How to combat obesity

42 ways to combat the obesity epidemic (some more feasible than others)
by James Channing Shaw

1. Quit pretending that food is the culprit. That's like saying women are the cause of population overgrowth.
2. Recognize that eating the food is the problem.
3. Eat less food.
4. Get off the trans-fat bashing kick. It's not just about the trans-fat! Do you know what will replace trans-fat, now that the public is on to it? Butter, my friends, or lard. It is still fat. When it comes to obesity, the problem is more the quantity of fat eaten, not the type of fat. A dozen cookies made with oil have just as many calories as a dozen cookies made with butter; they just don't taste as good. Have one cookie instead of six, and do it only every few days. Too harsh?
5. Stop thinking that it is the fault of fast food restaurants. They are just trying to make a gazillion-dollar living.
6. Recognize that all fast food restaurants basically serve junk food because that's what people like to eat.
7. Don't eat junk food.
8. Do you even know what junk food is? It’s more than candy. Anything processed, nearly anything in a package, anything from a convenience store or fast food restaurant, single portion items, all sweet drinks, all candy, gum, and most anything from a vending machine, among other things (ah, the old days when one could buy an apple from a vending machine!).
9. Set a good example for your children: don't turn your home into a warehouse of junk food.
10. Eliminate soda pop and most processed fruit juices. Drink milk instead. Skim is best—good protein, no fat. At least limit soda pop to one per week (No, I'm not kidding). I suppose diet pop is ok.
11. Teach the kids early so they can carry on healthy practices. Parents dropped the ball a long time ago when it came to nutrition, and society has written parents off as solutions to the problem.
12. Institute weight limits for people, not luggage, on air planes.
13. Be creative: eat rice, and with the leftovers, make rice pudding. Milk, cinnamon, raisins, sugar, vanilla, some cardamom if you have it, and cook until soft. Good with cream and a splash of brandy, but we're getting off track here.
14. Exercise all the time.
15. Sleep with fewer blankets: lose weight through shivering.
16. Choose your parents.
17. Quit eating between meals.
18. Quit eating entire meals.
19. If you do eat between meals, make it an apple, carrot, or some nuts.
20. On the other hand, consider a candy bar as your entire lunch now and then. It satisfies the junk food thing without the other calories.
21. Eat lentils. Cook them in water or chicken broth. Enhance them with some bacon, or butter, or sautéed onions and carrots. Cheap. Healthy.
22. Eat a plum or apricot and keep the pit in your mouth like a hard candy for an hour or two.
23. Learn to make everything from scratch. One time I asked some visiting children if they would like waffles for breakfast, they were dumbfounded, saying 'but we don't have any! They only knew packaged waffles. I was talking about waffles from flour, baking powder, soda, eggs, salt, milk, and cooking oil, or something thereabouts.
24. Become French. They're all skinny. Or maybe they just don’t like junk food.
25. Create a new industry: the household food consultant. North America needs you!
26. Then sell the company to an international food chain for millions of dollars. They will take it worldwide the way the tobacco industry teaches about the bad effects of smoking.
27. Quit thinking that someone else is going to change your eating habits for you. It's you and your own family who must kick-start this effort and keep it going.
28. Don't cater to the kids. They only want sweets. Or they call themselves vegetarians but don't eat much other than noodles and junk food. If they are hungry enough though, they'll eat healthy food and over time learn to like it. You will too.
29. Be a concerned, knowledgeable parent, in charge of what food gets served in your home to your younger kids, and when. The older kids, those over about 12, are already lost causes.
30. Make lunches for your kids to take to school. They won't eat them but in time they'll remember your good example when they try it on their own kids.
31. Make your spouse a lunch to take to work. He/she won't eat it either but it may lead to fewer double martini lunches followed by sex.
32. Eat with someone when you can. You might eat less.
33. Eliminate desserts entirely until you have lost the weight you want, and then stay off them indefinitely for ever.
34. Breast feed your baby.
35. Quit going to fast food restaurants entirely. Eat at home.
36. Quit watching television altogether. Except for the World Series.
37. Ban all food advertising, except public service educational ads.
38. Always do the right thing if you know what it is.
39. Don't eat low-fat versions of any prepared food—they just double the sugar content to disguise the lower fat content.
40. Learn about food. There's healthy cheap food out there: fresh produce and grains—they're inexpensive and healthy: rice, barley, carrots, sweet potatoes. For protein: ground beef, nuts, dried beans. Eggs!
41. Buy fresh, buy small.
42. _________________ (for you to add one)