I know that I, Josiah, have a tendency to be offensive, and this will be no different.
I recently read an article about someone who was going to boycott Halloween because of the candy. She had family members who developed type 2 diabetes in their lives and didn’t want her children to be ingesting large amounts of candy due to the holiday. I have a few problems with that theory, and they will be mentioned within this paper.
Boycotting a holiday because of you not wanting your children to ingest a large quantity of candy is ridiculous. Growing up, we would often do something Halloween related and we wouldn’t have the candy daily. The parent is in control in regards to his/her children, so the amount of candy a child ingests is completely up to you, not the child. You can do one piece a day, or every other day, or once a week.
Boycotting due to unhealthy eating should require you to also boycott: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, Birthdays, any holiday/event that includes ingesting a large amount of food or any candy/cake.
While we are on the unhealthy eating topic, one should also boycott: Fast food (McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, etc.), Carbonated beverages (Regular - lots of sugar/high fructose corn syrup; Diet usually has aspartame/Sucralose), Red meat (often has a high amount of fat, and is okay in moderate use…as in once a week or less), Fish (often contains mercury), Any meat that has steroids, dairy (studies have shown calcium deficiencies are actually due to larger consumptions of milk), alcohol (except, perhaps, ONE SMALL glass of red wine a day), processed foods, most frozen foods, anything with preservatives in it, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, OTC drugs as well as prescription drugs, etc.
To spin off that, let’s continue with other products that should be avoided: Shampoo/Conditioner (as long as they say for external use only they aren’t good for you. Because, no matter what, some of it will be absorbed through your skin), Lotions, hair driers, gels, soap (though benefits outweigh risks on that one), sanitizer, facial cleansers/lotions, shave cream/aftershave, etc.
One thing that needs to also be taken into consideration when talking about type 2 diabetes is lack of exercise. Diet and exercise are effective methods of preventing type 2 diabetes. That being said, one should also boycott: escalators, moving sidewalks, elevators, watching TV without walking on treadmill or stationary bike, driving when the distance is close enough to walk or ride a bike…etc.
This list could easily go on, but it would take me all day to write and would be too boring to read (may be too late for that one). It just irritates me that someone would blame all of their family’s type 2 diabetes on sugar and deprive the possibility of one holiday due to it. My children love halloween, and we monitor how much candy they are allowed to eat.
There are many factors involved in type 2 diabetes. The two main ones I found? Diet AND exercise. Which means, you need to eat healthy AND make sure you get exercise. Walking to the fridge for a refill doesn’t count. One needs to get their heart rate up for at least 30 minutes daily. If you can’t leave your house, there are plenty of things to do at home to workout. The dreaded jumping jacks, pushups, sit ups/crunches, apps that give you a workout to do, etc.
This may seem that I’m ranting over something that doesn’t matter, but it does. Why in America are we so afraid to offend anyone that we blame anything negative on something that is out of our control?
I’m fat!
-Society: It’s not your fault. It’s in your genes; It’s not your fault, it’s McDonald’s for making their food so good that you supersize everything.
My child is fat!
-Society: It’s not the parents’ fault for feeding your children unhealthy food or having them sit in front of the TV all day, it’s sugar. It’s McDonald’s…
I have a beer gut!
-Society: It’s not your fault. It’s in your genes (Yes, researchers found a “fat ab gene” that they blame for the beer gut)
I don’t have rippling muscles - I don’t work out enough (my action). I don’t have a six pack - I don’t exercise my abs daily, just every other day (my action). My triglycerides were high - I didn’t eat enough fresh fruit and veggies (my fault). I don’t do enough cardio (my fault)…
How about people start taking responsibilities for their actions? Why don’t people accept the blame for their choices? Is that really too much to ask?
