Remember When Bologna Didn’t Matter?
I was thinking about bologna today. Don’t ask my why. I just was. As I was eating my Italian BMT sub from Subway, I thought about the meats that were on it – ham, salami and pepperoni. While I ate, I momentarily thought I had tasted bologna and I panicked. Quickly I did a double-check to make sure there was none of that mystery meat on my sandwich. Thankfully, there was none. That’s good, because I was just about to suddenly have a very bad day (and I wasn’t in a good mood to begin with).
Then I laughed. How many times had I eaten bologna in my life – albeit before I was age fifteen? Now, today, I try to limit my intake of it. Why? For the same reasons you do. If you have to ask beyond that, I’ll not spoil your warped impression of what bologna is.
But what about hot dogs and sausage and hamburger? I still eat all that. Why not bologna?
The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much this analogy pertains to a life lesson. Clearly, I am not alone in the anti-bologna mantra. Funny thing is, there are so many of us out there who will proclaim that we would “Never put that stuff in our bodies” all the while we’re smoking on cigarettes and guzzling alcohol and the brain toxins in diet cola.
Kind of puts things in a different perspective, eh?
How many times have I eaten bologna? Did it ever kill me or even make me the slightest bit sick? No. Can’t say the same for alcohol, tobacco . . . even diet cola and sugarless candy (if you don’t know the dangers of sugarless candy, eat about 20 pieces and call me when you get off the stool).
So, what’s different now that wasn’t that way back then? Nothing but time and experience. As a kid, we are quick to do things and not question the social stigma attached. Then, all the sudden, someone says “Do you know what’s in that?” with a look of disgust on their face. Next thing you know, you would never lower yourself to eat that vile meat again!
I once went many years without eating imitation bacon bits because my mother told me they use worms to make it! Worms! But anyway, back to bologna . . .
So often in life, we are fed crap much worse than what goes into bologna production. The world fills us with ideas, perceptions, norms and belief systems that have false pretenses, personal agendas and silly stigmas. We, like mindless fish will immediately eat it up without a second thought simply because it is there and all the other fish in our school are doing it. That stuff, my friends, is grade-a prime bologna straight from the bull.
Remember when bologna didn’t matter?
[tags]bologna, Subway, Italian BMT, social stigma, peer pressure[/tags]
Posted in Musings
7 Responses to “Remember When Bologna Didn’t Matter?”
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just stoppin by voting for you
For the past 4 years, I will not eat hamburger meat in any form, sausage, hotdogs, etc. because a book I had read about how the meat was processed in the slaughter houses. Funny thing is, the book as a novel and probably not even the description of the process was true!
And no, I won’t eat bologna either!
Erik
http://WelcomeBabyT.Blogspot.com
I don’t eat bologna because when I was little, I ate way too much of it and I got sick of it. Now, I look at it and it makes me gag. The same thing with hotdogs. Those were the two things that I could make by myself or eat cold out of the ‘fridge without my parents (who worked) so that’s what I ate.
I suppose you could say the same for the bs that we are fed, eventually, we either see it for what it is or we just get sick of it and think deeper. At least I hope so.
Here voting for you, by the way.
Of course, by the time I got done commenting, I was too late to vote. My heart was in the right place, though.
I don’t particularly like bologna, but I will eat an Italian sub with mortadella on it, which is the original Italian version of bologna. I also love me some scrapple which is made of who the hell knows what and is definitely not particularly good for you.
Remember the old adage “you are what you eat.” Once I took this to heart, I began researching what went into the things that I was eating. I mean, who wants to be comprised of a pig’s brains and unmentionables?
Whats more, a truly scary experience can be had just grabbing items at random out of your cupboard and looking at the size of the ingredient list. Healthy food, food that nourishes your body, has very few ingredients.
Take oats for example, the listed ingredient is: oats. I have tried to alter the way that I eat so that I do not eat anything that contains more than 12 ingredients. More than that and it is so processed, it is worthless to your body.
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