the high price of eating healthy

onions and peppers oh my!Contrary to what experts will tell you, most people make fairly good decisions based on the restrictions and limitations they are confronted. If food is beyond their budget, they might bake their own or buy inexpensively delicious food.

So it is no surprise that fast food outlets can offer a hamburger for $1 are in such demand. The food may not be perfect… but it will allow you to survive and fight another day without breaking the bank.

However, what if you believe you need more fruits and vegetables into your life? Well, hold onto your wallet! Anyone who has at least visited the produce section in a local supermarket can measure how many ‘whoppers’ they can buy instead of a small carton of tomatoes or strawberries.

Fruits and vegetables are merely a garnish or overlooked in many meals today. In olden days, vegetables were ways to ‘extend’ or allow many more people to eat on a scarce amount of meat, today , it looks like it’s almost becoming the other way around.
Here’s what Science Daily has to say:

“That the cost of healthful foods is outpacing inflation is a major problem,” said Drewnowski. “The gap between what we say people should eat and what they can afford is becoming unacceptably wide. If grains, sugars and fats are the only affordable foods left, how are we to handle the obesity epidemic?”

Well… I would disagree slightly by saying that the ‘obesity epidemic’ has a lot more to do with how we live our lives rather than just what we eat. In the early 1900’s it was fashionable to say, ‘you are what you eat,’ but exercise and a healthy lifestyle are big contributing factors to increased longevity and should not be ignored. We cannot forget that many schools today have reduced or eliminated recess, reduced to two years the amount of physical education required in high school and in many overt and sometimes unconscious ways encouraged a sedentary lifestyle among our youth.

For my two cents… everyone needs to participate in a vigorous sport in high school, period.

Roger Freberg

Ted Turner’s “Ted-istan” is one Big Little Country!

If I could be KingOkay, our friend Ted I-wanna-own-the-world Turner just locked up 2,000,000 acres. Now, I don’t know about you… but I suspected he always wanted to own his own little country… and now he has it. For the easy conversion, his holdings translate into approximately 3125 square miles ( or a block roughly 55 miles by 55 miles)!

Ted-istan is about 60% the size of Puerto Rico or about 2.5 times the size of Rhode Island.

There are a whole bunch of countries that could fit into his living room.

Lets make a list: the Italian land locked country of San Marino is a mere 24 sq. miles, Andorra (between Spain and France) is 180 sq. miles with 180,000 people, and Liechtenstein is a paltry 62 sq. miles (but they produce beautiful stamps). The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is less than half the size of Ted-istan … The list goes on and on .
I wasn’t going to mention it… but what does he REALLY want with all that land and should we be concerned?

Roger Freberg

Like many Americans, I do admire someone who can build so much from so little… but most Americans do worry about so much power in any one person’s hands.

Football Rivalries and other “Tons of Bricks!”

the weight of the world is coming down!When you talk about rivalries, USC and UCLA go to the top of my list. THE GAME is merely an extension of what has become a truly visceral contest between schools.

Wear the Cardinal and Gold to UCLA and watch for the reaction… you don’t have to wait long. And a Bruin in the land of Troy is truly an unloved creature.

So what is going to happen this year as the Bruins of the Westside meet the Southern California Trojans?

I can’t speak for the team, the coach… but as a fan, after last year’s upset… the coliseum may not be the most hospitable place for anyone wearing the pale blue and yellow.

FIGHT ON!

Roger Freberg

USC-UCLA Rivalry goes beyond Friction
Bruin Nation Claims Victory!
To be a Trojan
Inside USC

Rose Bowl Bruins?

Something Nice Happens

Laura FrebergIt’s always more fun to read news that is positive rather than the usual troubles. In our mnids, a little positive is always stronger than a bigger negative, although we seem to be confronted with so much negative! It must be our nature as human beings to hold on to that rare bit of positive to carry us on from challenging day to challenging day.

So, you can imagine how ‘nice’ it was to read something wonderful about someone I feel to be worthy. I have always viewed my wife Laura Freberg as a role model for young women… particularly our three daughters, and that she has had a similar affect on others. Here is a exerpt from an  article in today’s Mustang Daily:

“In the course of interviewing Laura Freberg (a psychology professor here at Cal Poly) for a story about her blog being nominated for an award, she told me she is a tech junkie like myself….Many women like sports, technology, science, math, or a hundred other things that the classic TV model refuses to see in us….Thanks for being a role model for other women, showing them it’s all right to be this way.”

Laura has a fun blog to read and  syndicated with an on-line university … they are supporting her in her Weblog Contest!

Thanks! and Don’t forget to Vote!

Roger Freberg

vote every day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Islamofascism or Islamophobia? You decide.

Islamofascism discussion at Cal Poly
Thanks to no small efforts in the past by organizations like FIRE, Cal Poly students, faculty and the larger community were given the rare opportunity to listen to an alternative point of view… Greg Davis author of “Islam What the West Needs to Know.”

Dr. Davis’s thesis is that Islam is more than just a ‘religion’. It is a geopolitical entity that threatens western civilization. His film is spiced with interviews and ‘exerpts’ from Islamic scripture that are quite challenging.

Here are a few pictures and links from the event at Cal Poly.

It was very sobering.

Roger Freberg