Americans love fast food. (We spent $165 billion on it in 2010.) But we don’t all love it equally. Like the obesity rate, fast-food consumption varies widely by region. Residents of some states disproportionately choose fast food over 
other options when they go out to eat, with consequences for the state’s collective health.
Using government data on the percentage of restaurants in each state that serve fast food and the percentage of dining-out dollars the average resident spends in them each year, Health.com identified the 10 states where fast-food consumption is most prevalent. Kentucky is in the top five!
Colonel Sanders was clearly on to something when he began selling takeout fried-chicken dinners to busy families during the Depression. Decades later, Kentuckians now spend 56 cents of every restaurant dollar on KFC and other fast food.
In fact, KFC’s parent company, Yum Brands, which is based here and also owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, has begun lobbying Kentucky’s governor to allow food stamps from certain residents to be accepted at fast-food places.
This may possibly be my last blog (LOL), but I have to say this,
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?” Food stamps for fast food? Why not just dump a gallon of gas on the fire, and stand in the room?
How about teaching people to feel good about them selves by earning their health?
How about goal setting?
How about teaching the importance of pre- planning?
How about the feeling good when following through on personal aspirations?
One thing Colonel Sanders did not intend was to “Depress” people from feeling good about them selves, he also never thought a day would come where entitlement and depression would go hand in hand.
Are there less fortunate ones, no doubt, but I ask you to ponder this,
“Do you give a man a fish for money , or do you teach him how to fish for his own emotional investment?”
When you peel it all back and look at the purposed Fast Foods for Food Stamps program it comes down to dollars not sense, common that is!
Kentucky, which has the country’s second-highest obesity rate, would be just the fourth state to approve the practice.
Greg Ryan is an accomplished author, personal trainer, life coach and owner of Resolutions Preventative Health Care through Fitness for Seniors and Diabetics in St. Matthews. www.resolutions.bz
