Oct 29, 2002 4 min read

At least we do something well. There has been some press lately concerning the obesity of Americans. In particular, we published an editorial that basically said Fayette Countians are among some of the more obese people on this continent.

Well, that’s very likely correct. And I for one agree that being overweight is not a pretty sight. Speaking as a poster boy for the proportionally challenged, I have battled the bulge for years. I have been thin, I have been fat and I have been somewhere in between. As I grow older, shedding pounds becomes more difficult. Maybe because my job is so sedentary or because I’m not as active after leaving the office as I once was. We moved from a large house/yard to a smaller house/yard a couple of years ago. But I don’t think my girth has grown much because of that change.

In fact, my job has always been fairly sedentary. I sit at a desk. I talk on the phone. I type on a computer keyboard, which is a far cry from the office manual typewriter upon which I began my career – you really had to have some muscle to smash those keys hard enough to get an imprint on paper.

So what’s the reason for my rotundity?

Part of it has to be inherited. There have been some rather robust people in my family, both sides of it.

Part of it obviously is diet. I greatly enjoy things that taste good. And, unfortunately, the things that taste the best are often the things that are the most fattening. I like pies, cakes and cookies. I love meats of all kinds. I am not overly fond of fish and fowl (although lately I have been including more of it in my diet).

Most of all I intensely desire bread and butter.

That has been my downfall, I’m sure.

Do you recall some years ago the limited variety of breads we could buy? You have rye, white and a form of whole wheat. You could get those three at a local bakery or in a plastic bag at the supermarket.

Have you checked out the vastness of doughy viands lingering on grocery store shelves lately? It’s like everything else. One or two or three types are not enough. Now there must be 20, 30 or 40 different types of the same thing. And they nearly all taste good.

I can sit down with a bowl of hot tomato sauce, a loaf of bread and butter and make a meal. I don’t particularly care what victuals grace the inside of two slices of bread in a sandwich – as long as the bread is good.

If I am searching for something to eat quickly, I reach for a loaf. I snack on bread while I cook. I even crumble bread up and put it in my soup. I use bread as the foundation for open face sandwiches that no one else would eat (beef and beans on top of bread, cheese, egg and ham, also on top of a slice of bread, etc.)

The Pillsbury Doughboy has absolutely nothing on me. I could supplant him any day of the week. Just paint me white and put a silly hat on my head.

The question is what do I do? The answer is obvious: Stop eating bread. Could the agriculture community stand that? Probably not. But then I usually buy most of my breads at discount stores so how much economic impact a personal bread prohibition would create is dubious.

Will I lose weight if I stop chomping down breads? Very likely.

Will I be a happy person?

Very unlikely.

But to put a positive spin on all this, and as I said at the outset of this column, at least we do something well.

Being overweight, that is. And I hope the prize is a lifetime supply of…

You fill in the blank.

Have a good day.

P.S. The 22-month-old toddler having health problems I wrote about two weeks ago is doing very well. After several days in hospital and a multitude of tests doctors determined she had low blood sugar. The remedy? Three squares a day for the picky eater. She’s doing very well.

Jim Pletcher is the Herald-Standard’s business editor. E-mail: jpletcher@heraldstandard.com.