Get the State Off 'Mi Plato'

(letsmove.gov)

I know what you're wondering: "What's the latest with First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move program? And what does she want me to eat today?" Well, she's just unveiled a Spanish-language initiative called MiPlato in partnership with food company Goya and other Latino organizations.

No one is safe from the First Lady's food preaching now--not even non-English speakers or Jay Leno.*

It's hard to tell sometimes whether Let's Move is an evil food-dictatorship-in-progress or just a First-Lady-pet-cause/glorified-photo-op taken to another level. It's probably a little bit of both. Let's Move has certainly gotten a lot of media attention, but it doesn't seem to have caught on with the kids it's supposed to help. "Healthy" lunch food is going to waste in L.A. schools, and Mrs. Obama was booed recently by a crowd of middle-schoolers in Virginia when she talked about the "healthy" new school lunch menus she'd pushed for.

Setbacks aside, the First Lady can still take some pride in getting the Olive Garden to take fries off their kids menus last year, and McDonald's subsequent decision to reduce the servings of fries in Happy Meals, even though research shows that fries only account for 1.5-3% of kids' calorie intake.

As conservative columnist Michelle Malkin has written, "Big Government programs 'for the children' are never about the children"—they're just made to look like they are.

*2/13/12 Update: We can add military personnel to the list.

Anti-Cheese Billboards

More cheesy tactics from the PCRM ...



These billboards are currently up in the Albany, NY area, which has a number of dairy farms.



In the interest of balance, here's a pro-cheese ad which is also a little ridiculous but in a much more good-natured way:

Do you think the PCRM would have the guts to put up anti-cheese billboards in fromage-loving France?

Deen's Diabetes

(Photo by Jeff Christensen)

I'm a little late in rushing to Paula Deen's defense. When I heard two weeks ago on the radio that Deen was about to announce she has Type 2 Diabetes, I knew the food police and food snobs would swiftly denounce the Food Network celebrity chef as a hypocrite and a bad influence.

The harsh media reaction to Deen's diabetes announcement is about as surprising as someone with her eating habits getting diabetes. (She had already been called "the most dangerous person to America" by chef/media personality/anti-Food Network provocateur Anthony Bourdain, who as an admitted former drug addict knows a thing or two about dangerous lifestyles.)

So far, Deen has refused to change the high-butter, high-sugar cooking style she's become famous for. Some say she's a hypocrite for cooking foods that she can't eat herself, apparently not knowing that Type 2 diabetics can eat most foods but have watch their portions.

I agree with this editorial from the Kansas City Star: "She went public as part of a campaign in partnership with Novo Nordisk, a company that makes diabetes meds. Is that tacky? Yes. Is her brand built on recipes that are high in fat, loaded with butter and overly sweet? Yes.

"Still, Paula Deen is not the boss of your plate. She doesn’t cook your meals. She isn’t in your house, force-feeding you. Your genetics and your workout plan are yours to manage."

I'd add that there is plenty of culinary and cultural snobbery at work here. As a folksy purveyor of Southern cookin', Deen has been in the crosshairs of the blue-state PC crowd for a long time. They should remember that being a diabetic, even a diabetic chef who cooks high-calorie dishes, isn't a crime--at least not yet.

GPS (Girth Prevention System)

Schools in Long Island, NY will soon be tracking some students’ physical activities in a very careful and literal way; according to EducationNews.org, “the athletics chair for Bay Shore schools will hand out 10 Polar Active monitors to selected overweight students. The $90 wristwatch-like devices count heartbeats, detect motion and even track students’ sleeping habits in a bid to combat obesity.” Yes, that means 24/7 tracking.

This plot is so over-the-line invasive that even the ultra liberal ACLU objects to it. The tracking-device scheme goes even further than the elementary school in San Antonio, TX that installed high-tech cameras in its lunchroom last year as part of a $2 million project (and you wonder where all your tax money goes).

