I have to say, food nazism is one issue on which the Left is more hopelessly inconsistent than hypocritical. On the one hand, they re-legalized alcohol with the Twenty-First Amendment that repealed the Eighteenth.because it was fueling not just black markets but mass criminality of such magnitude that it begat the Mafia. On the second hand, they are systematically legalizing pot on the State level even though there's no compelling or noticeable demand for it, while keeping it illegal on the federal level even though the feds have no constitutional authority to regulate or outlaw controlled substances of any sort. On the third hand (if you're a Triexian), any and all sex is not just permitted, protected, and venerated, but universal participation is required in direct proportion to its perversion quotient, no matter how many STDs are bred and damage and kill its wayward practitioners. And on the fourth hand (Sorry, got nothing for that one), this misplaced laissez-faire attitude is nowhere to be found when it comes to smoking (which is definitely unhealthy but not nearly as unhealthy as marijuana even apart from its barbiturate effects), and anything that would encourage school children to eat at all - like stuff that tastes good - without having to fear the dry heaves.
And as humorous as I was trying to be in the lede, I can't come close to matching the whimsy in the source material:
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act supported by first lady Michelle Obama has ended up creating a black market for condiments such as salt, pepper, and sugar because the food tastes so bland, a congressional committee was told on Wednesday.
In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, John S. Payne, the president of Blackford County School Board of Trustees in Hartford City, Indiana, related how children have resorted to drastic measures to make their food taste better, the Washington Free Beacon reports.
"Perhaps the most colorful example in my district is that students have been caught bringing — and even selling — salt, pepper and sugar in school to add taste to perceived bland and tasteless cafeteria food," Payne told the committee. "This 'contraband' economy is just one example of many that reinforce the call for flexibility."
In other cases, students have avoided cafeteria food altogether by either bringing their own lunch from home or by having a parent check them out of school and take them to a fast food restaurant or back home to eat.
Bake sales and other food-related fundraisers have been canceled because they don't comply with the rules, Payne said. And of the students who are served the cafeteria lunches, "whole-grain items and most of the broccoli end up in the trash."
If the idea is to combat childhood obesity by making cafeteria food taste so awful that school children skip lunch, thus eating less, then they're on the right track. But skipping meals is not generally good for children, or for anybody, really, as doing so tends to spike blood sugar levels and blood pressure along with it. Plus, kids need energy in order to concentrate in class, yes? It appears that what they're concentrating more on now is this burgeoning Food Mafia.
Seriously, the Age Of The One has coined quite a few ludicrous headlines, but "School black market in condiments" has got to be at least near the top of the list.
Republicans are talking about reintroducing "flexibility" into the school lunch program, but the term I think they're looking for is reasonableness. So-called "studies" are coming out all the time attempting to panic people into believing that this is good for you and you're not eating enough of it, and that's bad for you and you're eating too much of it, and then a year later other studies come out shrieking the exact opposite. And they're always pretexts for government to intervene and dictate to us what we can and cannot eat (i.e. Buh-bye, transfats).
I come from a family that, predominantly on my mother's side, has a history of weight problems. She, my aunt and uncle, and several of my cousins spent/have spent most of their lives engaged in the "battle of the bulge". There's probably not a diet they haven't tried over the years, and their weights would go up and down like yo-yos - which is itself not a healthy thing.
Eventually Mom figured out the secret: balance. No foodstuff or nutrient is wholly beneficient or detrimental; each one has its good points and drawbacks. And nothing is good when consumed in excess. But if you have a balanced diet, that allows for reasonable indulgences in treats like sweets or confections or fast food, and combine that with regular exercise, you can maintain a stable, healthy weight and keep off the excess blubber.
Same thing goes for condiment usage. A sprinkle of salt on your fries or peas or whatever won't kill you, even though it is true that just about all restaurant food, fast and sit-down, is crammed full of sodium, all the more so for the low-calorie entrees. But then, that's why it tastes so good; if Applebee's or Red Robin, etc. served bland, tasteless, colorless glop, they'd go out of business in a matter of weeks. Something socialized education mess halls don't have to worry about.
Point is, balance is reasonable, and the reasonable person realizes that there's no such thing as a zero-risk life. So there's nothing wrong with enjoying things like the triple cheeseburgers and XXL burritos and large carnivore pizzas and bacon mac & cheese in which Scheherezade regularly indulges - in moderation.
Isn't that why they call it "comfort food"? And when is that silly law going to be renamed the "Retching, Gagging, Hungry Kids Act" if it can't be repealed? Something tells me the Food Mafia is going to have something to say about that.
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