Eat your vegetables, adults.

Wanna know why America and Americans are so fat? Why we have so many that are obese and out of shape? Plain and simple: We don't acknowledge or appreciate vegetables. And I know I addressed this in an earlier post, but I'm doing it again. Vegetables are underused, underrated and overlooked so much, it's an absolute crime. As a kid, I loved vegetables. Granted, some weren't appealing to me, like squash and okra, though I can eat okra gumbo in spite of the okra. But I ate them with no problem. I didn't even need ranch or spices to make them more appealing. And that brings me into my next topic: Why the hell were there so many kids who hated vegetables on television?

They didn't represent me. I loved eating them for the most part. All of these shows were written by adults. Some kids may not have liked them, but never to the extremes that they made them out to be, and if they did, it's the parents' fault for not being more cordial with their child(ren) on proper nutrition. Even worse, the kid that DID eat his vegetables was treated like a criminal. Those same kids are now adults who are borderline obese and are having children with the same habits. But as of the last forty or so years, obesity has skyrocketed, and only those people are to blame for people like this:

Now, I understand television has to amp up the drama for the sake of the idiots who watch reality television in the first place, but I truly believe she thinks this way about all vegetables, and with what I've seen in my short twenty-something years of being on this rock, it's likely an accurate depiction. She's anything but traumatized. Case in point, when I was at my old job, I'd take a bundle of turnip greens or some kale and eat them as is. The looks I got from my co-workers said it all. And I simply told them: If I take care of myself now, when I reach your age, I'll have less chance of being sick or unable to rely on myself. And lo and behold: A good chunk of them have high blood pressure, diabetes or are overweight. Back in school, I had classmates (if you can call them that) wince at the thought of eating carrots without ranch, proving my point on poor parenting.

I've made it a life rule to eat as many vegetables as possible with a meal. I always try to have some fresh greens and a portion of radishes with my fish, chicken or steak. And that's usually the right thing to do with a meal. You cannot eat just fast food or frozen dinners. I've cut out soda since sometime in 2014 and I don't miss it. Next, I'm trying to cut out frozen pizzas and junk food. And with how expensive most of that stuff is now compared to when I was a kid, I won't miss any of it. Eggnog doesn't even taste right anymore.

But back to my original point: Adults need to eat more vegetables and encourage their children to eat more vegetables, and according to this little site, Georgia is a red state (HA!) And holy shit at Arkansas, West Virginia and Mississippi. But considering the states, it's to be expected. Cooking a vegetable with a bunch of salt and meat doesn't count, and it's one of the reasons I don't really eat collard greens anymore. Try as many of them as you can. Peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, radishes, onions, you name it. A lot of variety to be found. Fruits are a start, but vegetables are more detrimental for proper nutrition.

P.S: There's a flavor of Bolthouse Juices called Daily Greens. I didn't like it at first, but I've slowly come to love it, until I tried a bottle two weeks ago. They made it sweeter. I know they put banana and apples in that recipe, but one look at the ingredients and they added pineapple. Pineapple is so sickeningly sweet it can overpower anything else. I can't even drink it now because of it. Thanks for fucking up a flavor of vegetable juice, you fat slobs. Even worse are the vegetable juices that are fused with fruit juice and High Fructose Corn Syrup. I remember that commercial, too.

"Don't you wish vegetables weren't so vegetable-ly?"

No you dumb bitch, that's the whole point.