I just saw a picture of Michelle Obama on Drudge with a storyline underneath exclaiming “Apple Slices in Every Happy Meal!” I headed over to the linked article and read:
An apple a day may keep the doctor away. But when you put it in a Happy Meal, it might help keep regulators at bay too. McDonald’s on Tuesday said that it would add apple slices and reduce the portion of French fries in its children’s meal boxes beginning this fall, effectively taking away consumers’ current choice between either having apples with caramel dip or fries as a Happy Meal side.
Great, I’m allergic to apples as are many people because of the pollen allergy. I have a friend who has very low sodium levels and when she goes to restaurants in New York City where she lives, she actually needs the salt. Mayor Bloomberg’s efforts to ban salt leave my friend frustrated and annoyed. I wonder how many kids have apple and/or pollen allergies? Human physiology varies from person to person. One person’s apples are another’s poison. Are regulators and perhaps Michelle Obama trying to kill me with their “good intentions”? And don’t they care about the children?
Categories: Food and Drink
Michelle Obama isn’t an elected official, and she wouldn’t be eligible to be hired as a nutritionist by any of our federal regulatory agencies because she has no training/qualifications in that area. So how the hell does she get regulatory power over businesses and industries?!
Just like Hillary got regulatory power over the health insurance and health care industries back in 1993…
Even if M.O. was an elected official, by what bizarre assessment of man’s nature does she seize control of what we may ingest? Even if she had the nod of 151 million other control freaks, I don’t concede that it’s any of their goddamn biz what any of us do with our bodies. Get out of me, you freaks!
she thinks because her old man is occupying the oval office it gives her the credentials to tell the rest of us what to do. rmember this is the same woman who very bitterly while he was campaigning for the office he is now degrading said AMERICA IS A MEAN COUNTRY.even though her and her husband had become millionairs in this mean country,
Ms. Obama may not be a nutritionist or hospital administrator — but she was sure active on the University of Chicago medical school board, and active in turning away uninsured patients, a violation of federal law. That didn’t stop her.
The other aspect of what she is doing is the bad science. The original government plan for a “healthy” diet was never really proven to be correct. Drop salt, saturated fat, sure. Um, except, why? These have been important in human diets for thousands of years, why did they make the list of undesirable crap?
We have been told for a generation or more that people that drink diet soft drinks gain weight. This year we find that, in addition to the fraction of people that have, or develop, lethal or milder allergies to modern sugar-free sweeteners, that they cause the body to enter a “starvation” mode, and stuff all available calories into fat. We further find that high-fructose corn sweeteners pack on significantly more fat than the same number of calories of sugar.
So rather than pester McDonalds, perhaps a more effective approach would be a breakfast with adequate fats, proteins, and simple carbohydrates, eliminating high-fructose corn syrup/sweetener, and eliminate artificial sweeteners. Stick to water, and vinegar, honey, dried fruit, or sugar for sweetening. Oh, and eliminate cold foods and drinks from 1/2 hour before meals until two hours after — cold foods stop digestion until the core body temp recovers.
Michelle is obviously unfamiliar with the needs of manual workers and other laborers. During the summer months, workers in hot factory environments and outside doing things like road repairs need salt pills to keep the proper chemical balance in their bodies. The loss of potassium due to excessive sweating that such workers experience can result in serious and immediate health problems. Salt pills remedy the problem. Similarly, children playing actively outside need to have salt in order to retain the proper chemical balance.
I agree with commenter #1. Michelle Obama ought to keep her mouth shut about health matters since she has no qualifications as a nutritionist. Somebody is going to end up dying due to her stupidity about the role of salt in people’s diets.
Most nutritionist don’t have the qualifications as nutritionists. There has been so much bogus science regarding nutrition in the last 50 years most of them aren’t believable.
You got THAT right. Tops on my own personal hit parade is how “scientists and nutritionists who know what they’re doing” told my mother the whole time I was growing up that butter was bad for me and margarine was good. It was only after I reached adulthood that they said “hey, you know what? We were wrong. You don’t want to eat a pound of butter a day, but you REALLY don’t want to eat a pound of margarine a day, because it’s worse for you. Sorry about that.” That was what, a decade or more ago? I haven’t bought margarine since. Butter is GOOD. Plus, it fits in very nicely with my high-fat, high-sodium diet as a CF patient.
Back in the days when I ran a trauma center, I used to have daily battles with nutritionists who were horrified when I would order 4000 calories a day for some massive trauma case. They had no idea how lethal malnutrition is for burn cases. No science. Just cookbooks.
Rebuilding large sections of your anatomy is an energy intensive process.
I never switched to margarine during the years of hype. And then it turns out that margarine’s trans-fat composition contributes to artery clogging.
But I’m still against such entities as Michael Bloomberg and the state of California passing legislation against trans-fats. (Bloomberg is high on my sh!t list anyway for promoting the mosque thing at ground zero.)
The liberal credo:
“micromanaging your life ’cause we can’t manage our own”
Some body chemistry is simply more inclined to hypertension and plaque build up, and what is or isn’t eaten, salt, trans-fats, whatever, don’t have a great deal of effect on pre-existing genetic predilections.
Er, that salt thing is nanny Bloomberg’s doing, not mommy Michelle’s. She should stay home and make that two years old husband of hers to eat his peas.
Are you people serious? We as Americans are fat and getting fatter. The first lady is trying to help Americans help themselves. I just don’t understand how people can be critical of the first lady trying to improve the health of all Americans and specifically young Americans. Ultimately it’s your choice how you eat and if you want your fries I am pretty sure McDonald’s will still sell them to you. I’m also pretty sure if every McDonald’s closed tomorrow you would still be able to maintain a healthy amount of salt in your diet.
The world could be very nearly perfect if the rest of you people would just shape up!
Stacey, why the hell is it any of your or Michelle Obama’s business what anyone wants to eat? If we want to eat at McDonalds we’ll eat at McDonalds, and you can stuff your indignation at our choices into the bodily orifice of your choice.
Wacky:
You’re missing the complete linkage:
1. To cover the last 5% of uninsured in America, we don’t just help them directly. No,we nationalize insurance for the whole 300 million of us.
2. But now that “we” are paying for your health care, “we” get to tell you how to be healthy. After all, it’s “our” money, right?
Part of the game all along. Everything affects health, doesn’t it? So once gubmint is paying for all our healrth care, it gets to regulate every one of our activities. For our own good. You there! You’re watching too much TV, time to exercise! And reading political blogs is bad for your mental health, We’ll put a stop to that.
Probably better close some of the more objectionable political blogs, just to be safe. We can keep Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground, of course, but the opinions on those right-wing blogs are just so much hate. Hate’s not good for your health, you know.
Well, now it’s clear what the privatization of education has accomplished; a whole group of the dumber half of Americans complaining that the government is interfering in their collective suicide by fat and salt. Looks like the fast food nation has succumbed to brain disease.
It might have been our money but after taxing us it’s theirs!
Glad to see you coming out for the legalization of heroin….
Stacey, that is some first-rate sarcasm. Subtle but biting, it touches on many of the things hated by so many about meddlesome nanny-state types who think that caring for others means to treat them like children. As a bonus, you also included addressing the spouse of the president is something akin to royalty.
Home run, grrl!
I agree with Stacey. People need to be controlled, they can’t be trusted to make decisions for themselves.
Stacey, how about you and all the rest of the food nazis just butt out? Is that serious enough for you?
