by T. S. Love

Created on: June 18, 2007

I have been noticing fat on other people lately. It looks like it has been placed there as an afterthought, almost as if there wasn't room for it in the original design. Like clutter hurriedly shoved into a closet before company arrives, it threatens the integrity of the bulging door seams before spilling out and encroaching upon the rest of the room. It makes me think of alien invaders, taking over a host body and distorting it beyond recognition. Only this attack of the body snatchers isn't sudden and external, rather it comes slowly and with its delicious friends: fat, sugar and processed foods.

When I see fellow losers of the battle of the bulge, I feel shock and pity for how much extra fat is hanging off their misshapen bodies. Simultaneously I find myself wondering if that is how I used to look while vowing to never look like that again. I shush the nagging voice that relentlessly reminds me that I still have more than my fair share of bloat remaining.

Part of changing bad habits is changing the way you see things. While I've never been one to judge or care about people based upon appearances, I am starting to see fat as its own entity, an unwelcome stowaway on hips, thighs and stomachs that must be rousted out and tossed over the side. It is ugly. It is invasive. It doesn't belong. It saps away health, vitality and life far better than any mythical device dreamed up some diabolic mastermind. Or is there a diabolic mastermind behind it all? Is there some evil genius behind the scenes, forcing unnatural and unholy foodstuffs down our gullets and onto our hips?

Certainly there is no lack of fingers to point and evil corporate monsters aplenty to blame for the sheer volume of white processed crud available on shelves today. Food production today is a science, a multi billion dollar government subsidized industry propping up our drooping national spirit and economy. Let us not forget the media for its role. How would we ever know what to think or eat or do without the benevolent guidance of advertising?

Mother Nature's products pale in comparison to the splendor and variety of food options available today. How can nature compete with science? It would be ridiculous to expect Mother Nature to step up to the needs of modern consumers by mass producing her bounty, systematically stripping it of all flavor and nutrients, then "enriching" it by adding the chemical equivalents of said flavor and nutrients before further mutilating it in a veritable torture chamber

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