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The Unhealthy Tightrope
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Phillip Hong
October 21, 2013 |
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I stood slightly nervously in front of a counter at a fast food restaurant in Hagerstown, Maryland,
impatiently waiting my latest order of hamburgers. The teenager behind the partially obstructed
kitchen let out some apprehension after realizing he didn't compile enough food to fulfill my
order. For a minute, I wondered why I was in that establishment in the first place. The young
craftsman, by then resigned to his most immediate fate, pulled another burger bun from a clear
plastic bag and went on with his manual, quite banal task.
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We all know that processed food isn't exactly the best thing to consume if you're monitoring your
numbers. For much of my life, I have always known that I had heightened cholesterol levels and have
had bouts with high blood pressure; yet I keep inadvertently caving in to temptation by failing to
slap a total ban on everything but salad! It's one of the great inquisitive questions we as a
society have left ambiguous answers to.
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On my way to Maryland, I stopped by a little convenience store off the Queen Elizabeth Way. While
getting a cup of gourmet coffee (loaded with sugar to offset the flavour of the actual coffee), I
glanced at a special they happened to have at the front counter - two bananas for $1.59. In spite of
how outrageous a healthy product could be much cheaper at a supermarket by the kilogram, one has to
wonder about will power; either spend almost a toonie on two noticeably blackened bananas, or on
over a litre of your favourite sugary or fizzy drink? Of course one would less likely buy fruit
for a store of this marque and the profit margins are higher for soft drinks, but have we let
bargains instead of nutritional value dictate our diet?
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Speaking of fizzy drinks, I have made an honest effort to replace them with tonic water or soda
water - the carbon dioxide in soft drink provides the tingly bits that tantalize your tongue and
make the flavourings taste less like cough syrup inundated with corn syrup. However, apart from
fast food joint (the one with the arches) and a notable drinks fountain that ran out of cola syrup,
none of the establishments in my part of Suburban Toronto offered a healthier alternative other
than tap water. In fact, on road trips south, many of the places I pass by don't even offer plain
water at the fountain. Just lemonade "containing 0% juice".
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As you can tell, it's hard to decipher the mind puzzles that mess with our willpower whenever we
opt to eat or drink outside of home. For now, I know a part of me is failing at its job at keeping
me healthy whenever I bite into a burger.
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Phillip Hong is a columnist with 148.ca.
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