Open Roads, Clear Skies, and Fried Food?!

 I recently came back from a roadtrip down south to Charleston, South Carolina then over to the Smoky Mountains and finally to Nashville, Tennessee.  My adventures have led me to my next blog topic, which is how so many parts of this country do not have access to healthy foods.  I believe after getting a small glimpse of other parts of the nation I have a better understanding as to why there is such a obesity epidemic in this country.

Living in the greater NYC area I've been spoiled with health food and fitness stores, farmer's markets, juice bars, and healthier alternative supermarkets like Whole Foods and Trader Joes.  What I'm saying is that the right foods have essentially been at my fingertips.  Even finding vegetarian-friendly has never really posed any problems.  As many of you are aware when traveling anywhere of distance on major highways you'll pass a slew of rest stops that typically have a lot of the same fast food joints like McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Arby's, Dunkin Donuts, and Subway.  It is super frustrating when you're trying to not eat processed garbage, you're hungry, and there isn't a legitimate supermarket and/or restaurant for miles.  On a six day trip I had Subway 9 times essentially giving that Jared guy a run for his money.  I had 1 of 2 things either the Veggie Delite (all the vegetables) on a 6' whole wheat bread with vinegar or I just ditched the bread and had that in salad form.  All things considered I think I did the best I could for my surroundings.  I'm super glad I packed snacks for the car like apples, oranges, raisins, kale chips, trail mix, granola bars, peanut butter, etc.  It's just disheartening that one of the "healthier" fast food places is the healthiest option people have on the road in certain states. 

Another observation I made was that so many small towns have general stores typically attached to gas stations where people go to grab a meal.  I was frightened at the lack of options, not to mention the overabundance of fried chicken, wings, hot dogs, chips, and candy.  Many of these places had packaged deli meats (oh hey sodium) and cheeses that has that flappy rubber texture (yum!).  I went to the nearest town when I was camping that was about 9 miles away from my campsite and the two stores/gas stations didn't even carry fruits/vegetables or eggs!  This is what so many people are accustomed to eating in this country.  It's sad that it is literally easy to find a tub of processed fried chicken than it is an apple! We really need to do something as a country to give all people equal access to healthy foods.  I know what I'm writing about isn't new at all, but to actually experience compelled me to share my thoughts.  Hopefully one day as a nation we'll be able to pull away from processed foods and eat clean, local, fresh foods!