Meanwhile, a new academic study has found no connection between middle-school students’ weight and the availability of soda and “junk food” at their schools. The interesting thing about the Pennsylvania State University study is not its findings but the fact that its authors waited two years to publish it because they thought it would be “controversial.” These findings are common sense to ordinary people. They are only controversial to the kind of people who want to monitor your child’s every movement.

A Real American Hero

Our movement has a new hero. Last week, Arizona State Sen. Frank Antenori, R-Tucson, made the kind of bold, articulate, freedom-defending statements we need to hear from more politicians at all levels of government.

Speaking on the AZ Senate floor, Sen. Antenori, a veteran, took a stand for Egg McMuffins, Paula Deen, pickup trucks, and his fellow "red-blooded Americans that like red, bloody meat.''

We particularly enjoy the way Sen. Antenori told the food fascists to back off: “If I want to go out with my wife and buy a big 24-ounce chunk of charred mammal flesh and a baked potato smothered with butter and chives, I earned the right to do that. So, please, stick to your own little issues and leave the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness to those of us that like to defend it.'' 

Could Ron Swanson have said it any better?

Quick Bites: Cupcake/Twinkie Edition

• Think twice before you try to take a cupcake on a flight—especially if it’s a non-regulation cupcake. Washington Examiner reports: “According to the story that went viral during the Christmas holiday, a TSA agent confiscated the cupcake from Rebecca Hains, a teacher who planned to feed it to her son on the plane.” An official TSA blogger has since clarified that the cupcake in question set off red flags because it was in some sort of jar; not “your everyday, run-of-the-mill cupcake.” Yes, I suppose we don’t know what methods al Qaeda might resort to in their post-Bin Laden desperation, so it’s best to leave no cupcake unturned.  We also advise that you not attempt to take any raw cookie dough on board--we all know how hazardous that stuff can be.

• As you may have heard, Hostess, the company that makes Twinkies and other forbidden goodies, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Twinkie sales are down, and the food police no doubt think this is a good thing, even though a Rutgers University professor now says comfort foods like Twinkies can actually reduce the effects of stress.
• Kids in the L.A. Unified School District are rebelling against the new ‘healthy’ menu and trading Cheetos on the black market. I don’t think this is the kind of ‘Food Revolution’ Jamie Oliver had in mind … just stick to the cooking shows, mate!

(Photo: treasuredcelebration.com)

See the Latest Food Propaganda

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta would like you to know that if your kids are obese, you’re a bad parent.

The California Endowment, meanwhile, wants you to believe that "a grocery store can stop diabetes."

Never mind that recent studies have found that where you live has little or nothing to do with your weight.

And as you can see below, the NYC health department continues to be a ruthless aggressor in the War on Soda, with a poster in its new campaign linking large soda servings to an extreme outcome: amputation.

Considering that less than 1% of diabetics in the U.S. actually have to undergo amputation (according to American Diabetes Association statistics), this poster should carry the disclaimer we always see on those tacky weight-loss ads: Results not typical.

- - - - -
1/26/12 Update: The CDC now says that diabetes-related amputations have dropped dramatically over the last 15 years. Oh, and the legs of the man in the poster above were Photoshopped off, not chopped off. But hey, all's fair in love and soda-war.

Red Meat, Green Guilt

Here in the U.S., it’s National Meat Month. Over in the UK, however, a top food-policy advisor is telling consumers they should only eat meat once a week at most—for environmental reasons.

Tim Lang, a professor and an advisor on food policy to both the World Health Organization and the UK’s Department for Environment, said meat consumption is "out of control." His suggested solution: "Let's go back to where culture has been for thousands of years, which is meat is an exception." (“Thousands of years”: how progressive.)

According to Prof. Lang, meat production hurts the environment because raising animals requires energy and water, and cows produce methane. So, if you’re eating meat you’re not just hurting yourself, you’re hurting the animal you’re eating, and you’re hurting the penguins and polar bears. Got that?

This year I, like many others, am resolving to eat less meat for personal health reasons—but not to fight global warming.