Fat Food Contest

Fat Food Contest

June 14, 2010
Or ‘Stupid Markets vs Organic Markets’!

Being curious where the fattest people shopped, I did an ‘on site’ survey the other day at two local stores of 100 people exiting each store. One was a typical ‘stupid market’ with aisles and aisle of every kind of food imaginable, and a dead meat market 1/2 a block long. Processed foods, aspartame and every additive imaginable were added to fancy packaging to make the show more ‘stimulating to the unquestioning palette’. Being 15 pounds over weight in a tall body, I felt rather fine with it as I noticed many taking up half an isle. My criteria for over weight was much more ‘delicate’ with about 40 – 50 pounds, being the beginning ‘rule’ for fat.

The other market was an organic ‘Food Co-op’ owned by the customers, with a third of the amount of isles.  People who shop exclusively at the ‘stupid market’ have one of the excuses being, ‘it’s cheaper’! Not true when it comes to ‘organic food’! Checked two stupid markets, and both were higher priced on organic food than the organic market. Few also realize, that those who buy and eat ‘processed foods’ are likely to eat more of the unhealthy food, thus spending more (not to mention the medical costs later). Also, I noticed a few people lighting up cigarettes after leaving the ‘junk food market’ (added expense).

I have been thinking about the ‘fat problem’ for a few years, particularly while doing public free speech displays both in Venice Beach (LA) and Port Townsend, Washington for the past 16 years. I’ve had tens of millions of people pass by my displays looking one way or another, smoking or non smoking, doing this or that, and always I do my own ‘mental surveys’ of what I see.

Lately, I’ve watched a Brit named Jamie Oliver on TV (promoted by Ryan Seacrest of American Idol fame) attempt to change eating habits in schools at a West Virginia town know as one of the most ‘overweight towns in America. His passionate goal is to create a food revolution in eating habits. Jamie is focused on making a difference in people’s healthy condition by changing eating from ‘processed foods’ to ‘real foods’ without additives, pesticides and so forth that both endanger health and are the main cause behind obesity in America.

The results of my two surveys of percentages of people over weight at the two stores was: 48% of those shopping at the ‘stupid market’ were overweight while just 14% were at the ‘organic market’! An amazing difference worthy of a major change in buying and eating habits for healthier lives! Poor food feeds on itself to encourage eating more ‘unreal food’. The same thought occurs in our personal lives in that what we put in our minds creates the variation in quality, or lack thereof, in out look, experiences, and love of self.

Arhata