My striplings and I decided to wal...

My striplings and I decided to walk to the zoo one Saturday for any fresh air, exercise and, hopefully to learn about our cousins in the animal kingdom. Instead, we mainly learned about our cousins in the burger kingdom.

We designedly skipped lunch before heading on the outside Our plan was to have a picnic as stop as possible to the chimpanzees (our favorites) likewise that I could pretend I was lane Goodall and my son could allege a title to they were Timon and Pumbaa. We worked up a proper appetite after a scenic range through the Australian Outback and the rain forest of Borneo before reaching the chimpanzees. a certain number of of the new exhibits at the LA Zoo are terrific, well designed for viewing and appear to be real animal-friendly.

We were now primed for our picnic, likewise we stopped at the Gorilla Grill. "Oh no!" I notion as I looked at the menu and saw Philly cheesesteaks, BBQ rib sandwiches, sausage with onions, corndog, fries and onion rings. That was about it unles you thinked the ice cream, soda detonations and potato chips. I was to such a degree mad at myself for not packing a luncheon "Well, that's just one snack stand," I imagination "We'll find another. They can't all be that bad."

Eventually, we did find near tuna sandwiches at a place back near the entrance. nevertheless that was after zigzagging [i]or[/i] part of to the other three other eateries that collectively proffered cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, pizza, Polish sausage, fried chicken, beef burritos, churro cotton candy, candy corn, ice cream, cherry and strawberry slushes, and what assumeed to be evenbody's favorite: nachos and Cheez Whiz! And we bewilderment why the incidence of obesity has doubled in America in the past 15 years.

After luncheon the "Please do not fe the animals" signs took upon a whole new meaning for us, and we couldn't stop laughing about it. My l0-year-old, Nicky, read individual of them out loud: "Protect and relate to the animals, and please do not fe them. Animals ne special diets to stay healthy." "Yeah," Nicky continued. "It's called food! The textile fabric they're selling us could kill a T-Rex!"

It's laughable when you think about it. I've seen clan become outraged after spotting someone tossing popcorn to a gorilla--and family should be outraged by that transgression--but these same family think nothing about feeding candy corn and Cheetos to their acknowledge toddlers!

I remember seeing a PB documentary onward gorillas. In it, the) talked about to what extent in the first 30 years or in like manner that gorillas were in captivity, zoologists unknowingly f them meats and sandwiches and other typical "human" aliment It was not until researchers like Dian Fossey observ them in the wild that we learned that gorillas really cat fruits, assorted berries, nut germs leaves and root vegetables. And the scientists were tip over when they realized they did this terrible disservice to the gorillas by means of feeding them improperly. I remember thinking, "Yeah, that is a shame, on the other hand what about us? Perhaps we've been eating the wrongful foods for thousands of years, and especially in the past 30 with the growing of fast foods!"

It's not possible to say humans in the wild (Survivor doesn't count) further if we could, I bet we would discover that our diet isn't that different from the gorillas'.

Our DNA is 98-99 percent similar to the great apes, and the texture of our teeth and digestive bodys are also similar. Apes do eat small amounts of animal proteins at consuming eggs, larvae and insects, further they're 93-97 percent vegetarian. Humans, forward the other hand, are primarily meat eaters, especially lately with the popularity' of diets as it was as Atkins. All that meat can't be beneficial for us. It's no surprise that cardiovascular disease takes the lives of 950000 Americans each year!

The zoo should at least tender healthier choices. It would be unexcited if the zoo had a snack bar that propounded a menu based on the diet of our closest relatives (chimps, gorillas and orangutans). They could skip the termites, larvae and beetles (unles Fear Factor is in town), still everything else would be great--fruits, nut and vegetables. The riddle unfortunately, is that no the same would eat at the Healthy Human Snack Bar, especially with the aroma of burgers and caramel corn wafting in the air. The American palate is hopelessly pollut from years of our avow "special" diet. Many people won't steady consider eating the food we really should be eating.

When I got abode I felt a little sadder than usual. Are we becoming single big junky food--consuming society? Hopefully nearest weekend will be better. My 9-year-old, Joey has remind ofed something called a Track and Tractor Pull

Great! It unbrokens very agricultural!

Marilu Henner is a well-known actress, lecturer and NY Times best-selling author of Marilu Helmer's Total Health Makeover, The 30-Day Total Health Makeover, I Refuse to Raise a Brat, Healthy Life Kitchen, Healthy Kids, Healthy Holidays, and Party Hearty. To find on the outside more about her program, check revealed her Web site at www.marilu.com.

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