This past Monday
I was out early walking the dog, just like every other day, but since it was
Monday the town’s trash & recycling containers were out waiting for pick
up. As Pepper and I were side stepping around our hundredth recycling bin I
finally started paying attention to what was inside. The overwhelming majority
contained fast food cups, pizza boxes, plastic water bottles, and if you were
to look in mine a few too many plastic Starbucks cups.
Why, on this day,
did the contents of my neighbors recycling containers effect me so much? I have
no idea, but the thought of super size me fountain soda cups along side pizza
boxes and Burger King bags made me curious about the damage these products have
already caused.
Finishing our
walk I told Pepper (don’t you talk to your dog?) that there were 2 issues at
hand. 1. The mass amounts of trash produced from all of the fast food eaten
every day. And 2. The effects the mass-produced, high caloric fast food has had
on the American public.
I don’t consider
myself an overly earth conscious individual. I do my part and recycle. I now turn
my nose up at all bottled water because I have my CPC Hydroflask by my side
most times of the day. On a closer look though I’m just as guilty at adding to
the nation trash production based solely on the number of plastic Starbucks cups
I toss out on a weekly basis. Curiosity got the best of me and I researched
a few stats about trash production and recycling. In the United States we throw
about $11.4 BILLION work of recyclable trash. Most of which is single use
plastic packaging. What the hell?! It’s time to do my part and start using my umpteen
reusable ice coffee cups I have sitting around the house.
Fortunately, I
was noticing most of the fast food containers & boxes in the recycling bin
but the down side is that there were a lot of containers; everything from
Burger King to Little Ceasars. Bags. Boxes. Plastic Soda containers. Piles of instantaneous,
high calorie, fat ridden food that has help contribute to turning a third of the
nations 20 and over population obese. Again curiosity got the better of me as I
Googled American Fast Food eating habits. What I found was telling of how the
world in which we live in is now driven around convenience and over committed
schedules.
- · American’s consumer more packaged food than fresh food – 31% to be precise.
- · 20% of meals are consumed in the car.
- · Children 2-18 consume 3 snacks a day accounting for almost a third of their daily calories.
- · Portion Sizes have gotten bigger – no surprise there
- · American are eating out more, consuming 11% of their daily calories from fast food.
- · Final fun fact…10 BILLION donuts are consumed every year in America. I’m guilty of enjoying a delicious coconut donut that will sit like a lead weight until dinner on the rarest of occasions but it seems as if there are a few too many over indulging.
So, why the blog?
Why bother taking the time to give you a few facts that you may have already
known? Consider it a wake up call. Most of you, if not all of you, reading this
workout regularly and do your best to feed yourself and your family real food. But,
as time and effort become short it becomes all too easy to grab a quick on to
go meal or drink and toss the remnants in the closest trash bin. In the
upcoming weeks as spring sport schedules continue to ramp up and you get lost
in the spring weather that has finally decided to grace us with it’s presence
do your part. Buy a CPC hyrdoflask for all of your cold and hot beverage needs.
Hit up the local farmer’s markets and plan out high quality meals and snacks
for you and the family. Sign your kids up for YTT to keep them active. And don’t forget to recycle those plastic containers when you have no other
option.
SK
If you’d like
more fun facts take a look at a few of the sites I found.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm
https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-american-eating-habits
http://stateofobesity.org/facts-trends-in-americans-eating-habits/
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