A good, but unsettling moment

On my walk to school today, mid-step, I asked myself, "Did I remember to put on underwear this morning?" And, yes, yes I did remember.

The best underwear is the kind you forget you're wearing.

Fuck Nihilism

I am reading a book called The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality and so far it has been incredibly different than I expected and in a way that is not only educational but also AMAZING. I'm 50 pages into it.

This quote doesn't really illustrate the awesomeness of this book, but I had to quote it because, well, I just really, really like it:

People who wish to turn their lives into works of art are deluding themselves about art and lying about life.

Also, I can't stand nihilism. Grow up. It's dumb. Just like your mom.

Part Two - Background: Some Dissent

(Went over my word count cap for this one. Forgive me? Thanks)

It's all my mom's fault, you know. She read food labels first, way before I ever cared what was in my "Fat Free Processed Cheese Food." It's not only in the food titles, but in the ingredients list where the truth lies. Or at least, most of it.

Anyway, she would read food labels to make sure we weren't eating much, if any, hydrogenated oils. "Palm kernel and coconut oils are bad," I remember her saying. "Any of those hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils means it's bad for you." In the same way that I took pretty much anything my father said about math, science, people, and history to be factual truth, I took my mother's words about foods, medicines, and personal care. If she said hydrogenated oils were bad, then they were bad. That's just how it was.

And she's right. They are bad for us. But what I only realized many years later was that our attempt to eat healthily and avoid those horrid "bad foods" wasn't really a complete way of living. It wasn't nearly as balanced as it could be, and it definitely didn't take other "no-no's" into account.

You might remember the summer of 2006 where I took a public speaking course and did some research on high fructose corn syrup. That summer sticks out to me as a turning point in how I viewed my life, my choices, and how much influence/input my parents were going to have on all of that.

My parents were (and are) skeptical about my HFCS avoidance and criticism. My dad asked me why he hadn't heard about the atrocity that was HFCS if it was so bad. And now, looking back, if I'd been educated, if I'd been able to say "Because the corn industry is gigantic and wouldn't want their solid gold product to be cast in a bad light AND IN ADDITION, the people who would warn you about those things? The FDA and USDA? Guess who is at the top of the food chain (har har) of those departments? People who have ties to the big crops like corn and soybeans. Now why the hell would they want word to get out that the product they're unnecessarily adding to everything from Ritz crackers to Special K to Heinz ketchup to 7UP is something to be worried about? That's just not good business."

...if I'd been able to say all that, I'd have stopped him cold. But I was uneducated, uninformed, unaware of many, many things that weren't going to be known to me until many years later...

Part One - Background : Family

In the early years of my life, my parents bought whatever food was cheapest, while still abiding by the "food pyramid" guidelines. At some point in my early childhood, sometime in elementary school, a couple things happened that changed how we ate. I'm not sure if I actually had high cholesterol as a child or if I were only at risk for it because of my genetics, but I remember being told that my diet had to change to include less fat and cholesterol. Fat and cholesterol were bad, and I shouldn't eat them. The other thing that probably happen concurrently was that my parents realized that they had been making food choices that were not so great for us for the long term. I believe they cut out whole eggs, switched from 2% milk to 1% milk, and soon after switched to skim milk. It's all a little fuzzy in my head because I was something like seven and skinny and happy and didn't care as long as I could eat dessert most of the time.

My family's food-buying strategy changed somewhat. They now wanted the best deal on products with low (or no) fat/cholesterol, while still staying within dietary guidelines. And this is all well and good until you start comparing nutrition facts and ingredient lists between "regular" foods and "low fat" or "fat free" foods. If you've ever done this, you'll likely agree that a lot of the time, the manufacturer takes out fat and adds some sort of sweetener in its place. I don't blame my parents for the decisions they made. I just likely ate more sugar or sweeteners than fats growing up. I brushed my teeth regularly, so this wasn't an issue.

But you see the mindset: Low prices + "Healthier" = Desirable food

Something's coming

For the past few days I've been formulating how I want to write a blog miniseries that will begin soon. I haven't quite got the order in my mind yet, but I feel like all the content is there. It won't be an angry miniseries, and I hope it won't drive anyone away with its subject matter. My tentative plans are something like this:

Part One: Some background about me; Influences
Part Two: Recent developments, decisions
Part Three: Some questions for you
Part Four: A peek into my future plans

There may be more or fewer parts depending on how things work out, but I'm not going to swamp you. I'm setting a word limit for these parts, and I'll stick to it. Let's say, 300 words. (For reference, this post is 166 words long.) These posts won't be huge, and they will be pointed and well organized, and only about one general issue at a time. Are you ready? I hope so. I certainly am.