I purposefully left my Monday blog up for two days. I felt that the issue was important enough for us to dwell on. Yesterday the Diane Rehm show discussed diabetes and its association with weight, the importance of choosing better foods and the benefit of adding exercise to every day. A caller to the show talked about his diagnosis of diabetes and how hard it was to eat well outside of his own home. He had gone to an event to support one of his children and he recalled the breakfast they served; toast, hashbrowns, bacon, eggs, and so on . He said it was as if the culture we live in was set up to create a diabetes epidemic. Some public health experts would agree. Diane added some comments about how hard it was to find anything of quality to eat when traveling by plane. I think that is changing a little, but you really have to know what you are doing in order to make healthy choices. I linked her show in case you want to listen. She had several experts on as guests.
I had to mention the show because it was important, but my post today really centers on something that I observed in one of my classes last night. The student sitting next to me had a canned drink that at first appeared to be an energy drink because of its size. I think it was just a smaller can of coca cola. I could see the back and the label. I noticed that it had 25 grams of sugar and 90 calories. I thought, well, if she would have had a 150 to 200 calorie drink, that is better. At class break, she came back with a pack of nabs and a 12 ounce bottle of regular Dr. Pepper. Meanwhile, I had a diet Mt Dew and half a peanut butter sandwich. My classmate weighs significantly more than me, possibly 100 pounds more.
On the one hand, we could say, "Well this isn't rocket science then. One of us was monitoring or moderating our intake and the other was not." Of course, what an observer doesn't know and I don't know, is what goes into the decisions people make. Food decisions tend to be much more nuanced than they appear to be. I would, however, like to show people how they can eat and drink more without taking in extra calories (extra meaning more than they need to maintain a healthy weight).
But especially after the last post on sugar sweetened beverages, I found last nights observation troubling.
