Is your pantry rated R? Is your fridge not safe for a consuming audience under the age of 13? Let’s discuss food porn and how to keep it out of our kitchens!
I’ve always been interested in the movie rating system. I know it’s been designed to inform and protect us. Ranging from a G rating that is approved for everybody through PG, PG-13, R, NC-17, clear to X, which is flat-out porn and, frankly, good for nobody. I don’t always agree with the ratings, but they have been helpful, especially as we have been raising our family, in knowing when a movie crosses certain lines of violence, coarse language, and obscenity. 
We've always tried to protect our children from the gratuitous and salacious stuff because the reality is that certain things cannot be unseen. As a parent, I want to keep things appropriate and to allow my children to keep their childhood and mental growth healthy and unstunted. When the kids grow up and leave home, they can make their own decisions.
When it comes to healthy eating and principles of nutrition, there is a much less reliable rating system. In fact, we live in an age when we are regularly faced by what many now called FOOD PORN. What kind of image does that term conger up? It may not be what you think. It is not scantily clad girls wrestling in chocolate pudding or nude food fights. It is unhealthy, fattening, artery-clogging, nutrient-bankrupt foods that are glamorized in seductive magazine photos and TV commercials. They can make a plate of pure crud look mouthwatering, delicious, and healthy. Through the deceptive skills of professional photographers and scene stagers, they can use beautifully lit, airbrushed, seductively presented props that are designed to appeal to your emotions making you feel hungrier than you are and cause you to overeat. It’s a clever trap, and many of these porn foods are almost as addictive as crack. They will certainly rob you of your health and can eventually even kill you.
No matter how scrumptious they make giant cinnamon buns dripping with frosting look, or how enticing a huge plate of chili cheese fries washed down with a tall can of chemical-filled energy drink appear, remember they’re nutrient sparse, and can rightfully be rated as garbage, or food porn. If you want to try an interesting exercise, stand near the check-out line of your favorite grocery store, and observe what people have put in their shopping carts. 
Most are loaded with cartons of soda, chips, cookies, sugary cereals, white bread, and processed foods, with precious little fresh vegetables and fruit. Would it shock you to realize that 90% of the food items in the average market are processed? So, If I were to apply a rating system to these foods, I would rate them PG-13 or R, and many even as far as X. Remember, whatever you put in your shopping cart is going to end up on your plate, so shop using your intellect, not your emotions that the marketers are attempting to appeal to.
It's a sobering fact that no other success can really compensate for the premature failure of your body. After all, you only get one, and it has to last you a lifetime, so take good care of it, instead of wishing you had. For Academy Award-winning health, seek a G-rated diet with as many raw, organic fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds as possible.
A great way to get you going on resolutions is joining our fitness challenge!
