NUTRITION FREE FOOD - STOP THE INSANITY!

The typical American knowingly buys 'foods' that have no nutritional value. Examples: zero-calorie sodas (news flash: sugar is an essential nutrient), light beer (more news: wheat, barley, rice, water, hops are all foods), sugar-free candies, fat-free this or that, meat-free burgers, etc. And then we go out and buy gallon jugs of 'protein supplement' powders, energy drinks, and so on.

Why does our personal budget contain money for foods that lack discernible nutrition? Because we enjoy putting stuff into our mouths. Why are there fat people? You know, those who have 'glandular' or 'metabolic' problems. Another news flash: everything in that spare tire around our flabby waists first passed through our mouths. So is the answer buying nutrition-free foods? No. The answer is to save the money we'd spend on those foods, and instead eat good food, but only as much as our bodies actually need.

How do we know how much we need, you ask? It's simple thermodynamics. Running a body's machinery for an average day requires a certain amount of fuel, measured in calories. Any good calorie calculator will tell us how much we need. Then all we'll need is some way to count calories as we eat, so we'll know when to stop eating every day. So now we have the tools and the knowledge. What else do we need?

Will power. There's no web page for that. We either have it and can exercise it, or we don't. Our friends, neighbors, families, and anyone who sees us knows whether we have it or not. And so do we.

Remember: we can't pack on what doesn't go into our mouths. Forget excuses like genetics, glands, metabolism, blah blah blah. If it doesn't go into our mouths, it won't show up on our thighs. Simple as that.

And that's your Ostrich Killer's public service blog for the day. Hope you found it boring and unneeded.

THE WIZ OF AMERICA (Part 1)

We heard a news story a day or so ago, about how school principals in Philadelphia are going to be held responsible for feeding all their students breakfast. No, I didn't say lunch. I said breakfast. That would be in addition to the lunches. Don't be surprised if you see the day that they also have to feed supper.

That prompted me into one of my favorite fantasies, one that has me cast as the Wiz of America. You know, the guy with the pointy hat adorned with stars and planets and who carries a magic wand with which he could make whatever changes he thinks make most sense.

In this case, the Wiz would wave this wand and pronounce that henceforth, parents are responsible for their children's meals. No school would be involved in 'nutrition' programs of any nature, other than perhaps in classes dealing with the topic academically. That's right, no breakfasts on the taxpayer's dime. No lunches. Kids will be expected to be fed at home and bring their lunchboxes to school.

I know this is breathtakingly shocking, that anyone in this day and age would want to require parents to feed their own children. No, to many people it's better that parents pay to feed other people's children, and that other people should pay to feed their children in some bizarre sort of Ponzi-like buck passing scheme, with the Feds and States as middlemen, raking off their cuts and imposing their propaganda agendas.

"But so many parents don't feed their children properly," I'm sure I'll read in comments to this posting. "The only proper meals some children get is at school," others will say. To both arguments I will reply the same. So what? I'll ask. If parents don't feed their children, then by golly maybe the school can report that information to Children Protective Services. I'm all for that. I'm all for holding parents accountable for their own children's nutrition.

Schools, at least American public schools, are not supposed to be little communes, where food and entertainment is provided to help cajole young minds into accepting the crap that passes for education these days. No, the schools are supposed to teach. Parents are supposed to parent, which time-honored task includes instilling values and feeding. This is a proper division of labor. This does not require parents in Rattlesnake, Kansas to cough up tax dollars so that kids in Key West, Florida can have fries with their lunches.

So the Wiz says NO to school nutrition programs. Let the schools teach, not feed. Think of how much money that would save, not having to have kitchens and cooks on staff. Now multiply that by the number of schools in America . . . oh, the mind boggles!