"Proof In the Low-Fat Pudding"

Maybe it's my new-found love of Trader Joe's, or that I recently watched "Super Size Me," but I'm suddenly fascinated by eating habits.

So much so, that during a visit to a local DCPL branch, I found Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" on display. I checked it out.

Pollan attributes part of America's eating problem to our Puritan roots (those gosh-darn prudes):

"Like sex, the need to eat links us to the animals, and historically a great deal of Protestant energy has gone to helping us keep all such animal appetites under strict control."

Of course this is just a brief mention of Christian social reform, but I think it bears another look.

What if we (a) bought "real" food instead of processed food and (b) what if we took time to enjoy it? I realize both of those suggestions are hardly convenient, but I wonder if the long-term effects might bode better for us than the "easy" path?

One report - "Too Fat to Fight" produced for Mission: Readiness found a sobering statistic : 75% of young people who want to enter the military cannot do so for three main reasons. One of those reasons? Obesity. The statistic comes to include 27 percent of young people who are overweight. In other words, obesity is a concern for national security.

If you don't want to read Pollan's book, just take a look at the cover, which offers this simple message:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Children: Our Future

One in six kids live in poverty in the U.S. How can we let this happen if they are supposed to be the next leaders?

Tonight I heard Dr. Marian Wright Edelman speak at Clowes Memorial Hall. Her focus "The State of America's Children" pointed out the flaws in healthcare, education and parenting. 

Edelman created the Children's Defense Fund, which works to promote public policy that creates a level playing field for all children. She worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. to help create the organization and was the first African American admitted to the Mississippi bar.

The advocate, lawyer, reformer and educator stressed the need to take strides forward with Civil Rights:

"The new president wants to the right thing, but he has so much on his plate. He needs a citizen's movement. This election mattered, but we need to renew our founding principles and Judeo-Christian traditions that every child's life is of value."

I don't claim to be an expert on public policy, but Edelman is an example to the rest of us. She is a leader and inspiration for change. In a country where "recession" has become our middle name, I pray that others may see that its only by investing in children, that we can alter our future. 

As I interviewed Edelman backstage for the campus newspaper, a staff member approached us and said to me, "You do know you're talking to a legend, don't you?"

Finally, here's one great quote from a long list of wise words from Edelman:

"Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night."

In my search for my calling in life, I will be sure to take comfort in that.