December 01, 2007

Wag the Finger

Your sitting at work in the lunchroom. You have a bag from Burger King. Out of seemingly no place someone impales you with advice on how much fat or how bad fast food something, something, blah blah blah....etc.

Probably based on an article in a magazine or on their AOL homepage or worse from second hand information. Or even based on some scientific study that is now in doubt.

What causes people to proffer unsolicited advice? Some people do feel better when they belittle others. Maybe its some form of Tourette's. Could be society is loosing the concept of respecting a personal space. Could be all those I guess.

Seems like we keep getting these learnered people spouting off about health as if everyone is exactly the same. Yet we are unique at the nano-level right? My DNA is mine and mine alone. A brother can be type 1 diabetic and his sister not. A lifetime smoker can be healthy while a wholistic practitioner of yoga and squeeky clean living can be taken down that long road of Cancer treatment.

We have been told to take wheat germ, lower salt, eliminate fat, elminate caffine, take vitamins, get calcium, take omega-3 fatty acids, drink more water, eliminate sugar, eat oat bran, stop having x-rays, eat like this, dont eat like that, something, something, blah blah blah....etc.

To me it looks like the scientific community knows less and less every year about how the body functions.

2 comments:

flyingvan said...

I have some really really good advice about this. I can't give it without proving your point, though.

ronnwaters said...

For me, misanthropy seems the way to go. But that's just me.
This way sometimes I get pleasantly surprised when people are good or smart or kind or humane. And, when they aren't, I'm not shocked. Amazed maybe but not shocked.
Maybe we should carry paint ball guns with us for just this sort of encounter. More than three colors on you and you're a dick.