Sustainable Food - Even Jerks Can Save the World - India Renewable Energy Consulting – Solar, Biomass, Wind, Cleantech
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You can use averages and statistics to prove anything.

If Bill Gates walks into a pub with 9 hobos boozing inside, each occupant of the pub is worth $7 billion on average.

Stupid, isn’t it?

Which is why you should be careful when using statistics, especially averages.

Why am I ranting on this now?

A friend of mine recently said that America has a fairly high average life expectancy even though many, many Americans routinely eat junk food. So, doesn’t it follow, he surmised, that poor health and poor life expectancy is not highly correlated to junk food eating?

Sure, I told him, go ahead and eat as much junk food as you wish. And be dead and gone before you are fifty. The world is not exactly going to miss you or your intellect.

There are many reasons why an average American has a high life expectancy. Many of these might have nothing to do with food at all. Some of these reasons might simply not be valid for a country like India. Or for many other developing countries.

So if you want to live long, you might as well eat healthy food, rather than rely on dubious statistics.

Now, why exactly would one want to do a blog post on something as nauseatingly obvious as this? There’s a reason.

One of the reasons most of end up having junk food is simple because our tongues and brains feel super happy while tasting those. The happiness quotient for these parts of our anatomy are perceived to be much less while having healthy food

A plate of french fries vs. a plate of salad. No competition at all, right?

Wrong.

Because, if you spend some time choosing healthy foods, you will figure – as I have out over the past many years – that healthy food and tasty food are not mutually exclusive.

Sure, once in a while do munch on those snacks that have been fried in god-knows-what oil. But, for a good many time, put down a list of food items that are both tasty and healthy and stick to them.

You want that list? No, I am not going to give you that list. You want to live longer, do that yourself.

But I will tell you a secret. The trick to eating healthy is not just having the determination to avoid junk food – don’t rely on determination alone, it is proven to be a perishable depletable resource (these blokes agree,  though these guys don’t seem to) – or just having a list of healthy food.

The really effective trick is what I would call Ease of Access.

The idea is simple (and proven in study after study): Purchase healthy food items and place these much closer to where you normally snack and keep those junk food items far, far away. (Forbes agrees, in a way)

You will be surprised how dramatically your eating pattern changes.

Don’t believe me? Try it out and then let me know again.

And oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you – healthy foods in most cases also mean less environmental harm, which was why I started this blog post at all in the first place. Think locally procured fresh fruits vs. fried chips – it is fairly obvious even to dumbos, isn’t it?

OK, here’s the bottom line just in the very likely case the jerk reading this post hasn’t still got it: Having healthy foods will thus keep you healthy while keeping our planet healthy too.

If you are a moron who still thinks you can have junk food and wash off your sins through exercise and liposuction, go ahead. You can join my likely-to-be-dead-soon friend somewhere up there – and the world is unlikely to miss you or your intellect either.


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