en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2005/11/7/08ea71bfe4f1355a436b7dfd301e2313.html Mon, 07 Nov 2005 11:33:32 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2005/11/7/08ea71bfe4f1355a436b7dfd301e2313.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/3/9/85c4b0d154582bf4cc911354f1d4dd72.html Thu, 09 Mar 2006 09:58:01 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/3/9/85c4b0d154582bf4cc911354f1d4dd72.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/3/25/dbf415f593c676c404ed3bab62b40be8.html Sat, 25 Mar 2006 05:20:31 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/3/25/dbf415f593c676c404ed3bab62b40be8.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/4/8/b53889d6ae1dfeac88828971eb419e4e.html Sat, 08 Apr 2006 23:59:04 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/4/8/b53889d6ae1dfeac88828971eb419e4e.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/10/28/fba1070f7e6981511b20ef50f20b58cf.html Sat, 28 Oct 2006 13:36:01 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/10/28/fba1070f7e6981511b20ef50f20b58cf.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/23/b6d8f133491983f41a1c4db7cc8c8e2b.html
Reading this article made me re-think the whole anti-carbs situation in America. Living in .jp, it's obvious that low carb diets are not the recourse for losing weight. The Japanese obviously eat a high degree of noodles and rice. While certainly there's a correspondence between carbs and digestion, it isn't to say that you can solely place the blame on carbs in looking at one of the current most slender people on this planet. Of course, the thing with the Japanese is that they simply eat less than other people (mostly because of lack of resources). Not to mention places like Tokyo are intense walking zones.

In America, you go to a family restaurant these days and you'll monstrous sized portions. Eating one of these meals (or two) every day, and you'll easily gain weight from the portions. I doubt that the contents would help any. The funny part is that it seems that the portions are growing allowing with the prices.

Other people are blaming America's overabundance and excessive lifestyle as being another (or THE) source of America's obesity. I wouldn't doubt that. But if you add the psychological point that people want to get their money's worth, then things like buffets and not wanting to waste food as more areas to blame when it comes to these notions.

However, I have another proposition. What if there's a government conspiracy backing the farmers and food industry in all of this? I mean, shouldn't the FDA step in at some point and fight this? Or are they the ones approving this? And if so why?

The recent scares in spinach, scallions, chicken, etc. make me wonder if the government/farmers don't want Americans to participate in a healthy diet. Why is it that fast food and soft drinks are so cheap compared to a regular salad and water (water for godsakes!!!!)?

The other day my friend got sick after we hit Johnny Rockets. We shared fries and onion rings, but I had the patty melt and he ate a salad. Afterwards, he became extremely sick. He narrowed his problem to Johnny Rockets because I certainly wasn't ill before meeting him nor was he. Obviously, the fries and onion rings had nothing to do with it because I would've befallen similar conditions. So it must've been the salad....

Another thing that made me think of recent obesity was the lower quality of beef. Perhaps my memory is failing, but I just don't recall that many obese people back in the 80's. As the food industry grows, it's an automatic assumption that technological advances would attempt to find ways to improve efficiency (making crops grow faster, killing insects through pesticides, fattening cows, etc.). My question is whether a link exist between American produce (and vegetables), the hormones used to grow such things and America's obesity?

Now, I imagine that only the lower end of the spectrum will be affected by this; in other words, the fast food industry. Who else needs to feed at incredible rates? Not to mention for low cost? You'd never do something like this to a 5* restaurant because your elite clients would move to some place else. So what we're looking at is the lower to middle class being affected the most by this situation.

Something else struck me about the American lifestyle. Eat, get fat, have no energy to exercise, and watch TV. This is the lifecycle of a heavily consumer based society. In other words, the lower and middle class would be perpetually locked into this. The lower class can never get out because they have no money to begin with, probably little to no education (unless they're a hippy in UC Berkeley). The middle class would stay in their class realm because they never bother to take their middle class spending (DVDs, TiVOs, family restaurants, gas skyrocketing, etc.) and put it into higher levels of investments while being subjected to inflation.

Better yet, this cycle would create more stability for the government. Fat, passive Americans with the lack of ability to critically think about their problems, instead still obeying the ritual of their TV sets.

A friend of mine in .jp mentioned how it was the tobacco industry that would help accelerate the death rates so that people would not be able to pick up on their pensions. It's a really scary thought to hear that. However, with the damning of that industry, it's possible that the American government and other financial institutions have formed some pact to shift this into something more innocuous and nefarious: food. People obviously need food to survive and so if the government can accelerate the rate of death through heart disease, stroke, complications through diabetes while keeping people passive and obedient, people would not be able to collect on social security, pensions, etc.

I have this odd feeling about this weird conspiracy linked between entertainment, the food industry, the government/politicians and the finance markets where they're attempting to lock down people. The internet, like the psychedelic drugs of the 60's/70's, has allowed people a new mode of freedom. So they'll attempt to censor that too.

Either way, I'm starting to think the only way to live is in a commune away from "civilization."]]> Fri, 23 May 2008 13:40:17 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/23/b6d8f133491983f41a1c4db7cc8c8e2b.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/24/16fa5fecd862809e37bb5ccddcc9a5e9.html
However, I'm questioning the whole so-called rising price of food. Supposedly, there's a global food shortage going on with places like Thailand experiencing less rice, Japan having less dairy (hence boosting the price of mayonnaise) and now the US in various forms. It's kinda funny how the US is experiencing these prices hikes. Gas, housing, now food.

My paranoia intuition partly tells me it's the government covertly telling people to cut down on the excessive lifestyle, which might not be necessarily a bad thing. Higher gas prices means more conservative vehicle usage. Expensive food, even at fast food places, means cutting down the calories. I mean, you can't mandate people to cut down on the excessive lifestyle, but if you raise the prices, people naturally will scale back since people are cost conscious.]]> Sat, 24 May 2008 22:07:59 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/24/16fa5fecd862809e37bb5ccddcc9a5e9.html