IN-N-OUT Burger for Lent

Estimates vary, but as of the end of 2024, the health food industry in the United States had a market value of more than one trillion dollars. Yes, that’s trillion. Imagine you had a bunch of bags, each capable of holding a billion dollars. You’d need a thousand of them to hold a trillion. That’s a lotta bags, as they say at the airport check-in counter.

Finding this out has made an impression on me, because I am about to order rocks for the front of my house and just became aware of cubic yards. If anyone wants to convert a thousand bags of a billion dollars into cubic yards, that would be interesting. Post a comment. The questionable part of all this is that I’m not sure how well that money is being spent. That is, if you were to fill those same bags with opinions, often “expert,” about what constitutes healthy food, I suspect you’d have more than a thousand bags.

Just one simple example: as I write this, I am crunching on an apple that tastes like a sour potato. I’m pretty sure that if I pinched my nose, my taste buds wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Now, I did not buy the apple at a health food store, but do I have to spend five dollars a pound for apples that actually taste like apples? I don’t blame you if right now you’re thinking of either Soylent Green or Sleeper, both from the year 1973, when, if I remember correctly, apples were apples.

Then there’s the fitness industry, including gyms, health clubs, fitness studios, equipment, clothing, and online programs. By the end of 2024, the fitness industry in the United States stood at $147 billion, having grown about 7.8% since 2018. The global fitness industry is even more “pumped” and expected to reach $257 billion in 2025. Meanwhile, the broader exercise industry, which encompasses all “physical activity” markets–whatever that means–is valued globally at more than $1.14 trillion. Imagine that. I balked at spending $120 for a pair of boxing shoes and the same amount on 16-ounce sparring gloves.

You have to wonder what’s going on, what with obesity rates as high as forty percent and the amount spent on healthcare now at more than 18% of GDP. Considering we’re talking about the American economy of $29 trillion (2024), that would send the ticket agent at the airport into a swoon. There’s no denying the socio-economic dimension of the problem, which is to say that fast food is still affordable for most people–even if you have to pull out a twenty-dollar bill for a cheeseburger and fries. It’s also addictive, making it even harder to turn away.

This points to the glaring health divide in this country, which is even worse than the digital one. Hopefully, RFK, Jr. will begin to turn things around by addressing our dependence on drugs, promoting preventative medicine, and banning certain chemicals and food additives, especially in that cheeseburger and fries. The effort needs to go beyond slogans and catch-phrases, since the situation has become a crisis. It wasn’t so long ago that students had to meet physical fitness criteria laid out by his uncle’s Council on Physical Fitness. I remember. I was one of them.

If this seems daunting, that’s because in many respects it is. But I like to rely on a simple but effective solution to both food and fitness. Believe it or not, I take my inspiration from the fast-food chain, IN-N-OUT Burger, although it has nothing to do with fast food. Rather, the chain’s name says it all. If I focus on the things that go into my mouth and those that come out, not only will my health and fitness improve, but so will my overall being. There is a reflective part of this practice, since it requires thinking before eating and speaking. Thinking, in turn, requires pausing, waiting, holding back–biting the tongue.

This can be a beautiful Lenten exercise. For what comes out of the mouth, look to Sirach 27:4-7: “When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do one’s faults when one speaks. As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace, so in tribulation is the test of the just. The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; so too does one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind. Praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested.”

For fitness, a favorite of mine is Psalm 92:13-16: “The just one shall flourish like the palm tree, like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow. They that are planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall bear fruit even in old age; vigorous and sturdy shall they be. Declaring how just is the LORD, my rock, in whom there is no wrong.”

Lent is the right time to practice this “in-n-out spirituality,” which can easily integrate prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Imagine a world where people think before eating and speaking. There’s been an awful lot of both going on lately. Some would say too much. I can’t accuse anyone, though, since this in-n-out burger is the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to do. This, from a guy who took nothing but cold showers for a year.

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Source content: wellnesscreatives, ptpioneer, zipppia, countryeconomy. Image credits: Leosprspctive, Scott Evans, Ashley Green. Want more? Go to Robert Brancatelli. The Brancatelli Blog is a member of The Free Media Alliance, which promotes “alternatives to software, culture, and hardware monopolies.” RIP, Larry O’Hara.