I had a rude awakening when I visited Iowa one weekend recently. I usually love Iowa so every once in a while I expect it is natural to have a bad experience.

In a few weeks I have a wedding to attend and I did not own a summer dress. While visiting one of my favorite Iowa haunts (a pet store), I noticed a dress shop next door. Later in the evening my daughter-in-law and I wandered back to the dress shop in search of the perfect dress for me to wear to the wedding. I tried on dress after dress. Finally it dawned on me — I am blonde you know — the reason I was not finding a dress was because I was trying on too small a size!

My daughter-in-law was too polite to say, “Those dresses are too small!” She would just comment that possibly that dress was not for me. Like a good daughter-in-law she let me face the truth all on my own. I was getting fatter!

I thought about it and decided the reason the size of dress I thought I should wear did not fit me was because the Iowa restaurants fed me too well. On Friday night I had had a huge plate of smoked pork and turkey, beans and potatoes at a barbecue restaurant. Of course they forced me to take their doughnut holes home for dessert. On Saturday morning I was forced to eat some more doughnut holes and muffins that happened to be on the table. Then I was forced to take my grandson to McDonald’s. I had to have a Sausage McMuffin because it was not polite to sit at McDonald’s and not try their food.

The day continued on. After McDonald’s it was time for lunch and I was force-fed sandwiches and fries and pop from Arby’s. In the afternoon it was time for some one-on-one time with my granddaughter. Of course, my favorite coffee house just happened to be pushing smoothies with whipped cream. Onward to dinnertime. IHOP always looks forward to my visits when I am in Iowa, so I couldn’t disappoint IHOP. The folks at IHOP enticed me to have a huge crepe filled with peppers and sausage and bacon and potatoes and of course cheese and eggs. On Sunday morning the eggs and bacon and smoothies down the block were calling us. I could hear them calling my name. Of course, the weekend could not end without another trip to McDonald’s and Big Mac, fries and pop.

So I am now a dress size bigger. Maybe I should sue the state of Iowa for my dress size problem. After all, aren’t people suing McDonald’s because they are getting heavier? I can’t sue McDonald’s because my eating establishments were varied. Yes, I must have to sue the state of Iowa for the weight gain. After all, it can’t be my fault, can it?

The Los Angeles City Council recently declared a moratorium on new fast food restaurants in the South Los Angeles area. This is in an impoverished section of Los Angeles. They want to attract establishments that serve healthier food because the city has above average rates of obesity. I feel that is about as silly as my suing the state of Iowa because I ate too much and ate many fattening foods.

I had a choice. I had a choice to eat healthier foods the weekend I was in Iowa. McDonald’s serves wonderful salads. I didn’t need to eat doughnuts or eat so much. I had the choice to eat healthy and I chose to eat heavy.

However, one of the reasons I choose bad, greasy, fast food is because of the cost. I can eat much cheaper at a fast-food restaurant. Healthy food is not cheap. I suspect that is why many families frequent fast-food restaurants. It is very expensive for a family to eat healthy. That doesn’t make it right; that is just the way I see it. Cost does come into the decision-making process when you cannot eat at home.

Banning something only makes people want things more. If someone banned coffee, I probably would get arrested for finding a way to drink it.

I can’t blame anyone for my weight gain or my bad choices when comes to what I eat. I have to take the responsibility for my own eating habits.

What bothers me about governing bodies making decisions for people with little or no income is that these decision makers cannot possibly understand what it is like to have to feed a family when you are at poverty level. Unless we have lived a life in poverty at some time, we can’t understand. If we want people to eat healthier, then we have to provide healthy food at a cost that those at the poverty level can afford.

A new type of fast-food chain could populate the country. Can you picture a street filled with these restaurants? They could be called Radishes on Broadway, Cucumber Green, The Strawberry Banana and Artichoke Heaven. Maybe we should make that the new American dream, healthy food that everyone can afford.

Government cannot legislate my eating habits. Only my financial resources, my taste buds and my will to change can do that. You are what you eat. Who are you?

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. E-mail her at thecolumn@bev comm.net.