The American Appetite

According to TMZ, a popular entertainment news/gossip outfit, Britney Spears loves her fast food. I heard the report on the radio this morning, replayed by the local station that usually provides the soundtrack to the first 30 to 60 minutes of my day. The report contained audio of Spears ordering various value meals and other items at various "quick service" eateries and then provided nutritional content (calories and fat grams) of everything she ordered. The story included some 5000 calories worth of menu items.

I was disgusted.

I was disgusted not by the food and the contents, thereof, but by the fact that I was hearing about it. I was, and am, disgusted by the fact that the message we have sent, as a society, is that we want to know about this. We WANT to know what Britney Spears orders and we WANT to hear someone make fun of her for how fattening it is.

Much is made of Americans' taste for unhealthy foods and our growing waists and weights. Rightly so. We happily poison our bodies by choosing cheap and tasty over wholesome and nutritious all too often.

In much the same way, we should go further out of our way to decry and disown our taste for unhealthy information and our shrinking hearts, souls, and minds. We happily poison those by gobbling up (and therefore communicating our hunger for more of) the "cheap and tasty" dishes served up by TMZ and others like them.

The big difference between our unhealthy food cravings and our unhealthy info cravings is that the gossip is more harmful, by far. Like second-hand smoke, it passes from person to person in the form of "interesting conversation," doing the same damage to everyone who listens and repeats, while a cheeseburger's direct and most profound damage ends with the one who eats it.

Consider, too, the sources of our sinful tastes. While many fast food items are unhealthy, I would say that the process of creating and serving them is far healthier than the process of gathering and distributing gossip news. To make a hamburger is to provide food - a natural human inclination addressing a natural human necessity (and it is, for many, an early chance to learn to work in a professional atmosphere). To make a story about a troubled music star's questionable diet is to go against all that human experience, moral development, and ethical living have taught us about how to treat other people. You can not produce that story without sacrificing goodness, stunting your soul, and polluting a society.

So what do we do? Unfortunately, the best answer is the frustrating one we all got as kids when someone was bothering us. Ignore it. TMZ will be around as long as we will listen. Don't listen to Hollywood gossip and don't talk about it. It doesn't make you smarter, healthier, wealthier, or happier. (In fact, I am often astounded at how unbelievably stupid, assinine, and shallow people sound when they talk about celebrity dogs, relationships, etc.) Instead, it gobbles up the moments of life that could be spent on efforts or people or conversations that are truly important.

Ignore it and help others do the same. You don't have to be a crusader, but it would not be wrong to steer conversations away from insidious topics. It would be considered helpful (if done in the right way) to help someone eat nutritionally and it is just as noble to encourage healthy thought and discussion.

We have control only over ourselves, but we can set the example for others by caring at least as much about the strength and capacity of our hearts and souls as we do about the size of our bellies. Better living leads to better lives. So does reading ZiggyBackRide.