You’re entirely missing the point, Stacey, which is that Mrs. Obama
A) Has neither the training nor the qualifications to be a nutritionist
B) Is trying to shove every American into a square hole, no matter what shape peg they are and
C) She’s doing so based entirely on a CHILDREN’S RHYME ABOUT APPLES.
Americans already have everything they need to eat a healthy diet. If they choose not to it’s none of the first lady’s god damned business.
Or yours, for that matter.
I am very much enjoying this display of anti-appleism by you fine folks. I have no doubt that if it had been Michelle who’d told Our Young to “just say no,” you’d have been incensed by her infringement on Our Sacred Freedumbs. And it’s not as if she’s a qualified drug counselor!
Unfortunately, the president never took Nancy’s advice on the topic as a young man.
I’m 5’5″ and weigh 116lbs soaking wet. Do you consider me fat then?
Here’s a thought, why don’t you and your busybody ilk bother each other and stay out of normal people’s business?
“Busybody” is the right word.
Stacey, did you flunk reading comprehension, or are you intentionally ignoring what the article reported? Government regulators are taking away our freedom to choose. You can excuse it as “trying to help”, but it’s still tyranny. Or do you approve of tyranny when it’s in a cause you support?
To echo Wacky Hermit, it’s none of her censored business to tell us what to do. Nor is it yours. Leave us the bleep alone, you crackpot control freak.
Stacy, the First Lady is meddling in affairs that are none of her business and letting her ignorance show to boot.
Sugar is a major contributor to a wealth of metabolic diseases and fructose is specifically to blame. So giving kids apples is exactly the wrong nutritional response. Juices are even worse due to concentration levels.
And what’s your bias against salt? The latest information indicates that salt may not be nearly as bad for you as the medical profession has been warning.
And, as a father of three girls (5’8″, 112#; 5’10″, 110#; 5’11″ 135#) who need the fat in their diet, would you kindly butt out? It’s cute to say “. Ultimately it’s your choice how you eat…” but you don’t mean it. You indicate with the rest of your post that we should regulate what people eat.
And if the government hadn’t gotten the food pyramid upside down we probably wouldn’t be so fat. It was a fad diet temporarily made scientific by grant bribery. After politicians set back diet research some 20 years, there are shoots of actual science poking up through the debris.
I still say it was ideological, based on that hippie favorite “diet for a small planet.” (Eh. Like the bumperstickers saying “The Earth is our mother” which cause me to shout back “Maybe YOUR mother, I’m better than dirt!” “Diet for a Small Planet” makes me shout back “The planet is huge. It’s your mind that’s small.”) They wanted us to think small and eat vegan and… This is your nutrition. This is your nutrition on ideological insanity
And then, as people get fatter, they prescribe… more of the same.
Are you people serious? We as Americans are fat and getting fatter. The first lady is trying to help Americans help themselves. I just don’t understand how people can be critical of the first lady trying to improve the health of all Americans and specifically young Americans.
Let’s see… the federal government decided that children weren’t eating healthy foods (or enough foods) and thus got involved in dictating to local school systems what could and could not be served in the school lunchroom. That was a generation ago. And yet our children are still “fat” and getting fatter.
So how’s that force masquerading as concern working out for us all? Obviously, the solution didn’t solve the problem, did it?
The problem is that whenever the government decides to take charge of a situation, there are all manner of unintended consequences. In some cases today, kids will skip eating their healthy school lunch (because it tastes awful), and instead buy junk food on the way to or from school.
So since forcing them to eat healthy foods at school didn’t make kids skinnier, now we have DC trying to impose healthy food “options” on restaurants and what they offer their patrons.
Where does it stop? Because as with every other government program, I can guarantee you one thing: there will be adverse unintended consequences. Knowing this, then, we can assume kids still won’t get skinnier when McDonald’s no longer offers them fries with their Happy Meal. So then what? Does the government get to impose healthy choices on parents and what they serve their children in the privacy of their own homes?
We already have some politicians and bureaucrats making the case for taking fat children away from their parents who are obviously “abusing” them, so I don’t think the argument I’ve outlined is here is an unfair one.
Heh. My favorite is the offishul sooper-dooper government-approved BMI calculator. According to it, I am “obese”. I wear pants with a 34 waist. Okay, so I’m not Brad Pitt…but I was always kind of proud of the fact that I managed to keep the same size waist since high school.
Hey…maybe I can sue the government for damaging my self-esteem. Hmmm….
And Ms. Obama seemed sooo worried about that back when she was a salaried member of the board of directors of TreeHouse Foods, a company that makes pie filling, salad dressing, pudding, cheese sauces, barbecue sauce, and coffee creamer.
“We as Americans are fat and getting fatter.”
Yeah, and it’s our right as Americans. Ain’t it great?
And I’d like to point out that the “obesity epidemic” only started after the US Government started issuing Dietary Guidelines. A clear correlation that raises the possibility that the “obesity epidemic” is caused by the dietary changes resulting from people following the guidelines.
Wow. This is really stupidity at its height. Or are you just a liar?
No, Ron Jazz, it’s true. Try to keep up with the news and latest research on carbohydrates. Maybe look into that internet thing, with the links and the searching.
The food pyramid was junk science and the switch to more carboyhdrates made us fatter, and the fatter we got the more we emphasized carbohydrates, starting with the initial publication of the food pyramid in 1980.
I should also add:
“Ultimately it’s your choice how you eat”
Well, if it’s true that NYC is trying to ban salt, then no. No, it is no longer my choice. And I resent the heck out of that. Especially since if I don’t get enough salt, then I’m subject to seizures and other unpleasant things.
On the bright side, if that ever actually happened on a business trip to NYC and I was to actually survive, I’m pretty sure I could successfully sue them for a LOT of money, the courts being what they are these days…negating the need to ever have to visit that city again since I’d never have to work again. Win-win!
I’m not fat. My children aren’t fat. MO has no right to pontificate on what I and my children should eat. So I’ll just buy a hamburger, regular fries and a cookie from the dollar menu, screw the toy, and tell my children the President’s wife said they couldn’t have a Happy Meal the way they want it.
Stacey,
Don’t mind these conservative hacks. They wouldn’t know good intentions if they were bitten in the butt by same. Not likely most of ‘em will live long without the sage guidance of the informed.
Goatroper
P.S. And Stacey? Bite me. I’m low-sodium. I promise.
Heh. Heh heh. Ha hee hee hee…heh heh heh HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *Gasp* HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!1! *Gasp*
*thud*
Okay. You win the post. I’m outta here.
Well, you know what the road to hell is said to be paved with.
Why do you use “good intentions” as the measure here? Intentions are worthless; it is action that gets results, and that action must be based on reality. If it isn’t, you risk the law of unintended consequences and having the damage outweigh the good. Far, far to much legislation is based on “good intentions” with total disregard for the “facts on the ground”.
I’m sorry, there is nothing benign about Michlele Obamas agenda. Parents and only parents should be the arbiters of what their children eat. We are not fatter and fatter because of fast food. We are fatter because we get less exercise, we get less exercise because we spend 40 hrs or more a week chained to a desk or computer or cash register. Then we spend 20 or more hours in the car getting to and from work, to and from the baby sitters, to and from the doctors, the dentist, the store, children’s activities ect. We’re so stressed out from our daily grind that all we manage to do is go home and fix a peanut butter sandwich and flop in the couch.
Besides that, who has time or energy to fix a balanced diet. Even if they had time they probably couldn’t afford the groceries. Arugula costs a pretty penny these days. Not that Ms Obama has been to the supermarket anytime in the last 10 years but I’m sure if she thought to ask the cook she might find out a few home truths. Thanks to her husband most people can’t hardly afford a head of lettuce much less the other parts of the salad. So she needs to get her junky trunk out of my kitchen and leave me and my family alone.
