Give them an inch and they'll take a yard.
The Big Brother-Nanny State is now encroaching on yet another of our freedoms. Led by lard-butt Moochelle, government is now the Food Nazi, telling the American people what we can or cannot eat.
Audrey Hudson writes for Human Events, June 21, 2011, that the Nanny State is going after your frosty flakes:
Tony the Tiger, some NASCAR drivers and cookie-selling Girl Scouts will be out of a job unless grocery manufacturers agree to reinvent a vast array of their products to satisfy the Obama administration's food police.
Either retool the recipes to contain certain levels of sugar, sodium and fats, or no more advertising and marketing to tots and teenagers, say several federal regulatory agencies.
The same goes for restaurants.
[...] Food industries are in an uproar over the proposal written by the Federal Trade Commission, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"The most disturbing aspect of this interagency working group is, after it imposes multibillions of dollars in restrictions on the food industry, there is no evidence of any impact on the scourge of childhood obesity," said Dan Jaffe, executive vice president of the Association of National Advertisers.
The "Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children, Preliminary Proposed Nutrition Principles to Guide Industry Self-Regulation Efforts" says it is voluntary, but industry officials say the intent is clear: Do it, or else.
[...] "The Interagency working group recommends that the food industry, through voluntary self-regulatory efforts, make significant improvements in the nutritional quality of foods marketed to children and adolescents ages 2 to 17 years," the proposal says. "By the year 2016, all food products within the categories most heavily marketed directly to children should meet two basic nutrition principles. Such foods should be formulated to … make a meaningful contribution to a healthful diet and minimize the content of nutrients that could have a negative impact on health and weight."
[...] Beth Johnson, a dietician for Food Directions in Maryland, said many of the foods targeted in this proposal are the same foods approved by the federal government for the WIC nutrition program for women, infants and children. "This doesn't make any sense whatsoever," Johnson said. "It's not going to do anything to help with obesity. These are decisions I want to make for my kids. These should not be government decisions."
The Food Nazi marches on.
On Jan. 30, a preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford, N.C., was forced to eat three chicken nuggets for lunch because a state employee told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious. The girl's turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines. After consuming the approved nuggets, she was sent home with her mom-packed lunch and a bill from the school for $1.25.
The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs — including in-home day-care centers — to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home.
But if the chicken nuggets at West Hoke Elementary School are anything like McDonald's Chicken McNuggets, they are far inferior to the mom-packed home lunch. From Wikipedia:
The 2004 documentary Super Size Me states "McDonald's Chicken McNuggets were originally made from old chickens no longer able to lay eggs. These chickens are stripped down to the bone, and then 'ground up' into a chicken mash, then combined with a variety of stabilizers and preservatives, pressed into familiar shapes, breaded and deep fried, freeze dried, and then shipped to a McDonald's near you". Super Size Me also alleged inclusion of chemicals such as tertiary butylhydroquinone (a phenolic antioxidant used as a chemical preservative), polydimethylsiloxane (an anti-foaming agent), and other ingredients not used by a typical home cook. This was recently restated by CNN. June 201d author of What to Eat, says the tertiary butylhydroquinone and dimethylpolysiloxane in McNuggets probably pose no health risks. As a general rule, though, she advocates not eating any food with an ingredient you can't pronounce.
Jackie Samuels
The principal of West Hoke Elementary School is Mr. Jackie Samuels. Here's his contact info:
- Mail: 6050 Turnpike Road, Raeford, NC 28376
- Phone: 910-875-2584
- Fax: 910-875-7312
- E-mail: Click here
~Eowyn
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