Growing up my Grandmother used to say that the best way to lose weight was to eat half. As an adult, even with regular exercise and changes to my diet, I discovered that she was pretty much right on. Until reading the Huffington Post article on eating less by James McWilliams, I never thought of eating less as a political act.
Eating healthier and less, has been something I've been interested in for awhile. I've cut way back on dairy and meat for health reason. I even managed to cut out beer (ok ok I did replace it with wine and some very tasty g&ts but who's counting..) Eating healthier and eating less have been a part of my mindfulness practice as well. And as I start to see mindfulness and living simply as a political act, it makes perfect sense that food fits right in.
The article raises many many good points.
Obesity rates have more than doubled since 1980; today, more than two-thirds of adults are considered overweight. The percentage of Americans with a BMI over 25 doubled between 1950 and 2000. The average American now eats a literal ton of food—1,996 pounds—per year. Between 1970 and 2000, Americans increased daily caloric intake by 24.5 percent. That’s the equivalent of an extra 530 calories—a Big Mac—per day. It’s thus an empirical fact that the vast majority of Americans—hearty folk who consume about 3,000 calories daily—should cut back.
For our own health, we really need too. There are environmental impacts as well.
Americans today consume about 57 percent more meat than we did in the 1950s. We eat four times more cheese, 20 times more yogurt, eight times more corn sweeteners, and 18 percent more wheat flour. All of these goods require more resources to produce and they emit more greenhouse gasses than their lower-impact counterparts—namely fruits and vegetables.
Simply eating less junk food would make a impact. You can still get that bag of doritos but maybe take 3 days to eat instead of 1.
However, what really made me think in the article was when the author talked about the relationship between obestity and the poor.
The sensation of scarcity—not necessarily physical scarcity but psychological scarcity—promotes the consumption of a lot of food. In fact, the underlying fear of scarcity makes it nearly impossible not to eat heaps of cheap and easily accessible junk.
The point is made that many of the working poor are not in dietary control. If we all eat less, we can begin a new discussion around food.
We need to look at the minimum wage, the right to unionize, health care, and a working culture in which the CEO-to-worker salary ratio is 331 to 1. Without bringing these themes into the debate—something an emphasis on caloric reduction would allow us to do—there will never be food justice, at least not for those who need it the most.
Thinking about how I personally eat as a form of social justice. Encouraging the discussion amongst others is another step in living towards change.