Didya think about the kids at school? Our district gives elementary phys. ed. ONCE a week! They don’t have playground equipment anymore because big brother deemed it too dangerous- and parents sue when a kid gets a splinter. Then they can’t play outside after school because mom and dad are at work. They get to take turns on the playground at recess, because the bigger kids shouldn’t mix with the smaller ones. Good Intentioned Liberals – ugh, my arse.
Exactly! Michelle Obama, Michael Bloomberg and others know what’s best for the rest of us, so stop whining and fall in line! The fact that medical journals just came out with reports in the last couple of weeks saying the research shows that “too much” salt doesn’t affect heart disease after all is of no consequence. These people are our betters, they have our own best interests in mind, and I’m all for no limits whatsoever on their ability to force us to do what they say.
Victor, not only that, but studies are also finding that the folks who consume the most salt live longer and have healthier hearts. People forget that salt is a vital mineral…it’s actually dangerous to load on “good” foods like bananas that can cause a potassium overload if not counteracted by salt. We’re also seeing studies that show that a type of fat in bacon is actually beneficial, as are the previously nefarious red meats, eggs, butter, full fat dairy, chocolate, shrimp,macadamia nuts, coconut oil and even lard.
But what about the ALAR?? Shouldn’t someone check with Meryl Streep before engaging is such a dangerous modification?
Plus the exploitation of all the future agicultural-work-visa apple pickers! Do the math. A half apple a day x 5 million Happy Meals equals a lot of horribly underpaid undocumented immigrants. Or illegal aliens if you prefer.
This change has many unintended consequences. Bring back more fries! And ketchup is full of lycopene.
The “First Lady” (ie first racist, first only to be proud of her country at age 45, first to take million-dollar vacations with her kids at tax payers expense) has absolutely NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to tell any American what to eat or what to buy. This is just beyond rediculous…..
Stacey…WE the people do not NEED Mommy Michelle telling us what to eat. She can shove her apple slices where the sun won’t ripen them. I will feed my children WHATEVER I BLOODY LIKE. I AM THEIR FATHER. I WILL DISCIPLINE THEM WHEN THEY REQUIRE IT. I WILL FEED THEM REASONABLY. THEY ARE NOT CREATURES OF THE STINKING STATE.
You and the (cough-cough) lovely Mrs. Oboo-boo can both take your Magogist rear ends out of my family’s life.
Now don’t be upsettting the wingnuts with facts, Stacey. You know full well that Michelle Obama is a liberal black woman, and the fine patriotic fatties here will never cotton to being assisted out of their own ignorance and myopia by the likes of a mud person, especially one in great shape with a fully-functioning brain. It frustrates righties to no end that a qualified, intelligent, ELECTED President has a wife who is not hopped up on pills a la Laura Bush.
Ronjazz, you nailed it.
When it comes to correcting other people’s eating habits, or their thinking habits, nothing says “I win” better than being smug, derisive and insufferable. The backhanded accusation of racism was brilliant. No one could have possibly seen that coming. Keep fighting the good fight. You do our side proud.
Ronjazz, take your accusations of racism and stick ‘em.
I think if FLOTUS were simply promoting a healthy lifestyle, using her position and influence to encourage better habits, that would be all well and good. Because you’re right, many of us do need a kick in our overly generous hindquarters. But this is no one-size-fits-all deal, as the author points out, and the govt -Michelle Obama included- should not be threatening regulatory action if some folks just don’t want to eat those gawdawful peas.
Stacey, we are serious. It is Michelle Obama who is not. She preaches, doesn’t practice and her nostrums are junk science.
Some are; many are not. And it’s none of the First Lady’s damned business what I eat.
Really now. Have you looked at America’s kids? They are fat grunts and little hogs in the making. Hooray for McD. These posters make it sound like an eeevil liberal plot to fool kiddies into eating an apple slice. How gruesome!
I’m sorry for people who have apple allergies. Don’t eat the apple.
Construction workers? Don’t buy a Happy Meal. Get a Quarter Pounder and inject it straight into your heart.
People who need more salt? Put salt on your food.
Wow, this thread is just getting too fun to leave:
“People who need more salt? Put salt on your food.”
Well, if what people are saying is true, then I can’t in NYC. I realize that’s not the federal govt, but it IS nanny govt at its worst, and NYC basically tracks what the feds are thinking anyway. I think they try their more outrageous ideas there first to check response, so they know whether they’ll need to lock down the entire country when they try their latest plan.
But you and your fellow food nazis aren’t answering the question that you repeatedly get asked. What business is it of the government what I eat, what my daughter or wife eat, or what ANYBODY eats?
Seriously. It’s personally offensive to many of us, and we perceive it as not only a HUGE government intrusion into our lives, but a complete waste of our tax dollars to be focusing on this when financial armageddon stalks Washington DC. Don’t the feds have something better to be doing right about now than micromanaging the amount of salt in happy meals?
I mean, I’m feeling like I just stumbled into the Onion or something.
What? I’m the one saying to salt your food if you want to, but I’m a ‘food nazi’?
I thought conservatives and libertarians were for freedom? Me too. Salt away, but if I want to buy food w/o salt, or with less salt, what is my choice?\\\
what is your choice? Your choice is to buy food that has less salt. Your choice should not be to limit what is available to me or mine. If you believe salt has these magically harmful properties to every human being, I reckon that it would be reasonable to force restaurants not to sell food with salt on/in it. If it is merely something you don’t want, or even is something that is not especially healthful in large amounts, you should let folks make their own decisions about how much is too much. Unless you claim your values should override everyone else’s because of your basically superior nature, your wishes should only affect you.
Feel free to educate others in your theories and, if enough people agree with them, market forces will eventually cause the changes you want anyways.
If YOU want less salt, tell the waiter you want no salt in your meal. Restaurants will accommodate you. If they won’t…leave, don’t go back, and tell all your friends about it so they won’t go either.
The answer isn’t to take salt out of MY diet. Leave my diet alone, fix yours if you want to. That’s FREEDOM.
Karen:
“What?…I’m a ‘food nazi’?
Yes dear, you are.
When you agree that M.O. is correct in FORCING a retailer to include a specific type of food product that SHE approves of, instead of one that SHE does not, then you are in fact, a “food Nazi”
Allowing us the “luxury” of throwing it away only after being “properly supplied” by the nanny state, at our expense and against our will my dear, is the antithesis of simple, basic freedom…
Freedom OF choice, and FROM coersion.
Telling my son to simply “not eat” the apple if he doesnt want to, does NOT erase the rudeness, the tyranny, the intrusion and the arrogance of THE GOVENMENT DEMANDING my meal purchases include foods dictated and/or approved of by the First Lady.
Food.
Nazi.
Not to mention, that’s going to be a heck of a lot of wasted apples when kids throw them away. What a waste. And hey look, a liberal move that ends up wasting taxpayer dollars and they don’t even realize it–what a surprise.
Seriously? If you wanted apples in your happy meal….all you had to do was ask…and the fries disappear. We did it for my daughter all the time. But why is McDonalds doing this? Are they afraid their Obamacare exemption will evaporate?
Ooh. I think we have a winner. Obamacare exemptions, and the threat of removing them unless someone toes the government line.
Naw, this isn’t coercive at all.
I miss the days when the free market solved problems without having to even think about them. You know, like you said, those old, quaint days when the kid asked if you wanted fries or apple with that and you could just say “apple” (as I do with my daughter most of the time) and the problem ended right there.
