The Clean Plate Ranger

Americans are fat. We all know that we are bordering on obesity. We've heard the statistics over and over again. On average, Americans are 23 lbs over their ideal body weight. The fact is that American's are becoming more accepting of a larger sized self. The older I get, the harder it becomes to loose "that 10 nagging pounds", and I've finally discovered why.

Because my parents drilled into my head, at a very young and impressionable age, to eat everything on my plate.

I don't blame them, really, because their parents drilled the same thing into them. In fact, if we are looking to place the blame, we can blame World Wars 1 and 2. As a result of World War 1, our government created the "Clean Plate Club" because of the limited amount of food in the country. The Clean Plate Club, first established in 1917, was a movement that began after Congress passed the Food and Fuel Control Act . The act enabled President Woodrow Wilson the power to regulate the distribution of food, which was becoming scarce. Wilson appointed Herbert Hoover as the head of this task and his job was to make sure that the precious food Americans had didn't go to waste.

Hoover targeted small, school aged children, with the Clean Plate Club pledge:

 “At table I’ll not leave a scrap of food upon my plate. And I’ll not eat between meals, but for supper time I’ll wait.”

And so it began a generation of Americans who were taught never to waste food. That generation were our parents parents, who then raised our parents to believe in the same pledge. Then along came the Great Depression and World War 2 and once again food in America was scarce. The Clean Plate Club was re-established in schools across the country and another generation reinforced the importance of never wasting food. They taught their children and so on and you see where I'm going with this?

Flash forward into the future, and here we are Super Sizing everything and eating whatever and whenever we want to, yet we still fell the need to never let it go to waste. Old habits die hard, and Americans continue to overindulge and take home "doggie bags" so that not a scrap goes to waste. I noticed that when a large plate of food is put before me I immediately feel a pang of guilt, like I need to finish it and if I don't I've committed a crime of some sort.

And we wonder why we are 23 lbs. over our ideal body weight? Go figure.

Three Words Wednesday

Cut. It. Out.

Now visit my poll on the sidebar, then give me your three words.

You Are What You Eat

A genetically engineered mutant like creature?

So we were chit chatting over at the hen house yesterday and someone told this story. Seems a fast food company, who shall remain nameless, but goes by three letters-one of them being the letter C for chicken, has been called out on the Internet for not using real chicken in it's product being sold to consumers. What is it, you ask? It is the stuff of Internet legends.

It has been said that this company had to change it's long time name to the heretofore three letters because it does not use real chickens. The claim is that it uses "genetically manipulated organisms" to complete their menu items. It goes on to say that these organisms are kept alive in laboratories by a tube inserted into them to pump what they need to sustain some form of life. It also claims to know that these "organisms" also have no feet, no beaks and no feathers. This, the claim says, is why the government made the company changed it's name to the letters. There is no chicken according to this claim.

A Google search into this issue produced all sorts of interesting fodder on this topic, for both fact and fiction. What was consistent throughout is that this company has issued strong DENIALS that this Internet legend is true.

This website seems to have done their own investigation into the matter and actually had the meat tested. Their findings? The meat was NOT chicken and evidence of "genetic splicing" were detected.

What the hell does that mean?

One thing I know for sure. I very rarely eat fast food, but if I do, I will think twice before ordering a salad that's probably made from genetically engineered heads of lettuce. My biggest fear is for my children. Frack has a taste for any and all things fast food, as most 15 year old boys do, I need to give him the information and help him to make a decision on the matter.

And if I'm having chicken, I'm going to my local butcher shop.