Dr. Peter J. Weiss

When are things going to change for the bet­ter in Amer­ica?  When will our cul­ture actu­ally help us to be healthy and well?

Yes, we have a toxic and unhealthy cul­ture, but in the end our cul­ture is a reflec­tion of us.  Our cul­ture will change for the bet­ter when enough of us change our­selves as indi­vid­u­als.

Here are a few lit­eral and fig­u­ra­tive signs of the times that I’ve run across this week.

In the lit­eral depart­ment, I saw the sign pic­tured at right sign adver­tis­ing ice cream tied next to the entrance of a build­ing as I was enter­ing for the pur­pose of speak­ing on health and well­ness.  The in-building cafe had put up the sign.

Now, I’m pre­sum­ing that the cafe is rent­ing space from the own­ers of the orga­ni­za­tion for whom I was speak­ing.

Do you think the lead­er­ship rec­og­nizes the mixed mes­sages they are send­ing to their asso­ciates?  Could they rent to a nat­ural food cafe instead?  Even if they made less rent?  It’s some­thing to think about.

At left and below right are two more signs that caught my eye.  McDon­alds adver­tis­ing oat­meal for break­fast and veg­etable wraps for lunch and din­ner.  Wow — that’s a change!

Do you think that this is hap­pen­ing because they’re wor­ried in the big board­room about the health effects of their menu?  I doubt it.

They’re prob­a­bly wor­ried that the pub­lic is wak­ing up to the idea that burg­ers and fries are killing us.  The McDon­alds exec­u­tives are not lead­ing, but rather react­ing to the change that’s begin­ning to hap­pen in us.

On the fig­u­ra­tive side, I’m tak­ing Walmart’s announce­ment that it will be low­er­ing prices on raw fruits and veg­eta­bles foods as a good sign.

The retailer will also be tak­ing steps to lower in unhealthy ingre­di­ents in the processed foods it sells.  Is the result of it a sud­den con­cern by the top execs for the health of the nation?

Again, I don’t think so.  This deci­sion comes after Wal­mart has had some dis­cus­sion with, and per­haps pres­sure from, Michele Obama.  Thanks Michele.

Now, some on the right will rail against Mrs. Obama and “gov­ern­ment inter­fer­ence.”  Oth­ers on the left will demo­nize big busi­ness and their push to sell, sell, sell food that harms us.

Nei­ther stance is that help­ful as we try to get healthy and well.  What’s help­ful is for us to change our­selves and let the cul­ture fol­low our lead.  Don’t just fol­low the signs.  Get out in the lead and let the signs fol­low you.

You can do it.