Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Water Discrimination

Now that I am one week into my New Year's resolution, which I call The Water Experiment. I have made a couple of observations. First of all, drinking water is not so bad. I actually do not miss the soda at all. I was actually getting to the point where some sodas were tasting too sweet to me, particularly Diet Dr. Pepper. I knew if I was going to make this work, I would have to go cold turkey, so I am pleasantly surprised at how easy it has been so far. The second thing I have noticed is what restaurants and fast food joints do when you order water. Now, as I discussed yesterday, food establishments make lots of money selling soft drinks, and they make nothing providing water, so one shouldn't be too surprised that they don't jump for joy when you order water with your meal. The interesting thing is how some restaurants make you "feel" when you order water. For example, I have noticed that almost all fast food places give you the smallest size cup for water. No problem. I can handle that. If I need more, I'll just get up and get a refill. But some places give you a "special" cup for water. You know, one of those flimsy clear plastic cups that squeezes in too easily and tend to be top heavy (thus, more likely to tip over and spill). Even worse, these "special" cups do not accept the lids that are provided for normal cups, so you can't take your water with you when you leave. At least unless you want water spilled in your vehicle. Now I think they do this so that they can tell if you are really getting water from the soda fountains or trying to steal soda with your free water cup. I am sure that some people (think teenagers) steal soda with their water cups, but I would think that the vast majority do not. To punish someone by giving them the "special" water cup is a bad idea. I have decided to make a mental note of places that do this and try to avoid them in the future. Now at many sit down restaurants, this is not the case. Waiters and waitresses for the most part do not make a big deal about you ordering water, as long as you get a good meal to go with it. You see, what they are thinking is: smaller bill, smaller tip. But I think that if restaurants really want to encourage people to order the "healthy" food selections, then they should expect people to also order "healthy" drink selections, i.e. water. Here's a tip, if you are at a nice restaurant and want to make your drink look like a "real" drink, order your water with a lemon or lime wedge. In the coming weeks I'll have a few more water tips to share, along with my black list of restaurants who are Water Discriminators. Maybe we can get a little grassroots change to happen. These next 4 years are supposed to be all about change right?

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