food wars

Is the next great political war food? It’s not an ongoing issue like the economy, jobs, or war, but it may be the next big thing. As we’ve found out in the past two years not everyone in the United States wants every citizen to have quality health insurance or any at all. The problem of course is that in the end our tax money that has to pay for the care of people that can’t afford health insurance or quality insurance ends up costing us more in the end. A fact sorely neglected by many people. This same idea has shifted to the food wars.

I first took notice of the food wars when the First Lady, Michelle Obama, began advocating for food change and policy. The changes: the basic idea is nutrition education. Other aspects are providing better school lunches, farm-to-school school programs, less deserts, more food security, etc. This all sounds good to me. Apparently though this is infringing on people’s “rights” to get fat and have more heart attacks and cases of diabetes, the first and sixth leading causes of death in the United States respectively.

Former half-term governor, tv star, book selling, motorcycling, history expert Sarah Palin retorts to the First Lady, “get off our backs” in response to the Let’s Move program. I guess moving is too much to ask.

I’m not surprised by Sarah Palin and millions of others like her who are upset about the idea of better food programs and education to help people eat healthier. I’m surprised, because in a time where it seems cigarettes, something that was widely celebrated in the United States at one point in time, is widely attacked by city, state, and federal laws. Of course cigarettes are not illegal, but in many places such as restaurants, schools, hospitals, public buildings, and now even parks, parking lots are even banning cigarette smoking. Cigarettes are heavily banned in many places, there is hardly any advertising, it is taxed enormously, and it has wiped out the tobacco industry. And people on both sides of the line seem okay with it. Cancer awareness advocates can be proud.

Even more surprisingly to me is the idea that someone like Ron Paul can advocate that a dangerous drug such as heroin should be legal. His logic? Well, if we made it legal no one would use it. The same logic could be used for murder but we wouldn’t make that legal, would we? The government makes a drug like heroin illegal not to infringe on people’s rights, but to protect people from a drug that has damaging effects to a person’s brain as well as possible dangerous effects to family, friends, and strangers.

Doritos, McDonald’s hamburgers, and fried foods are never going to stop being sold. But it would be nice to educate people that a slice of pizza does not have a serving of vegetables, or that drinking a bottomless amount of soda or sports drinks is not good for people, especially adults. If initiatives such as Let’s Move teach children to eat healthier and help small farms bring food to schools - in turn helping the next generation to have less heart disease and diabetes - I’m all for it. Nutrition and what we choose to eat is vital to a healthy life style and the ways it affects our body for good or bad.