I’m getting downright nostalgic for my childhood, the entire length of which was spent never having seen a bicycle helmet. Never heard of anybody having a head injury from biking, either.
One kid I knew did fall through the ice on the river and drowned, though. Maybe they should outlaw rivers. Or require towns to relocate at least 5 miles from them or something. A federal anti-river law, yeah, that’s just the ticket.
Or a federal mandate on ice thickness….and freezing rates…
They do it all the time with arbitrary water quality and Fuel mileage..
The laws of physics be damned
And if you DON’T want an apple, say “no apple”.
The point you seem to miss here, Karen, is that in what universe does the government, or for that matter a first lady who needs to take a look at those saddle bag’s she’s carrying first (just sayin’) have a right to tell a PRIVATE company what they MUST put in their food?
It’s an unbelievable intrusion. Not to mention the MONUMENTAL condescension and arrogance to tell us we’re incapable of making our own choices.
Here’s a clue Karen, free, you don’t even have to buy this one — no one goes to McDonalds to eat healthy. We don’t want apples, we don’t want salads. WE WANT SALT, AND FAT AND GREASE AND ALL THE REST OF THE ARTERY CLOGGING GOODNESS THEY SELL!!!
If we want to eat healthy we can do that at home.
Patrick, you can eat all the grease, fat and salt you want. And when you’re over 65 you can suck up a disproportionate share of medical resources on Medicare.
All this “panties in a wad” b/c McD will put an apple slice in your kids Happy Meal?
Are you wingnuts really that stupid? It’s amazing what conspiracy theories arise out of the people being protected from the corporations that will gladly sicken and kill them to make a few more pennies.
Ronjazz, I’m trying not to reply only to your posts but man are we on different planets.
First, you’re the one raising the conspiracy theory that “corporations” are killing their customers for short term profit.
Second, it’s not clear that the dietary guidelines we’ve been working with for the last couple generations lead to better health, in fact it’s pretty clear that we’ve been going the wrong way the whole time. Even salt, now, is getting its reputation back, per the latest issue of Scientific American.
Finally, I think we’re saying that we DON’T WANT GOVERNMENT TO TELL US WHAT TO DO WITH OUR PERSONAL LIVES AND DECISIONS. Information is fine – publish quality studies showing, say, excess salt in the diet is harmful. Then LET US DECIDE whether to patronize restaurants that add a lot of salt to their recipes.
I just want to eat what Michelle Obama eat – burgers, fries, shakes, ribs. Yummy.
Karen,
Try this on for size…
If you DONT like the GOVENMENT BELT that automatically comes with those SHOES, go ahead and throw it away…buy that ugly one YOU like…look like a no class fool that could never be invited to the White House…
OK OK, we’ll compromise…
You can just SAY “no government belt” when you buy the shoes…
Isnt that much better?
Your freedom is restored.
I mean for gods sake, M.O. is just looking out for you girl!
My son is allergic to all raw and most cooked fruit and vegetables because of oral allergy syndrome related to white birch. Potatoes are something he can actually eat. He is actually quite healthy and not overweight from having a diet of meat, eggs, milk products, bread and potatoes. It infuriates me that government insists on getting involved in food choices on people. They may not be trying to kill people, but are certainly totally blind to unintended consequences.
I liked her better when she played college football, man, she could hit!
Not only that, but the new government regs for school lunches are pretty appalling, with a heavy emphasis on WHEAT. For those of us who are gluten intolerant or worse, there can’t be a worse solution than to eat it every day at lunch, which is what the government menu suggests.
Allergies aren’t the only issue with apples! The carbs in the apple are just that – carbs. Don’t we have an obesity epidemic? Didn’t it start with our carb-eating ways?
PS I learned about all this from a great book linked by the InstaHusband:
“Why We Get Fat” by Gary Taubes
Sweet heaven, it’s a Carbotologist.
Having just deprogrammed myself, let me tell you that I miss Dr. Atkins like an abusive boyfriend. He was a control freak and he made me sick, but he took me out for steak dinners, and I miss them.
Of course, I was the one paying for them. Isn’t it always the way?
Another problem I see is the chemicals that have to use to keep the apples from turning brown. How long will those apples sit around?
Great point, Wanda…cut fruit loses nutrients as soon as it’s cut. And are those apples going to be pesticide free, since we also know that the pesticides on apples accumulate on and immediately under the skin.
Stacey,
Oh well, in that case please do continue to treat all of us as childre. I for one welcome our new busybody overlords.
Do you people suffer from a “control other people” fetish?
By the way, I can almost know with certainty that I am fitter than you. I hate too much salt (and fries) but as a respectful person who values free choice, I would never compell my fellow man to follow my preferences
Mike
Stacey may be getting fatter and fatter (hence the we), but some of us have issues with low blood pressure and overactive glands resulting in the need for extra salt intake and 3-4,000 calories a day to stay above 100 lbs. I actively ‘help myself’ (Stacey’s words) to an extra helping of everything. It’s too bad she apparently can’t help her own self by eating less and solving her own problem. My problem isn’t hers and vice versa. I suggest we both stay out of each other’s dietary needs and ask Ms. Obama to do the same.
Dr. Helen: You’re forgetting that Michelle Obama is merely making good on her promise to force you to “move out of your comfort zones.”
House Democrats Not So Enamored of Fair TaxCharming lady, isn’t she?
Oops, messed up that hot link:
Charming lady, isn’t she?
“Is Michelle Obama Trying to Kill Me?”
Why, yes. Yes she is. She has the biceps to do it, too.
In all seriousness, I can feel your friend’s pain. I’ve got cystic fibrosis. A lot of people know that it’s usually primarily a lung disease…my sister has it too and she’s had half a lung removed because of it. I, luckily, have no lung involvement, though I do have digestive issues.
But the primary, defining test for cystic fibrosis is the sweat chloride test. That is where they put a small pad on your arm that generates a small electric current. That (apparently magically) makes sweat pop out under the pad. They take a sample of your sweat. If the salt content of your sweat is over a certain threshold, then you too have cystic fibrosis. I was not even diagnosed until my late 20s, though I could have told them about the salt in my sweat. Dogs have always come up and started licking me on hot days, and when I’ve been working in the sun too long I sometimes get a salt CRUST on my arms and back, fercripesake.
Cystic fibrosis patients NEED extra salt. In some cases, a LOT of it. My doctor gave me dietary recommendations, and specifically told me that in my case I needed to disregard any and all warnings about taking in too much salt, and eat all the salty snacks I wanted. Peanuts? Good. Pretzels? GOOD.
Clearly, New York is trying to kill all their cystic fibrosis patients so they don’t have to provide them medical care. It’s the only answer that makes sense.
I don’t live in New York. Are people prohibited from salting their own food?
No, Karen, they aren’t (today) prohibited from salting their own food, but the chef who owns the restaurant, literally sweats over how to prepare the food, and has a vision for what is to be served and how it is to be prepared is prohibited from bringing that vision into reality. And if the person who’s putting their name and money out there to try and make a business work can’t have the right to make a choice of what they present to a paying customer exactly why do you think the NY state government will continue to let that paying customer have that right? As some other commentors have noted this is about choice. You may choose to limit your salt or calorie intake, you may choose to over indulge. It’s your right today to do either, and fortunately it’s mine as well. How about we keep it that way?
“Are people prohibited from salting their own food?”
