweight/obese market keeps getting wider

(pun intended).

I myself cannot forsee a major change in attitudes in the near

future. I know how simple it is to follow the path of least

resistance. When it comes to eating in our society, healthy has

become the road less travelled.

PM1K

> this is what it's come to: resorts where the obese can frolic

amongst

> themselves and eat to their heart's content unselfconciously:

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> tb

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