Obesity at Its Finest

Do you ever wonder if our country could get any fatter? I wondered this today when I was at the gym. While I was on the elliptical and in between songs on my iPod, I saw a preview for the show "Man vs. Food." I wasn't paying a significant amount of attention but the phrase "12-egg challenge" caught my attention. I pondered that phrase. From what I've heard you should only eat 3-4 eggs per week if you want your cholesterol to remain healthy. And the show host was about to eat 12 eggs in one sitting. Needless to say, I was a little repulsed by that thought. 

I also got to thinking: Is America ever going to change? Even though we're in an era where people appear to be more health-conscious, reality shows like this still run and it has to have some kind of effect on our society's desire to eat food that will literally put our hearts to a stop. First it was "Supersize Me," which was awful enough. Now people out there are not only eating a super-sized meal at McDonald's at every meal for the sole purpose of making money; they're eating portions of food that are damned near physically impossible to consume solo and in one sitting. Why would anyone want to put their bodies through something like that!?  

I remember that one episode of Man vs. Food included a pizza place from my hometown (San Antonio) called Big Lou's Pizza. The host was challenged to sit down with the restaurant owners and eat a "Big Lou Super 42," a 42-inch, 30 pound pizza. Each slice was so big that one needed two plates to hold it on. This summer while I was home some friends and I decided to go to the restaurant to try the "Big Lou Super 42." However, the wait was three hours, so we went to another pizzeria instead. Clearly the show earned publicity for the little restaurant, which was good for its business but bad for everyone's health. Though at first I was a little bummed I did not get to see the gigantic pizza in person, I was glad in the long run that I didn't put my body through that heart-clogging-indigestion-galore-of-an-experience. 

It seems to me that shows like this advertise the idea that it's okay to binge on massive portions of food. If people think this is the case, it will be interesting to see what America looks like in 20 years.