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Kevin Fischer is a veteran broadcaster, the recipient of over 150 major journalism awards from the Milwaukee Press Club, the Wisconsin Associated Press, the Northwest Broadcast News Association, the Wisconsin Bar Association, and others. He has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for over three decades. A longtime aide to state Senate Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature, Kevin can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, "InterCHANGE," on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10, and heard filling in on Newstalk 1130 WISN. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, and their lovely baby daughter, Kyla Audrey, in Franklin.
Culinary no-no #242
America
Collectively, our nation is too fat and too lazy.
According to national data, one of every three Americans is obese. More than 60 percent of Americans is overweight or obese. Obesity costs a male sufferer $2,644 annually, a female $4,879. Portion sizes are larger. Eating habits have become more atrocious. 78% of Americans are not meeting basic activity level recommendations.
A study reported last week in The Lancet found that the percentage could rise from 32% of men who were obese in 2008 to around 50% in 2030, and from 35% for women in 2008 to between 45% and 52% in 2030. The number of obese people in this country could increase from 99 million in 2008 to 164 million by 2030. The result will be higher health care costs with more Americans developing weight-related diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
No one questions the severity of the problem.
· Requiring posting of calorie counts on chain restaurant menus
· Reduction of salt use in restaurants
· A moratorium on the number of new fast food restaurants in certain regions
· Proposed bans on toys in happy meals
· A call to retire Ronald McDonald
· Punitive taxes on soda and other items
· Getting rid of chocolate milk in schools
· Limits on junk food advertising
· Outlawing unhealthy ingredients like trans fats
· Outlawing after-school bake sales
· Schools sending home lists of foods that parents are forbidden to put in the children’s lunches.
· Schools reporting on students’ BMI
· Using school lunch applications to boost government health care rolls
Most Americans I submit are fully cognizant of the obesity epidemic and whether they’re personally affected. But they frown upon condescending big government dictating their personal lifestyle choices. An analysis by Forbes.com nails it:
“The problem Americans face is not insufficient information, but insufficient self-control. Many of us appear to be unable to balance short-term gains (the pleasure of a double-bacon-cheeseburger and fries) with long-term costs (obesity and its devastating health consequences). But data doesn’t deter the ideologues. After all, to implement their puritanical measures, they’re spending someone else’s money.”
And that raises the question…
The answer is that finger-wagging….
#1 cheerleader for the nanny-state…
Eat as I say, not as I do.
We lazy, overweight, good-for-nothin’ sad sacks have been constantly drilled in marine sergeant fashion to shape up.
Get off your lard butt!
Move it, move it, move it!
Eat more veggies!
Eat smaller portions!
Eat what I tell you!
The fact is a large portion of inert Americans take their cues, not only from big government, but from
Take for example…
Britney Spears’ lackluster performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. Spears was panned, widely criticized for poor execution onstage, and because she was considered to be too fat. Never mind that millions of catty women would kill for a body like that. The media claws came out.
“Lard and Clear,” read a headline in the New York Post. “The bulging belly she was flaunting was SO not hot,” wrote E! Online. (So-called experts predicted it was the end of Spears’ career. Yeh, right.)
If Spears was too fat, then she was a perfect ad and poster child for millions of tummy tucks.
Fast forward to more recent days. Immensely talented country singer LeAnn Rimes has been flaunting her latest super-sleek physique in various tropical locales.
Thin and proud of it. In our all-too obese nation, shouldn’t Rimes be a role model? Let’s go to the online comments:
Way unhealthy.
Damn! Is her daddy named Skeletor?
Oh gross
Good lord, she is disgusting!!
…someone get Skeletor here to a MickeyD's and shove french fries down her throat, quick!!!!
She looks like a holocaust survivor .
that's just as bad as being obese and wearing a bikini. there's nothing attractive about being that skinny.
She looks like a human zombie
To be honest she looks like a man. She is disgusting to look at..
She looks terrible. More like a senior citizen.
And then there are the countless jabs urging Rimes to start eating...Big Macs, Twinkies, anything.
Certainly Rimes appears mighty thin, like one of those runway models that no other woman I know looks like. But Rimes, a la the Marty Robbins country classic tune “Don’t Worry About Me” says she’s healthy and feels great. Besides, haven’t we all been scolded to death to drop some pounds?
One would expect cheap shots from anonymous commenters on the Internet. Rimes was also blasted by an unexpected source: entertainment reporter and fashion commentator Giuliana Rancic.
Rancic and her husband are about to open a new restaurant in Chicago, and Rancic told the Huffington Post she’d love to invite Rimes to her new place for dinner.
“She lost a lot of weight from all the stress in her life," said Rancic. "She seems a little thin right now and I think she looks great when she's a bit curvier."
Really, Giuliana? You’re not exactly Queen Latifah.
Rimes Twittered a reply to Rancic:
“@GiulianaRancic hey, we should go to dinner sometime. You get criticized all the time for how small you are. You can see just HOW much I eat and maybe put a stop to this crazy "shrinking" once and for all.....oh, & then we should workout together! Good luck with your restaurant!!!!”
Rimes would later add, “"I just don't appreciate her comments. So I really would love for her to hang with me, see who I am. I am a person, you know."
In my view, Rancic was out of line. A formidable food police is already in place. We don’t need to be their lieutenants.
I close with this from ABC News.
Check back on Labor Day for another edition of Culinary no-no.
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