Maybe not now, but don’t worry, salt shakers in restaurants will be banned next. That’s how the food Nazi’s operate. First they take it out of the food, then they take it off the table, then they take it out of your pocket when you bring your own.
not salting food during the cooking process is the single most effective way to make bland and near inedible food
there is little need to add more salt to a dish (once it arrives at your table) if it was seasoned properly in the first place
in fact, i’d would guess that the mountains of salt needed to “flavor” a bland dish is more harmful than adding the salt during the cooking process- where it actually integrates into the chemistry of the whole matter
i’d be curious as to what all the lefty leaning “top chefs” say regarding this matter (as contestants are always kicked off the cooking competition shows for “not seasoning their food”) and, perhaps, bloomberg and obama’s busybody nannyism may begin to enlighten some of the drones as to the effects of intrusive and arbitrary government
The last time I checked, it said PROMOTE the general welfare, not ENFORCE or ‘NUDGE’ into…
Making ‘healthy’ suggestions is fine. Coercing private business into offering no choice is not.
Dr. Helen:
Regarding power-mad fanatics like Michelle Obama (and Stacey), just when did the appropriate response to them change from “no thanks” to “go away” to “hell no, #@!# off”?
Dunno, but I’m pretty sure it was during the early-to-mid Clinton years. At least, that’s when I realized what a fool I had been to be a leftie all my life (and thereby missing all the chewy goodness of the Reagan years, spending them hating him).
Amen. Me, too.
Show me a young Conservative and I’ll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I’ll show you someone with no brains.
- Winston Churchill
Don’t knock yourself too hard!
Last time I read it, it said PROMOTE the general welfare, NOT ENFORCE or ‘NUDGE’ into compliance.
Hey, remember that these are leftists, and so words can mean whatever they want them to. Promote, coerce, regulate, what is the difference?
shall not be infringed…banned…same thing
pst: When they refused to take “No” for an answer, refused to “go away”, and started regulating what we eat!
The greatest good for the greatest number, Helen.
Please tell me that was sarcasm, or I’m going to have to revoke your membership in the human race. Because that’s what Lenin or Stalin or somebody said, and it just didn’t work out so well for a lot of people.
At a picnic shelter in a local park last week I tossed an empty bottle out and saw in the trash the result of a group of young summer day campers.
The trash can was full of lunch waste — and many unopened half pint containers of milk. White milk. (And probably not whole milk.)
It is against the “rules” to provide the CHOICE to parents and kids of white or chocolate milk, for kids lunches because chocolate milk is bad.
NO milk is worse.
Is it not totally weird that the party of “choice” is so repressive?
Well, yeah, but you see, I’m sure there’s an innocent explanation. For instance, they may have suspected that the cow was a Republican. And as those kids damn well know from their teachers, you NEVER drink milk from a Republican cow or you could be contaminated.
HTH
I was in the doctor’s office today for a regular check up. Chatting with the nurse, I got the words, “our First Lady…” out and the nurse exploded with a tirade of scorn and abuse. Very unexpected. Quite gratifying.
“Good intentions” have nothing to do with it. For Barack and Michele, it’s all about feeding their massive egos psychological Big Macs. The more they can control what you, and everyone else, can do, the more they like it.
A couple of appropriate quotes from my file of rotating signatures;
“Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”
Daniel Webster – (1782-1852), US Senator
“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”\
Robert A. Heinlein
A+ Ken
Keeper quotations.
And somebody has likely already written it here…
“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
Michele’s not trying to kill you, Helen. She’s just trying to make herself look good. If she does happen to kill you, to her that’s just a happy little bonus.
Screw you. Your Betters will tell you what is right for you from above. What right do you have if you’re not Ivy League and in government? The nerve of you.
OK, I know I was going to leave, but one more issue: Dr. Helen, I’ve read your stuff for years now, though I’ve rarely posted. Especially like I have tonight….but nanny state crap just does that to me sometimes.
But I feel it my duty to inform you that IMHO, you are a hottie.
Please don’t tell Glenn, though, because he looks like he could beat the crap out of me AND I don’t want to pick a fight with a lawyer. Never a profitable venture.
Later.
Especially a lawyer who takes full advantage of his Second Amendment rights…
Ooh…shoot. You’re right. Hadn’t thought about that. Plus, he’s a populare blogger and podcaster with an audience. A guy’s really gotta be careful.
Glenn might be The Most Dangerous Man Alive.
If women should have the right to do what they want with “their” bodies (i.e. kill unborn babies) then why shouldn’t everyone have the right to eat what they want?
Seems fair to me.
Yeah, I seem to recall a catchy slogan of “Keep your laws off my body!”
I wonder why it’s now OK for people like Michelle O to micromanage what I put into?
Might be a Wicked Witch / Snow White sort of thing.
It’s time to call her what she is: “lifestyle harpy”.
Because it’s her nature to make people miserable, who just want to bring light to the situation.
As Ronny has, I have read Gary Taubes’ “Why We Get Fat” and I have also watched the movie “Fat Head” (you can too for free on Hulu or Netflix). I have seen the light … albeit a few years too late. I followed the standard advice to cut fat, eat lots of fruit and whole grains, and for my efforts I gained 60 pounds. I also became hypothyroid. An unfortunate perfect storm of metabolic failure.
Anyway, it’s bad enough that MO trying to tell us what to eat and what to feed our children. But she is pushing the same WRONG advice that has lead many into obesity, heart disease, diabetes and other deadly diseases. Sugar is poison. Carbs are sugar. Natural dietary fat has never been linked to disease. Dietary cholesterol does not raise serum cholesterol. High cholesterol has not been directly linked to heart disease. Statin drugs do not reduce risk of heart attack, and are more likely to cause other kinds of harm.
So yeah, Michelle Obama is trying to kill you, Helen. And me, and everyone else.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html
I also have that oral allergy sydrome so I wouldn’t be able to eat those apples, although they wouldn’t kill me, just make me swell up and itch. Why apples, though? They are one of the highest-sugar fruits. You might as well feed your kid a pixie stick. How about strawberries or blueberries? (I know, $$$$$)
I am no fan of Michelle Obama (or her husband) but to go on a rant about her because McDonald’s is adding fruit to a Happy Meal? Seriously? As for salt in restaurants in Manhattan–I think your concern is a bit outdated: yes NYC proposed some voluntary restrictions but a ban? That was an absurd bit of legislation introduced by some NY state legislator that never passed. News story here: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/03/reports-of-salts-death-have-be.html The more serious and current threat is from proposed federal regulations, as discussed here: http://www2.qsrmagazine.com/articles/exclusives/0510/salt_mandate-1.phtml.
I am in complete agreement with your underlying concern with nanny state dictation of diet. But it is absurd enough a policy that there is no need to go after trivial targets (fruit in happy meals) or out of date and misinformed rants (I live in Manhattan–promise you there is salt everywhere, anywhere).
A government that is a lean mean governing machine would not be looking to gorge itself with idiotic laws and regulations. The government and their advocates are the ones needing a crash diet.
34. Stuart “I am no fan of Michelle Obama (or her husband) but to go on a rant about her because McDonald’s is adding fruit to a Happy Meal? Seriously?”
Read the article again, Stuart. McDonald’s is NOT changing the Happy Meal because customers want it. They’re changing it because of government pressure, and fear that if they don’t do something “voluntarily” then the government will do something draconian.
You need to either learn to read, or learn to understand the meaning of freedom. Seriously. What part of “none of your [censored] business” don’t you understand? I’ve heard all this garbage before, and it sounded better in the original Italian.
“But it is absurd enough a policy that there is no need to go after trivial targets (fruit in happy meals) or out of date and misinformed rants (I live in Manhattan–promise you there is salt everywhere, anywhere).”
Concur.
And, Helen, you eat at McDonalds?!?!?
