Tonight at the grocery store I witnessed a disturbing sight: an extremely overweight man was piling 12-packs of various soda into his cart. That was bad enough, but in the cart sat an average-weight child who looked to be about five years old. I watched the man sadly as he added Dr. Pepper and Pepsi  to the Mountain Dew in the cart, and I couldn’t help wondering, how long would this stockpile of soda last them? Was this their weekly haul? How much did he allow his young child to drink? What kind of habits was this child learning? Would he become as overweight as this father? I wanted to pull the soda from his cart, but of course I did nothing, said nothing. I’m not in the habit of criticizing total strangers.

The more I work on mybiglife.com and the more I learn about health and nutrition, the more astounded I am at the vast quantities of crap we as Americans shovel into our bodies without a second thought about how it affects our health and quality of life. I used to be the same way myself: some days in high school I had nothing for lunch but Pepsi and Rolos. I ate whatever I wanted for many years: pasta, pizza, fast food, junk food. I shudder to think about the long-term damage I may have inflicted on my body with my careless habits. Are the health problems I’ve experienced over the past few years a result of thirty years of careless eating habits?

I have a new gig writing for a health and nutrition web site, and I’m really excited for the opportunity to start learning even more about these topics. I’d really like to continue taking my career in this direction and help educate people about the importance of eating a healthy diet. It’s clearly something a lot of people give very little thought to, and with obesity rates continuing to rise and health care at the center of the news these days, it’s an extremely important subjet.