My wife drove through KFC the other day on her way home from work. She just wanted a piece of chicken, a little bowl of mashed potatoes, and a small drink, which she ordered. When she got to the window, the clerk handed her a bucket of chicken, a tub of mashed potatoes, and a jug, literally a jug, of Pepsi. It was some kind of “mega meal deal” like those so popular with restaurants now. The Pepsi, stamped with the moniker “Mega Jug,” was a half gallon of soda. A half gallon. Do the math: according to Pepsi’s web site, their regular soda contains 100 calories per 8-ounce serving, so Abby’s drink was an 800-calorie serving. Are you kidding me? According to WebMD, that’s half of her daily calorie requirements. There’s no way she could drink all of that. When she got home, she shared it with me, and we still couldn’t drink it all.
The moral of my story: don’t be surprised every time you look around and more than half the people you see are obese. This isn’t good for us as individuals, and it isn’t good for us as a society or a nation.
Sidebar: “Mega” literally means “million”, not large or superior.