Saturday, January 8, 2011

Why is unhealthy the new 'norm'???

Ok, I just don't get it. To be quite honest it can be really irritating.  Yes, I usually just try to smile and be polite, but in all honesty, I'd really like to say "Are you REALLY asking me that?", or "C'mon, you can't be serious?" It happens everywhere, in the airport, the grocery store, at work, at the gym.
Cashier ( as I am buying 4 bottles of water at the airport): "Wow, you must be thirsty"
Me (smiling and shrugging): "Yeah."
The person in line in front of me had 3 sodas and a candy bar...but no comment for them!

Gotta love the gas station too. The man in front of me is buying 3 bear claws (yes, I DID read the wrapper), a candy bar and a soda.  No comment from the clerk. All I had was a bottle of water...and what do I get? "Ya' know, if you buy one of those (points to some bin full of plastic wrapped pastry/snack cakes) you'll get a bottle of water for free."
"No, thank you." I said politely.  I'm thinking GREEEEAAAAAT clog my arteries, make me fat, rot my teeth and make me depressed..all that and I get 16 oz of water for FREE!  Ha, I'll keep my gallon and I will gladly pay for it...you keep the rest! Damn pastry pusher!

The grocery store is by far the worst.  As I  place my items on the belt, I often pray that no one says anything to me. First of all, I feel like it is an invasion of my life for you to comment on each item I am buying in the first place.  Scan item, put in bag, smile and that's it. No running commentary on my groceries please.  Can I get that? Nope.  I am usually buying the same things, but depending on the cashier or bagger the comments vary.  Staples in our house: ground turkey breast, egg whites, sweet potatoes, black beans, kidney beans, water and maybe some apples or something else.

 As I am coming through with 4 packages of ground turkey breast, the cashier says, "What are you making?".
 I just smiled and said, "ground turkey breast".
"You like turkey?"
"Um, yeah."

The egg whites are always fun. As I am checking out with 12 cartons of egg whites:
Cashier: "What are you going to do with all of those egg whites?"
Me: "Eat them."  I'm thinking..it is FOOD what do you THINK I am going to do with them? Wash my car? Paint my house? Color them for Easter? (yes, someone really asked about the Easter thing..)

Sometimes I'll get "Do you like egg whites?"
I just say "Yeah".  When I really want to say 'Nope, hate them.  Just like to see what you are going to say when I buy them!'

One of the last times I was there the bag boy says, "You like egg whites?"
"Yup"
"I don't. I tried them once and I just don't like them. I just drink milk."
I was trying really hard not to laugh...Ok, first of all, I really don't need to know that you don't like them..but thanks for sharing. Secondly, drinking milk has nothing to do with egg whites, but ok.

So for all of the "WOW, that's a lot of water" or "You must be thirsty" or "Gee, what are you going to do with all of those egg whites?" given how many comments does the person buying 27 frozen pizzas 2 cases of beer and 3 dozen donuts get? You guessed it, NONE!!!


WHY? WHY? WHY has it become normal for people to buy 27 frozen dinners, 8 cases of beer, 10 bottles of soda and packaged pastries of all kinds? No one comments on that.  "Gee, you must be hungry", or "you must really be thirsty", or "what are you going to do with all of those donuts?"
Why does healthy eating set off bells and alarms in people heads???

It happens when I am eating too. "what IS that?"
"Chicken and black beans" I say
"It looks gross."
I just shrug and keep eating.

I'm sorry, did I ask you what you thought it about it? Yeah I didn't think so.  Did I tell you that I thought your chinese food smelled awful to me? Nope, didn't do that either.  Never fails though.  If there is someone eating something healthy everyone has to comment on it, but there could be 10 people eating fast food and no one says a word.  I have a problem with that.  If we have plans of EVER making this country healthier we need to make it the NORM for people to eat healthy and buy healthy foods. Not some rogue happening that must be gawked at and interrogated.  Just sayin...
Until then, stop commenting on my groceries...

2 comments:

  1. I hear you, especially when I buy 7.5 dozen eggs at Costco (every week). The usual question is usually are you going to bake a cake?? How many eggs are needed for a cake (I don't even know)? It's scary how unhealthy this country is and how much they do not know about nutrition. Thank you for writing this blog!

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  2. As Andrea and I go full-force to knock out our debt a similar analogy arises...broke is normal (debt is normal)...why? Probably similar reasons, I'm no expert on either. Just thought the similarity was interesting.

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