And another thing …
I’ve been eating bacon and pork rinds and vegetables for the last two months, and I have given up sugar, apples, bread, and carbs. It’s the only way my body works. I have a family history of Type 2 diabetes, and eating carbs makes me feel awful.
I have had no less than 10 people in the last two weeks tell me I was losing weight, and indeed, I have lost about 15 pounds. I’m about a size 8-10 shortish woman.
That article mentions calories and fat in the McD’s happy meal, but neglects the carbs. Apple Juice? I don’t keep it at home for my kids — it’s just too sugary.
The original George McGovern diet standards made us all sick – tons of bread and no protein or fats. It said, “use fats sparingly.” Fats are what provide staying power to our meals – they help us not feel hungry. Some of us can handle fats better than carbs. And when my spouse and I are on a higher-fat diet, our good cholesterol levels improve dramatically.
Re apple juice: when my children were small, our pediatrician said never to give them apple juice–”7-up with pesticides” is what he called it.
I’ve got IBS and cannot digest apple peels — they give me intensely unpleasant and painful intestinal cramps. If I wanted to eat apples, I wouldn’t be in McDonald’s. Why do I need to pay for food I cannot eat?
I thought they were putting apples in Happy Meals. There are a lot of people on this forum b1tching about being allergic to apples, or hating apples, or wanting the choice to eat whatever they want.
They’re putting apple slices in HAPPY MEALS. So, this tells me one of a couple of things. Either, (a), the avergae poster on here is six years old. Or, we have a lot of adults slurping down Happy Meals. Probably double fisting them, too. Probably washing them down with Tea Party-brand Kool-Aid. Yum!
A Happy Meal is generally geared toward the 4-7 year old set. A Happy Meal with fries and milk clocks in at around 700 calories. That’s 700 calories in one meal for a pre-schooler. Apples in lieu of fries trims off about 130 of those calories.
Allergic to apple peals, but you’re eating at McDonalds? And Happy Meals, at that? Really? Seriously? Probably just allergic something that’s not deep fat fried hitting your gullet, that’s all.
Yes, we’re entering a nanny state. Have you seen a lot of the kids running around…well…walking around these days?
By the way, “promote the general welfare” can certainly be interpreted as encouraging corporate responsibility. No offense, but the Golden Arches isn’t really looking out for your welfare. If we’re going to get all antsy in the pantsy about that, we should do away with speed limits, seat belts, air bags…hell…get rid of traffic lights, right? If we “choose” to venture into the road, either on wheel or foot, well…that’s our risk to accept, right? Idiocracy. Not so much a movie as a prophecy.
Oh, and I know this is probably going to fall into the “ad hominem attack” category, but (*SNAP SNAP SNAP!*) SIMPLETONS!!! THIS MIGHT BE A MEANS OF REDUCING COST BY (A) NOT HAVING TO KEEP APPLE PACKETS AROUND THAT DON’T GET USED AND (B) NOT HAVING TO COOK AS MANY FRIES.
“NOT HAVING TO COOK AS MANY FRIES.”
This moron obviously knows nothing about the relative costs of various kinds of food prep. And yet he is ready to lecture us. How typical.
As a parent, I’ve made my own choice to have my children eat the apples in Happy Meals ever since they were offered. Does this change mean that my kids will now get apples AND french fries no matter what? If so, that means my kids will now be getting an unhealthier version of a Happy Meal than they’ve ever had before. And just like most others on here, it should be MY CHOICE no matter what I decide!
The main intent of this insane micromanagement of the American diet has little to do with nutrition or savings and everything to do with control. Look at any military Basic Training regime, and the things they control are sex (usually, saying you can’t have any) self-image (remaking the way you look) and food. When you are completely dependent on someone or some entity for these things, you begin to look at them the way a child looks at a parent. Eventually, you start doing what they tell you just because they said so.
More on track with the article, though, the worst part of any central authority making all the decisions about your life is that there is no way they could possibly take into account the realities of your individual life. In addition, these pseudo-medical nutritional theories are just that: Theories. In the brief time I have spent on this planet, eggs have gone from the best thing for you in the world, and all the vitamins are in the yolk, to horrible for you, and the whites are the part you should eat, to there pretty good for you, the yolks aren’t as high cholesterol as we thought, and just don’t eat crazy amounts of them. Likewise, diet sodas have gone from good to bad to maybe good, though possibly bad.
Perhaps we could just let individuals make some of their own choices, so that at least we *all* won’t get it wrong if one of these theories is incorrect..?
“#39 Caestal;
Look at any military Basic Training regime, and the things they control are sex (usually, saying you can’t have any) self-image (remaking the way you look) and food. When you are completely dependent on someone or some entity for these things, you begin to look at them the way a child looks at a parent. Eventually, you start doing what they tell you just because they said so.”
Yess, but at least Basic training has a purpose. To take a bunch of life long individualists and get it into their heads that you all sink or swim as a unit.
I think much of the nannystatism that comes out of the left is more along the lines of HL Mencken’s description of Puritanism: “someone haunted by the belief that somewhere, someone may be enjoying themselves”.
“I just saw a picture of Michelle Obama…”
Me too. She has thighs the size of tree trunks and a butt that’s as big as a major asteroid.
That gal is so bottom heavy I doubt a force one hurricane could knock her over.
And, if she tells you what to eat you better do as she says, ’cause she’s big enough to take on a rogue elephant and have a fair shot at crushing it.
Outstanding!
Have you ever had the McD apple dippers? They ain’t right. I had my boys get them until their complaining about the chemical taste convinced me they’re no better than fries. Apples don’t stay white and crisp without something being done to them, and god only knows the effects of that The caramel dip is a bit odd too. MYOB Michelle.
Few kids will eat the apples, especially if the misnamed “Delicious” variety is used. Delicious apples get mushy-tasting in a hurry. Most apples are mushy out of season, in fact. blechhh! I think this has less to do with Michelle Obama and more to do with p.r. move by McDonalds while cutting costs at the same time.
One more thing, for debate’s sake, the fructose in apples is nothing compared to sugary foods:
“…fruits are complicated foods, not just a serving of fructose. Their fiber and other components help slow the absorption of fructose, compared to sugary beverages. Some fruits, such as apples, pears and mangoes, are higher in fructose (and other sugars) and thus calories, but they’re still only moderate sources.” Plus there are the micronutrients. As the article below says, you’d have to eat several servings of fruit before equalling the amount in a can of soda.
From the highly regarded Berkeley Wellness Newsletter (perhaps the only conservative, sensible entity in Berkeley, CA):
http://www.wellnessletter.com/html/wl/2011/wlFeatured0711.html
Still, my main objection is to foisting mushy, tasteless apples on customers for p.r. & cost cutting purposes.
Want to read about our encounter with a know-it-all do-gooder who treated my family physician husband and me like children by reporting us to family services so the government could check in on us? This is serious know-it-all behavior and I would not be surprised if she was proud of what she did.
Go to http://web.me.com/freedommatters.
Thirteen year olds can get abortions without parental consent, yet politicians get to tell them what to eat. What a country!
Apple allergies are extremely common in Europe, although there’s a pollen-related regional differences as to whether people are deathly allergic to the fruit or the peel. It’s Europe’s equivalent of the peanut allergy, and equally strong and deadly.
So yeah, this won’t go over with the Obamas’ European friends. If indeed they still have any.
Michelle’s preaching makes me want to eat a Big Mac every day.
Her “theorizing” that accompanies the preaching is even more offensive, she speaks of food deserts and food refugees in American cities.
