STORYBOOK INTRO

BY: RAFAEL HEDRICK

Cartoon Image of  Man and Waiter
Provided by Coolbuddy.com
Weblink: http://www.coolbuddy.com/jokes/food.htm

Have you ever opened the refrigerator and stared at the contents trying to decide what to eat?  Have you ever tried a fad diet, or eaten based on a story you’ve heard from a friend?  I think everyone has heard the myth that you shouldn’t eat Poprocks and drink a carbonated beverage together!  Did you ever try it, or were you too afraid?  I, personally erred on the side of caution, and never mixed the two.  Because food is such a large part of life and Americans are always embarking on some new diet craze, the following pages of this storybook are dedicated to our food conscious society.  The stories in this storybook all pertain to food myths.

When trying to decipher how to be healthy, there is nothing more rampant these days than food and drink myths.  We have all been inundated with information on health and diet - fat free, carb free, food free, etc. - for many, many years.  Also, as we all are told quite often by the "experts," Americans are getting heavier and the myths of food and drink and dieting and exercising are growing.  I personally work out with weights four days per week and try to do three to four days of cardio (try to).  I watch what I eat and try to be healthy in general - again try to.  I also love hamburgers and fries like the rest of America.

Each story in this storybook has been told through the memory of the sole survivor of a family who could not eat anything and escape with their lives.  This poor fellow grew up with a family who slowly but surely each died because they simply ate.   His children are now old enough to know the truth about his family and why they are gone.  So, in the following stories he tells them the stories about each one of them - parents and siblings.

The first story, Celery: The Silent Killer, is the beginning of five stories in which Sam recounts the details of his family’s demise.  This story in particular deals with his sister, Gracie’s, infatuation with losing weight.  In order to do so, she eats nothing but celery.  The problem: she burns more calories eating the celery than she was taking in and died, but not of starvation…

Then in, Return of the Pop Rocks, his brother, Mikey, makes the huge mistake of combining Pop Rocks and Pepsi…

After such tragic deaths Sam’s parents are terribly distraught and begin to think about having more children.  His parents have difficulty getting pregnant and find Mountain Dew is the culprit in the story, Killer Bull.  After a lawsuit between his parents, Dad quits drinking Mountain Dew in order to have children, but tragedy ensues when he replaces it with Red Bull…

Mom and Dad were successful in having one more child before Killer Bull tragically killed Dad.  The poor baby though doesn’t have a chance when her formula is mixed with dog food in the story, Killer Baby Food…

Just when things are returning to normal, Mom makes the mistake of taking vitamins and eating shrimp in The Cocktail Tale…

I have been dreading this moment for many years.  I knew one day I would have to explain the disappearance of my entire family, but it came faster than I could have imagined.  I guess my children deserve to know the truth.  They deserve to know why they have never met their grandparents, their aunts and uncles, and have no cousins.  I told them long ago that they had all passed away when I was young.  I told them that when they were older I would explain it all to them.  Now they are older and they want to know.  I promised I would tell them and it seems as though right now is as good a time as any…

Proceed to Celery: The Silent Killer

Return to my Storybook.