Highway Hosts: Keeping America Fat
Have you traveled lately on an interstate highway? Did you stop at one of the myriad gas stations with convenience stores or one of the highway chain restaurants?
Many of your fellow travelers, maybe not you, exhibit a similar characteristic. They are large people, wide more than tall.
That our First Lady wants to conquer childhood obesity seems to prove the point. America has become a nation of fatties.
The restaurants along the highways contribute to this condition. They are carbohydrate havens.
You don’t have that many choices. If not a fast food establishment famous for its burgers, it is likely a restaurant serving a plethora of taste-good, stick-to-the-ribs belly-expanding food.
Consider the menu at Highway Hosts. Their all-day breakfast specialties feature a week’s worth of carbs in a single sitting. Biscuits and gravy. Pancakes and syrup. Waffles and syrup. Potatoes in six different varieties, many of them fried. Fresh creamery butter on everything. Corn bread and toast and muffins and more biscuits. Makes you hungry, doesn’t it?
No wonder Americans have become unreasonably fat. Going on a road trip can become a culinary disaster and a challenge to your health. You eat those carbs. Then you sit motionless in a car for three hours until you stop again for gasoline and another dose of carbohydrates. Whew!
What are we going to do about it? The military recently announced that 27% of prospective soldiers get rejected because they are too heavy. These are young people.
Consider the increase in the numbers of people with Type II diabetes.
We Americans need to begin to act for ourselves. We must limit what we eat when we travel on the highways. Actually when we stay at home too. We need to reduce our carbohydrate intake. A healthier way of eating must begin at home as well as when we travel.
When you travel by automobile, why not pack a picnic lunch? Select tasty non-fattening foods. Remember your inactivity in the car. Think thin as you pack your foods or sandwiches. Nuts, fresh fruit, cut vegetables all curb the appetite without doing doughy damage. Canned vegetable or tomato juice proves very satisfying. It taste good, provides energy and somewhat eliminates or postpones the need to eat.
At home, read those labels. Buy those veggies. No matter how good our American healthcare, we must do our part.
Maybe Highway Hosts can help us out by serving more vegetables and fewer carbohydrates. Little packages of carrots and celery sticks. Fresh fruit. Fresh unsalted nuts. That’s the way to become a better corporate citizen. They can sell these snacks in their stores.
Healthier, thinner people will live longer. Loyalty from customers with increased longevity will result in more years of business. Something to think about, Highway Hosts.