Italians thoughts on the American diet.....

So I got a comment from an American living in Rome to basically describe her, but I would never want to limit her to just being that. What struck me was that she appreciated my comments on the Italian diet, and posed a good question: What would Italians think of the American diet.

Initially I laughed. Americans, diet? Hahahahahahahaha. I feel Americans are so overwhelmed with information about what to eat and what not to eat that it's very confusing to wade through all that information to make the right choices. Enters the nutritionist. Yup another dollar spent to help me figure out things I most likely already know. This sounds like a vague scam I've heard of somewhere else. Oh, yeah. Talk therapy.

Ahhhhhh, the American dollar wasted on yet another useless item. Now, why don't I have the shinny new toys that all the other kids have like an iPhone, iPod (I'm starting to think Steve Jobs is evil) or X-box 360 or a Wii. It's because I have health insurance, and all of my friends are tired of listening to me bitch, so I might as well exploit my private insurance and get some shit off my chest, right? Wait....hmmmmmm......yeah that's why I blog, too.

Back to the American diet. Aside from the nutritionist piece, I think it's disturbing not only what Americans eat, but how they eat it. Let's start with the socioeconomic implications of food. Sugar is cheap. Fresh produce is not. If I am working at a $9 an hour job as Sam's slave and I can't afford their health insurance plan, let alone the fruit they offer in their super stores, well then I, as an American citizen have been very passively told to fuck off, and die by not eating a healthy diet because I can't afford the good stuff. I have to buy the stuff with preservatives and processed sugar, and super high sodium.

With that, can we please look at the asshole insurance companies? They will give a discounted rate to large corporations if they encourage their employees to join a gym. Why not a tax break for any American citizen who plays a sport or can prove that they routinely exercise, since it looks like we'll be going to socialized health care anyway?

Oh, and what is this misnomer I hear about if some dumb fuck knows how to take a set of vitals he should make the same as me, or better yet my mother? My mother is an APRN nurse anesthetist. I think she's earned the right to make her 6 figure salary, not so much because she can put people to sleep for surgery, but because she can also wake them up; not to mention she's been in the game for 34 years. Yeah, that's the health care professional I want knocking my ass out because she sure as hell better know what she's doing by now, and not some newbie grad wet behind the ears. I certainly don't want the vital bitch to make what I make because I have a unique set of health care skills that are not valued by American society. I do mental triage. If you don't know what you're doing you can really fuck someone up, so in some ways my mother and I have that in common with our jobs, but I am not laying claim to the fact that I deserve to make 100k a year. Don't get me wrong though. It would be nice.

Sorry I seem to have gone off on a tangent. I think the Italian diet while lacking fiber is also a very healthy diet and is well balanced by the fact that throughout most of the country you walk everywhere, a strange and foreign concept to Americans.

One last thing about diets and Americans and my thoughts. Let's talk the recent rise in bariatric surgery. Whether it's a lap band or full on gastric by pass, health insurance companies have figured out that it is cheaper to pay for this surgery than the long term cost of all the health risks associated with being morbidly obese.

Of course that fat fuck who needs the surgery is also the Sam's slave who can't afford the health insurance to begin with.

Yup, as Americans we've done a great job of making the whole system one giant cluster fuck. With that in mind, I've decided to get involved. However, being true to my American nature I am taking the laziest, most passive route possible. I am joining the Reserves, just not sure which branch yet.