Select the best paint for your canvas

The other day when I was in one of our local hardware stores, I found myself observing a family standing at the paint counter. While the parents interviewed the paint specialist, one of their children was eating a McDonald's Double Quarter-Pounder With Cheese, large fries and some sort of fountain drink.

The couple was asking about the quality of paint, how many gallons to get optimal coverage, how many years it would last, color options, how to apply it, etc. As I listened to them, I couldn't help but contemplate how they appeared to be spending more time thinking about the quality of paint they will be putting on their home than they are about the quality — or lack of quality — of food they are consuming.

According to McDonald's nutrition information, which I found at its website (mcdonalds.com), the burger their child was eating contains 42 grams of fat and 750 calories. The fries have 25 grams of fat and 500 calories. Then there are the potential calories in the fountain drink to consider as well.

This made me contemplate a few questions. As a society, how much effort or time do we give to things other than our body? Do we spend more time on how the outside of our body looks rather than the inside just because we cannot see it? Do we spend more time taking care of our car and making sure the correct oil is used and the tires are inflated than we think about how we fuel our bodies? Do we spend countless hours doing our hair and nails and putting on makeup to make our appearance on the outside look good than we do in making our insides look good?

Is it simply a case of out of sight, out of mind?

What if we could directly see the effects of what eating sugary, fatty, salty foods day and day out are doing to our bodies? What if we could see the fat? What if we could see the diabetes?

What if we could see the potential burden we are putting on our loved ones as they watch us suffer from abusing our bodies? Would that be enough to stop the growing obesity epidemic? Would that make us think twice about what we eat?

Imagine if we thought of the inside of our body as a blank canvas each morning, just waiting for the color of life to be presented in the form of beautiful, vibrant foods. What would that painting look like at the end of the day?

Would it be a Picasso, da Vinci or Monet? Would it tell a story about the nutritional journey of the food we eat? Would it stand the test of time? Sadly, for many of us, that painting would just have one color — yellow from all of the processed fast food we eat.

We should be eating the most naturally colorful foods we can get our hands on so that we can last as long as the paint on our walls.

Kevin Cotter is managing general partner at New Earth Market in Yuba City.