Everybody’s a g.d. victim, doncha know.
Both Obamas are hypocrites when it comes to their own eating. Barack recently told some Hispanics, ingratiatingly enough…”You never want to get between Michelle and a tamale.” But, he added, she can eat tamales because…”She moves”.
I’d wish they’d both move. Out of the White House.
If you’d like to hear our encounter with a liberal know-it-all who wanted our family checked in on by the friendly neighborhood family services, go to http://web.me.com/freedommatters.
This is serious know-it-all and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was proud of what she did.
Unintended consequences be damned, Dr. Helen, because priggish urban Liberal-Progressive busybody knowitall pseudointellectual snobs mean well.
Here’s an idea. If you think McDonald’s is making you child fat, why don’t you try being a parent and use that simple two letter word “No”. I know being a parent is really hard and all, but that sort of comes with the territory. And in the end, they’ll probably thank you for it. Oddly enough, I tell my son no all the time, and you know what? He doesn’t hate me. In fact, he’s closer to me than anyone else. I know, it’s crazy, right? Believe it or not, you actually don’t need the government to help you make parental decisions. If you do, then you probably should have thought twice about being a parent, or putting yourself in the situation to become one.
On a side note, I know they are thinking about it, but if they actually follow through and mess with my bacon, there’s gonna be a big flippin’ problem.
In the words of Bill Maher, “When did what we eat become political?” Michelle Obama picked the most non-political of causes and she gets attacked for it. How is encouraging us to eat healthier in order to live longer a bad or political thing? Odd.
Exactly. So why is the White House sticking its nose into this topic?
Just look at the government encroachment in this Executive Order:
In relation to addressing the public health and human services needs of the American people, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the “Secretary”) shall develop and coordinate a national program to enhance physical activity and sports participation. Through this program, the Secretary shall seek to (1) expand national interest in and awareness of the benefits of regular physical activity and active sports participation; (2) stimulate and enhance coordination of programs within and among the private and public sectors that promote participation in, and safe and easy access to, physical activity and sports; (3) expand availability of quality information and guidance regarding physical activity and sports participation; (4) integrate physical activity into a broader health promotion and disease prevention effort through Federal agencies and the private sector; and (5) target all Americans, with particular emphasis on children and adolescents, as well as populations or communities in which specific risks or disparities in participation in, access to, or knowledge about the benefits of physical activity have been identified.
That Ronald Reagan! Why wouldn’t he leave the CHIIIIILDREN ALOOOOONE?
Just for the sake of completeness, you so-called Executive Order is actually the Purpose section of the Charter of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. This organization has been in existence since the 50s.
According to the organization’s own history, the Executive Order which I’m guessing you seem to find so significant, 12345 signed in 1982, doesn’t seem to have been particularly interesting or noteworthy to anyone but you. Of course, you were only using it to try to Change the Subject, a typical lefty rhetorical tactic. If you conform to the usual lefty caricature, your interest in fitness, sports or nutrition in this case is limited to a means to a political end.
My doctor has been trying to suggest dietary changes for years now. Having lived some long while, I begin listing all the changes in recommendations I’ve seen. Good becomes bad, bad becomes good, and sometimes good is back to good, and bad is nowhere in the list.
She gives up more rapidly these days. I wish our government had her humility.
Kids only have so much room for food in their stomachs.
Nutrient dense foods like french fries are far better than apples and that is why they choose them.
To answer your actual question. No. she is not “trying” to kill you. She just doesn’t care if she does. You as an individual are of no concern to her.
What about the kids on low-carb diets, can’t we think of THE CHILDREN???
Plus, the carmel sauce for the apples is like crack for kids. My daughter gets apples every time, sucks the carmel out of the packet and tosses the apples out with the box.
Man, you people are pathetic. And “allergic” to apples? WTH. LOL.
I wonder how often you guys lick the boots of the bourgeoisie. Every post it seems.
GO MICHELLE OBAMA. A STITCH IN TIME SAVES 9. keep kids from getting FAT now, and you dumb SOBs don’t have to pay for it latter.
But, you’re short sighted morons. We realize that.
Please leave America. I’m tired of you morons.
“I wonder how often you guys lick the boots of the bourgeoisie. Every post it seems.
GO MICHELLE OBAMA.”
Well, certainly in that post.
Earth to “Dr. Helen Smith”: Don’t order the happy meal.
So much for freedom of choice, eh?
Instead of targeting what kind of foods PRIVATE companies serve, Michelle Obama should focus on food stamps. People on food stamps get a lot of money to buy whatever they want from the grocery store. As I understand, one can use food stamps to buy everything food related, except for pet food, beer and cigarettes. That means pop, chips,etc. Someone, correct me if I’m wrong.
If MO really wants to cut obesity among the poor (as that supposedly is the group most vulnerable to obesity), reformulate what food stamps can be used for. If you’re on the federal dole, expect some federal intervention. That actually is within the federal power to do, and they can then butt out of food people buy with their OWN money.
“People on food stamps get a lot of money to buy whatever they want from the grocery store.”
The average food stamp benefit in 2008 was $101 per person and $227 per household, and has not kept up with food price inflation. For a family of three that’s about $2.50 per person per day. Does that sound like a “lot of money” to you? And by the way the food stamp program is designed primarily as a corporate subsidy for Republican farmers and corporations.
see http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/faqs.htm#9
“And by the way the food stamp program is designed primarily as a corporate subsidy for Republican farmers and corporations.”
Sounds like a good reason to cancel it, eh?
“And by the way the food stamp program is designed primarily as a corporate subsidy for Republican farmers and corporations.”
Sure it was, and I think it was bloody nice of FDR and the Democrats to create the food stamp program way back in 1939 and then keep it around all these years just to help out Republican corporations.
It seems like an odd way to champion the little guy, but hey, it’s not like anything liberals do makes any kind of sense.
If you have a job, and pay a lot of taxes, do the math…
$227 a month (as a free food stamp gift) is about 10% of the take-home pay of someone in the 45K salary range….
Gee, how do you think I’d know that?
I would know that because, if I suddenly got a 10% raise in take home pay, or a 10% salary coupon to buy food, I can assure you, that would certainly be “a lot of money” to my family
I know because I’m getting a family of three equipped with basic staples (bread, milk, eggs, cheese, rice, pasta, cereal) on less 50 bucks a week.
Food stamps are supposed to HELP feed you, not provide 100% of your food needs.
And lets not forget these”food stampers” kids also get free breakfast, lunch, and (in some districts) dinner plus weekend take home food backpacks supplied by the SCHOOL SYSTEM.
Don’t order your kids a Happy Meal. Just order the regular meals.
Let’s cut to the damn chase. This is about race. Specifically that Black people are too fat and don’t seem to be able to control themselves. I say this as a Black man. Nobody forces you to eat fast food. If it makes you feel bad, stop eating it. And as far as po’ black people not having “access” to fresh fruits and veggies, I say bunk. Black people can and do travel to where the better food is. And black people need to become more vocal and discriminating consumers. If “the best food is in the white areas”, then black people need to let their local grocers know that they will no be patronizing them until they bring their standards up. It ain’t racism that’s hurting us, it’s our internal beliefs that the white boogey man is holding us back.
This article is ‘Fluoridation is a Commie plot!!!’ for the 2010s.
PS: Eisenhower wasn’t a Russian spy either.
Fluoridation? That’s the environmental left’s big concern these days.
This article is ‘Fluoridation is a Commie plot!!!’ for the 2010s.
PS: Eisenhower wasn’t a Russian spy either.
