Faster, easier eating - coming to a home near you… It seems that the idea of "fast food" has so permeated American culture that our homes are now being constructed around the concept! According to a recent feature item in the real estate section of the Baltimore Sun newspaper (forwarded to me by a Daily Dose reader in Maryland), homebuilders across the fruited plain are incorporating significant changes into their home designs that make grabbing quick meals - or snacks in between meals - easier than ever… Apparently, features like second-floor mini-refrigerators, bedroom snack bars, breakfast nooks, stand-up lunch islands, and special hors d'oeuvres pantries are all the rage nowadays. And that's not to mention the recent resurgence of the formal dining room as a new home "must have" for the young and upwardly (or should I say outwardly) mobile. Builders claim that more people than ever are asking for these features in their homes. The fact that it might contribute to obesity and an even more sedentary lifestyle for many Americans is beside the point. After all, it isn't the contractor's job to protect us from our gluttonous urges, right? Of course not. That's up to us as individuals. On the surface, this trend appears to be about consumer demand and convenience. But I think it's about brainwashing and boredom. As a people, we've been programmed to equate food with family, success, and good times. In many ways, food has become life itself, not merely the stuff of life… And since life is so easy for most people nowadays, they're left with a lot of leisure time that's invariably spent sitting half-bored in front of one type of screen or another. Who wouldn't want to eat in that situation just to break up the monotony? We've also been programmed to associate food with our entertainment and recreation: Popcorn with our movies. Chicken wings with the Super Bowl.
Backyard BBQ for Memorial Day parties… Is it really so surprising that we've begun to plan our homes around eating? But here's the million-dollar question: How long will it be before some family sues their builder for making them fat?
Doing the math,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
| 
