Reading this on my friend B.A.'s blog helped crystallize something I've felt but been unable to put my finger on: I'm sick and tired of being told what to eat.

Truth be told, I love vegetables. They add a nice crunch and contrast and color. For the most part, I like the way they taste.

But it pisses me off to be told how many I should eat, that I can't put butter on them, which types I should eat... actually, I hate being told what to do, anyways. But food is something that should come naturally to a person. We shouldn't need a government agency or a magazine or a book to tell us what to eat.

We can address the obesity epidemic without resorting to pyramids and measurements and the like. Do you really think people don't realize that vegetables are healthy for them? If they don't, do you think they're going to read any sort of literature on the subject, anyways?

We didn't grow obese overnight and we're not going to lose weight overnight. We need to wean ourselves off of convenience foods and drive-thrus, soda pop and snack chips. We need to do more active things and less passive things like watching TV. Those things are true.

But we keep going to extremes! How about going bowling, golfing, going for walks in the park, going roller or ice skating -- fun stuff. Do we have to pant and sweat on machines? Measure every bit of food we eat? What does this obsessive-compulsive binge-and-purge attitude toward food say about us? It's like the sex thing, it seems like people are either prudes preaching that sex is dirty or freaky swingers holding orgies in their living rooms. Why can't we just be normal? What's with the weird approach to body functions that shouldn't require all this angst and worry?

Thank you. I feel better now. Go back to your Doritos and porn now.