Apple slices?! Jesus Christ, you people could teach unmedicated psychotics things about trivial obsessiveness.
“Jesus Christ, you people could teach unmedicated psychotics things about trivial obsessiveness.”
Indeed.
Amazing how a Dem’s right to “choose” doesn’t include the choice of fries with my child’s Happy Meal.
You are so enjoying your outrage, I kind of hate to tell you that it says, right in the article up there, that Mickey D’s is REDUCING the portion of fries, and ADDING apples.
Sorry to be a buzzkill; here, let me do your response for you: well, if they REDUCE the FRIES, it’s a slippery slope to Federal Control of All Starches, which is Fascism for tots, who should have the right to acquire hardening of the arteries at as early an age as possible! God Bless Our Triglicerides!
I think Mrs. Polly is enjoying her outrage a little bit, as well.
Mrs. Polly – I’m not outraged, I was just calmly making an observation. You seem to be a bit outraged by that.
“I have a friend who has very low sodium levels and when she goes to restaurants in New York City where she lives, she actually needs the salt. Mayor Bloomberg’s efforts to ban salt leave my friend frustrated and annoyed.”
OH the horror! Your friend will actually have to pick up a salt shaker and put salt on her own food. How will she manage? This is clearly to high a price to pay for helping to avoid the dangers and cost of hypertension for the other 8 million of us in NYC.
You right wingers are the biggest cry-babies on the planet.
This is clearly to high a price to pay for helping to avoid the dangers and cost of hypertension for the other 8 million of us in NYC.
In other words you have so little self control you can’t avoid salty foods unless the government forces you to. Do us all a favor, you and your lefty buddies? Go found your own bloody country where you can have “Father Government” wipe your widdle bottom for you and leave my country and my food alone would you?
FLotUS generally speaks well, as in saying desserts and such are OK sometimes, it is the mostly government interventions she supports that are bad for us. Not just those with allergies (happens, I am allergic to green vegetables – peas invoke projectile-vomiting) but just about everything else food [and health] related. That shiny-new pie-shaped chart, for example: the FDA admits it does not even align with CDC findings. Nor does the federal BMI table [which is silly anyway] because the politics caused the W.H.O. figures to be adopted rather than the CDC’s. Japamnse pols did the same, but their doctors beat it back in short order and forced use of Japanese scientists’ figuree.
The “I have a friend” comments are typical of a society lacking in any ability to think critically. We are facing an obesity crisis. This really has nothing to do with salt, apple or pollen allergy, or the caloric needs of an ER patient. This has to do with a nation facing billions and trillions of dollars spent on obesity related illnesses because the obesogenic environment in which we live promotes that lifestyle. And because they are making a huge profit at everyone’s expense we all pay the price. You can frame in whatever political agenda fits your style, but bottom line is this generation’s parents will be the first to outlive their children because of obesity related problems. So you can all go read a little bit of research before you go spouting off. Thinking critically is a long lost ability and we all go down the toilet due to ignorant folks who like to base their opinions on what suits them or “their friend.”
“You can frame in whatever political agenda fits your style, but bottom line is this generation’s parents will be the first to outlive their children because of obesity related problems.”
Or, maybe not.
Ironic isn’t it that children in this country are starving and without food. I’m not sure how that article negates the fact that we live in an obesogenic environment where obesity related problems are causing life threatening illnesses. Do you also oppose Michelle Obama’s efforts to place grocery stores with healthy food choices in these areas where people are without access to food? Or is that also “too much government”. Would you prefer to keep the drug infested mini marts on those corners? And please do not equate hunger and obesity with anorexia. They are very different issues.
And guess what, Doctor: The more the government “manages” our lives for us, the more we will be come children unable to make our own decisions, which will lead to more government control….
Funny how we did pretty darn well before the liberal nanny-staters started “taking care of us”.
But go on calling freedom-loves “ignorant”. We’ve heard it all before and we recognize it for the bullsh*t that it is.
No, we didn’t do pretty well. Actually we did a really lousy job. We allowed corporations like McDonald’s to cater to us by serving us crap and more of it. We allowed soda machines in elementary schools and candy and ice cream bars served for school lunch. No, we didn’t do pretty well. We completely messed it up.
Re: Food stamp amounts
My friend has four children and an out-of-work husband. She received a little over $1000 a month in food stamps. She also received $250 on WIC to spend on dairy and diapers and formula. How do I know this? She stayed in our house for a month because they were living with her parents and they needed a break. She was impressed at the amount of relief they received.
I have several friends with four children who pay for their own groceries and budget to spend less than this on groceries. It is possible when you are industrious and have learned the value of thrift. I think this is a good skill to learn for those who are receiving food stamps. Consider it part of a good education.
America is very generous to those who need help.
Ed Driscoll:
I remember reading a story about a gentleman who couldn’t pay his mortgage. Tucked in the story was the small detail that he paid up to $30 in lotto tickets every day because he felt so desperate.
Let’s see $30 times 30 equals $900. That was probably close to a mortgage payment in that part of town. But, to point that out, would be too judgmental, I suppose. So the reporter framed it as evidence of his desperation. How sad. He could have used some good education on finances, and instead he got pitied. How dehumanizing.
I wonder if there is more to that story than what that reporter cares to share.
Just wondering
I haven’t eaten McDonald’s food in over 15 years, so, I obviously have no skin in this game. That being said, I think if McDonalds just said, “Would you like fries or apple slices or a small fry/small apple slice side with that Happy Meal?” it would give parents a real choice without having to go out of their way to specify something.
At least Burger King and Wendy’s will do it your way.
I am by the government’s technical definition obese. I’ve only been in the “normal” weight range twice in my adult life. The first time I was in college, when I could eat everything I wanted, and didn’t gain weight. The second was about 10 years ago when I had a thyroid condition that meant I could eat anything, sleep all the time and not gain weight. I’m sure that sixty pounds later, I’m actually healthier than I was ten years ago.
I’m working on the weight thing by eating better. However I realize that one diet does not fit all, and that even if it did, no two “experts” would agree on what that diet would be.
Despite the fact that I’m “obese” my blood pressure is normal. So I’m not going to worry in the least about how much salt I take in. I’m going to spend my efforts paying more attention to the foods I eat, not how much salt is on them. I’m going to worry about sugar more than fat, and if that works, fine. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll rethink my plan.
Speaking of ambitious commissars seeking to regulate every part of life, Washington now wants to require commercial drivers licenses for all farm equipment operators. Truly, there is no limit to their lust for power, and all in the name of “helping” us.
This just iluminates the dillema many of us encounter trying to separate genuine medical advise from activism. When a doctor discovers gall stones on an X-ray and directs a low/no fat diet…no red meats, no dairy….fish OK , tofu OK and “you can eat eggs”……
A genuine WTF momment…..
Yeah FLOTUS has no credibility as a nutrician……….nor do most doctors…..
The arrogance & ignorance of limiting children access to high fat milk & other foods which are absolutely essential to a growing child’s body, nerves & brain!
Perhaps Michelle should focus on the health and well-being of many unborn children. I understand some of them aren’t faring too well. Or she could ‘nudge’ that husband of hers into addressing the enormous amounts of fatty foods, candy, chips and soda that food stamp recipients are able to feed their children, virtually at no cost. At least she’d be sticking her nose into something that the government actually does have authority to regulate, and statistically speaking, she’d be addressing the socio-economic demographic that actually suffers the most from obesity. Besides, most are HUGE (no pun intended) Obama supporters, and they’d know she’s only looking out for their health.
Sounds perfect: Food stamps for healthy food, and Obama money for everything else. They’ll love it!
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