It???s a Not-So-Small World After All

Have you heard about the ???It???s A Small World??? retrofit?The Los Angeles Times reports that the popular Disneyland theme park ride will be out of commission for 10 months, starting in January, while the boats are made more buoyant and the canals deepened. Being from Oakland, my first thought was thank goodness they???re addressing earthquake safety!Actually no, it???s because Americans are substantially larger today than they were 41 years ago when the ride first opened. Between 1960 and 2002, the weight of the average American man rose from 166 pounds to 191, and American women weighed an average of 140 then versus 164 now. This extra poundage is causing the boats to get stuck and forcing some passengers to disembark halfway through the ride. Thankfully Disneyland has a totally appropriate way to keep patrons happy; anyone who has to get out of a grounded boat gets a free food ticket! This isn???t meant as yet another one of those fat-bashing diatribes against obese people. Body weight is a complex issue, and people struggling with it are inevitably caught in an immensely challenging tangle of contradictory information and voices. Health experts sing a different tune every year ???Low fat! Low carb! Raw vegetables are contaminated with E. coli!??? Advertising continues to appeal to our most powerful desires by promising pleasure, convenience, love and beauty while serving up another big helping of trans-fats, high-fructose corn syrup and drugs. It is a long-standing biological imperative to seek out rich, calorie-dense foods, and to conserve as much energy as possible while doing so. To live a healthy lifestyle in a modernized country like America, one has to go against deeply entrenched urges. These deep biological drives that have effectively ensured our survival, now work against individuals looking to shed those precious fat stores. With the advent of hyper-rich ???convenience??? foods and an extremely sedentary lifestyle, humans have become victims of our own success. Great book on this very topic: The Pleasure Trap. Not nearly as spicy as it sounds, this is a fast read explaining the many ways our natural drives are tricked and confused by modern lifestyle and diet. I???ll probably address this issue again in the future, as it???s a particular point of fascination for me. The great news is that with time, doing the healthy thing actually becomes pleasurable!My heart goes out to all the people who won???t have the opportunity to have the ???It???s A Small World??? theme stuck in their heads in the months to come (although I have it stuck in my head just from thinking about it), but might I suggest using those food tickets for an apple?-TanjaHost, Freshtopia.net

Web Video | November 13, 2007