So looking at this study, and thinking back to when I was a kid, it looks to me like NYC was on the right track trying to reduce sugary drinks. When I was a kid, that soda that you bought at McD's was small- and much more expensive, as a proportion of one's income, than the giant ass extra large drink is now. So what to do?
Obviously Palin thinks we should just all celebrate our diabetes nation and pig out on the sugary drinks (thanks for the leadership Ms. Piggy Palin). But for the rest of us, who would like to solve this, what do we do? The food manufacturers, and let's face it, most food is "manufactured", have figured out how to engineer cheap food that is basically like crack to our taste buds. And Americans buy it- semi-freely- as freely as any addict buys their drug of choice. Criminalization doesn't work- not for drugs and not for food. So we have to find another way. The people who wrote the article say this:
"They conclude a more promising tactic is an emphasis on reducing calorie consumption, particularly sugar sweetened beverages and salted snacks."
But how do you do that, when you've got morons like Palin who pitch a hissy fit when someone goes after the low hanging fruit of sugary drinks? Are we doomed to be the Wall-E country? Full of fatties who waddle to their scooters, and scarf their carbs and sugar on their way to their daily doctors' visits? If Palin were a loyal American, she's realize the fatty crisis is a security issue (our military is full of fatties too), an economic crisis (how will we afford the disabilities and loss of work product caused by our fatties?) and a health crisis- do we have enough doctors for all the fatties? Probably not.
Fat- it's a national security issue. If a bunch of Islamic terrorist came and shot Americans up with fat, the right wing nuts would be all over this issue. Unfortunately, Americans are doing this to themselves- so how do we get the right wing to care about something that is actually important? |
