While off on the usual 20-minute random tangent my math-class takes, vital information about my math teacher's life was discovered. Turns out my forty-some year-old math teacher has NEVER tried chocolate in his life. My reaction to this was: "Wow, he has incredible self-control. Good for him." My classmates however, did not have the same reaction.People began to shout at him, asking whether or not he's ever had a brownie, or hot chocolate, or a chocolate chip cookie. He calmly responded to all the chaos by admitting he's never had any of the aforementioned desserts. I thought that would be the end of the discussion. I was wrong. Ben, my seat neighbor who is also in the American Studies class, was the only other one near me who was not intrigued with this newfound fact.
Questions flooded in for the next 10 minutes, with people refusing to believe this seemingly impossible lifestyle existed. One of the senior girls in the front row then proclaimed that "never eating an Oreo is un-American". I guess I was not aware that abstaining from eating 160 calories worth of flour, sugar, cocoa, and corn syrup was "Un-American".
"Un-American" is defined as deviating from American values. This, by the transitive property means that eating unhealthy junk food is an American value. It is sad that being unhealthy has become such a staple in American culture that it is considered an American value. Maybe this is the cause for the 35.7% of American adults that are considered obese according to http://www.cdc.gov. Is it possible that these rates are so high not because people have low self-control, but it has become an American value to eat un-healthily?
2 comments:
When I think of an oreo, I definitely don't think of America. I actually have the same math teacher so I understand the chaos that went on in your class. It's true that some people have low self control, but I think that eating un-healthily has become an American habit. You hear about people born in other countries who move to the U.S. and gain a lot of weight because of all the access to fast food. The way that food and restaurants are advertised, those stories don't surprise me. Commercials and billboards make Americans feel like those things will satisfy them. I think that Americans have become more selfish, and we use our country as an excuse to get what we want. I think that because we live in America, we think that we have this freedom to do what we want and that we should have access to whatever we want.
Never eaten chocolate in his life?? Wow thats nearly impossible to believe but not necessarily because he lives in America. Although I do think that American's have an unhealthy obesity problem, I don't think that eating unhealthy is American. The girl who made this comment most likely didn't take a whole bunch of time thinking about what she was going to say.
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