If you are offended by Christians who overly link health to loving Jesus, please stop reading.
I have been noticing lately how much Americans drink. I don't mean alcohol, I just mean liquids. We were in a restaurant today and the group next to us at the counter ordered water, coffee, beer and mimosas. Almost everybody in the group - all six of them - had each of those drinks. And it was only 11:30 a.m.
I don't know what to make of it. I ordered water. It's free, cold, calorie-less, thirst-quenching, and it tastes like - well - like water.
Every 27 hours Americans consume enough bottled water to circle the equator with plastic bottles stacked end-to-end. In just a single week, those bottles would stretch more than halfway to the moon. This past year Americans drank over 25 gallons of bottled water per person per year - 10 times the amount we drank in 1980. Add a few vitamins, minerals, flavors, colors and/or fizzies to it and we get even more excited.
But some have gone in the opposite direction. Almost 6-in-10 Americans drink a cup of coffee per day. Starbucks alone earned a phenomenal $5.3 billion just a few years ago. Coffee shops say they're getting espresso customers as young as 10 years old.
Don't forget carbonated drinks. They are now the leading source of calories in the average American diet, accounting for almost 1 in every 10 calories consumed. Ten years ago, the leading calorie source was white bread.
When I was in college, the guys took No-Doz the night before the big exam. One pill had about 100 milligrams of caffeine in it. Today, you can get that with one Red Bull.
We're killing ourselves. We now have round-the-clock shopping and entertainment, 24/7 social media and non-stop communication availability via email, twitter, etc. We sleep, on average, 25% less per night than we did 100 years ago. Energy is at a prime in American culture. For a population as old as it's ever been, we value vim, vitality and vigor like never before. Gym memberships are soaring, in particular among seniors. Plastic surgery is on the rise. Use of Viagra, ditto - the largest use among men aged 18-45.
Is it possible that we have begun considering regular human performance as unacceptable? Are we now satisfied with nothing less than super-charged, super-human, super-men and women?
I ask you, what good can come of that?
Let's all relax, go back to water, and see what great things we can do with clear minds, clear hearts, clear heads and clear liquids.
And be blessed.
I have been noticing lately how much Americans drink. I don't mean alcohol, I just mean liquids. We were in a restaurant today and the group next to us at the counter ordered water, coffee, beer and mimosas. Almost everybody in the group - all six of them - had each of those drinks. And it was only 11:30 a.m.
I don't know what to make of it. I ordered water. It's free, cold, calorie-less, thirst-quenching, and it tastes like - well - like water.
Every 27 hours Americans consume enough bottled water to circle the equator with plastic bottles stacked end-to-end. In just a single week, those bottles would stretch more than halfway to the moon. This past year Americans drank over 25 gallons of bottled water per person per year - 10 times the amount we drank in 1980. Add a few vitamins, minerals, flavors, colors and/or fizzies to it and we get even more excited.
But some have gone in the opposite direction. Almost 6-in-10 Americans drink a cup of coffee per day. Starbucks alone earned a phenomenal $5.3 billion just a few years ago. Coffee shops say they're getting espresso customers as young as 10 years old.
When I was in college, the guys took No-Doz the night before the big exam. One pill had about 100 milligrams of caffeine in it. Today, you can get that with one Red Bull.
We're killing ourselves. We now have round-the-clock shopping and entertainment, 24/7 social media and non-stop communication availability via email, twitter, etc. We sleep, on average, 25% less per night than we did 100 years ago. Energy is at a prime in American culture. For a population as old as it's ever been, we value vim, vitality and vigor like never before. Gym memberships are soaring, in particular among seniors. Plastic surgery is on the rise. Use of Viagra, ditto - the largest use among men aged 18-45.
Is it possible that we have begun considering regular human performance as unacceptable? Are we now satisfied with nothing less than super-charged, super-human, super-men and women?
I ask you, what good can come of that?
Let's all relax, go back to water, and see what great things we can do with clear minds, clear hearts, clear heads and clear liquids.
And be blessed.
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