Over the past few days, I've read many blogs of people bemoaning the seemingly inevitable weight-creep this time of the year. Post-Thankgiving, especially in many workplaces, there seem to be cookies, candies, and other "treats" in abundance wherever you turn.

I was at Starbucks to grab a latte and snack with my daughter after school yesterday. A woman in front of me in line was chatting with me, and as her order was being prepared, she noted, "Oh, my doctor told me to watch the refined sugars and carbohydrates. But I've lost some weight and so I feel like I can treat myself. I'll get back on the wagon after the new Year."

The server then produced her order: an extra-large Godiva hot cocoa with whipped creme and an enormous peanut-butter-cup cookie.

I looked at her and mentally, I wished her well. And then I thought of the movie "SuperSize Me."

The combined praise and bashing of "Atkins", "South Beach" and other popular diets ignore much of the true problem of American eating habits. We eat food with little to no nutritional value. We consume "empty" calories. Our food is highly processed, over-salted or sweetened, and full of bizzarre unnatural sources of fat and carbohydrates.

And those processed foods have gotten a stranglehold on our palates. We have dulled our senses to now need hyper-sodium, ultra-rich, or extra-sweet in order to derive pleasure from food.

And, sadly, many of us have forgotten how to prepare or cook our own foods, or never learned in the first place.