The Food Police

I look after myself. With the exception of my love for cigarettes and alcohol, neither of which I use to excess or feel compelled to apologize for, I have a pretty healthy lifestyle. I don't generally eat processed foods, I don't have huge portions of any food, and I have, after a childhood of finicky eating, developed a policy of "try almost anything once". I am not fat, nor do I have any diet related health issues.

I am not saying this because I think everyone should do what I do, or because I feel that my doing it makes me better than the next person. I say this because if any "comment section assholes" run across this post, they should at least be somewhat informed before they start taking shots at the author.

I'm tired of the Food Police. These are the people attempting to pressure legislation against the use of salt in restaurants. These are the people who are pushing Meatless Mondays. These are the people who have gotten the government to post calorie information on fast food (hint, folks - it's bad for you and fattening, get over it).

On the surface, it all seems very noble, doesn't it? It isn't.

It's no one's business how you treat your own body. In this day and age, there is no excuse for ignorance, so suing McDonald's for your heart problem is little more than a blatant money grab. If you choose to eat the wrong things all the time, you pay the consequences - maybe. The argument that it's a drain on medical care is ridiculous because the healthy people living to be 100 are as much a drain on the system and no one is suggesting we euthanize grandma.

When I, and most people for that matter, go out to eat, it's because we are taking a break from the norm. I want real butter, I want properly seasoned food, and I want everything I would normally cut back on. That calorie count listing gets ignored because it's my day to indulge in something more decadent than what I usually get. To force restaurants into cutting back on salt, or anything else, defeats the purpose. There are healthier options on the menu in most places - choose them if you are so concerned.

This Meatless Monday thing? Look, my parents didn't flee a Communist country, and I didn't abandon the Catholic church in order to have anyone guilt me into giving up meat for a day. I will not have anyone dictate what I eat or when, nor will I be shamed into it. Simple as that. In fact, the more pressure there is from these "do-gooders", the more likely I will be barbecuing for all the world to smell every Monday. Not eating meat one day a week to make a statement is not going to save the cows or the environment, especially, if like me, you already buy local, free range foods and stock up your freezer with enough of it to feed an army.

People need to learn how to take care of themselves and stop worrying about what everyone else is doing. Allowing these "do-gooders" to control what you eat and how you eat it is surrendering the freedom you have over your own body, and when you think about it, that's the only thing any of us truly owns.