Column: Health, savings, and never eating a Twinkie again

  • Melissa Herrera (COLUMN)
  • February 25, 2013
  • 333
                        
Column summary: Are you a salty or sweet person? Salad or soup? Does the thought of Twinkies never being made again make you nervous? Read on to find my challenge to myself and to you over the next month. I wish we were wired to like food that is good for us. Our lives would be a much less costlier place – health-wise and cost-wise. If all we ever wanted to eat was fresh veggies, fresh meat, and nothing with an inch of chocolate frosting on it, we would be so much better off. Junk food is so appealing what with its empty calories, creamy middle, and salty crunch full of goodness. When I found out that Hostess was going out of business I.E. Twinkies and Ho Ho’s, I was sad as a part of my childhood was gone. Then I realized that it can only be for our benefit – those snack cakes were full of nothing nutritional whatsoever. Than why were they so good and so expensive? Our brains seem to target things that are bad for us. For me, it’s sweets. For others, it’s that salty snap. Chips, cookies, and pastries all call out to us from the aisles at the grocery store until that temptation pulls us to attention and our cart starts filling up with expensive decadent food. The stores, knowing their game, tend to put these things where we can find them easily. They are set directly in our path. One tip I learned long ago is not to go to the grocery store hungry. It’s much easier to fend off those temptations when our bellies are at least semi-full. I was super sick last week with the flu that’s been making the rounds here in Holmes County. I didn’t eat much, and not surprisingly my fridge and pantry stayed pretty much the same. I’m not sure what my family ate, but it didn’t look like even a dent was put into it. My point is, when we’re sick we eat what sounds good to us – soups, juice, and even a small bowl of ice cream make our feverish day just a little better. I lost a few pounds and wanted to stay on that track when I started feeling better. Problem is, our bodies and mentality go right back to where they were before – craving all of that bad stuff. I believe that sugar is an addictive force, one that propels those of us without an iron will, down the road of bad choices and a future full of diabetes and heart disease. The silly part of it is is that the things that are truly bad for us are the most expensive. Just try checking out a package of Oreos and you know what I’m talking about. We could all save ourselves a lot of money and add years to our lives if we started making smarter choices. My life has been full of good choices and bad ones as well. We struggle, we persist, and we try to live our lives as best we can without falling to the wayside. I want to make a conscious decision to try to save my family money by buying them healthy foods, with the bad choices being few and far between. For a month I want to write down what I spend on so-called “bad choices” and see how much I could save if I made a better choice. The answer to getting healthier and saving ourselves money isn’t found in a bottle of pills, an injection, or in pre-packaged foods….it’s found in cutting back on the bad things and putting good things into our bodies. We will feel better and keep a little cash in our pockets while doing it. Anybody game?


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