I am sure the owners of Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, Buffalo Bros and Red Cactus miss me. Why would a handful of restaurant owners miss a young college male with a gorilla-like appetite? This is because I used to be one of the aforementioned restaurants’ best customers.

Last year, my daily lunch routine consisted of walking from class to one of the previously mentioned restaurants and, after my meal, a bloated walk to my next class (I can’t even mention Market Square’s food, as that will require a separate piece.) This routine would eventually cause me to gain over twenty unhealthy pounds of fat even though I worked out every day. I thought that was enough to keep me healthy and in relatively good shape. I do not know why I didn’t understand that unless one has the metabolism of an 8-year-old child, he or she can’t eat unhealthy food daily and not expect to gain weight. I see people every day drinking drinks that are basically sugar water, eating low-quality restaurant food and gaining weight, just thinking that it is “natural” and they cannot do anything about it, or the just as awful mindset of: “it’s in my genes, I can’t help it”. This illogical disconnect between eating unhealthy and low-quality food and gaining unhealthy weight is truly one of America’s biggest problems.

Once the school year was over and I started to eat at home every day, the connection became clear. All the restaurant food I was eating was making me fat. Eating home-cooked and nutrient-dense food helped me lose all the fat that I got from eating out every day during the school year.

I hate to blast the local restaurants, but has anyone ever walked out of Fuzzy’s after eating one or two of their delicious, albeit absurdly unhealthy tacos thinking “gee, I am really glad I had that?” I used to walk out of Fuzzy’s bloated and with a slight case of nausea due to the low quality of ingredients they use and also the lack of vital nutrients in the food. One cannot live on simple, high-GI carbohydrates, artery-clogging and fatty proteins, and cheap, nutrient-lacking iceberg lettuce.

This ingestion of low-quality foods and a sedentary lifestyle has truly created an obesity epidemic in America with only one solution. Either put down the fork or start to eat healthy. Obesity cannot be cured with the current quality of foods the average American eats and a slovenly lifestyle in general.

The next time you stuff your face with that burrito or juicy hamburger, think of the consequences to your waist line and your heart. If only everyone lived by the mantra: “lift weights, do cardio, and eat healthy or the terrorists win.”

Danny Peters is a junior psychology major from Fort Worth.