Reason Writers Around Town: Katherine Mangu-Ward on 5 Myths About Healthy Eating—And Why Politicians Can't Make You Skinny in The Washington Post

This weekend in The Washington Post, Managing Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward laid out five myths about Americans' poor eating habits, served with a side of skepticism about the effectiveness of political fixes. Myth number one: We need Michelle Obama to help us make the food deserts bloom:

A study published this year in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the first to measure the impact of access to fresh food on diet, followed 5,000 people for over 15 years and found something surprising: Proximity to a grocery store or supermarket doesn't increase consumption of healthy food. That suggests that a lack of convenient leafy greens isn't the problem. Dinner menus are the product of subtle and pervasive food cultures, which can't be tweaked from the East Wing.

Read the whole thing.

Comments

[Warty]

JTF-
Or it could be our auto-dependent society. I grew up in a neighborhood that didn't even have sidewalks... come on America.
10/14/2011 10:19:05 PM EDT

Sigh.

[robc]

My neighborhood doesnt have sidewalks. Plenty of people walking up and down the street.

[Kristen]

My childhood neighborhood didn't have sidewalks....because it was a dirt road in BFE, VT. And it was awesome.

[Colonel_Angus]

New England dirt roads... SOMALIA!

[Kristen]

Like, totally! We actually rode our bikes around without parental supervision all summer long! It was chaos!

[Sparky]

I'll bet you didn't wear a helmet either you little lawbreaker.

[AlmightyJB]

Those were the days.

[Audrey the Liberal]

Enough with the "Rural areas are so much better then urban ones" kulture war bullshit already. I get it, you hate us "cosmtarians", what ever that means.

[Suki]

You would think that the epic failures of all wars against advertising anything that people might buy (including food at McDonald's) would be enough proof that people will eat what they like, in spite of what the government tells them they have to like.

[o2]

and that indulgence, combined w no exercise, results in all insured paying for the obesity, diabetes, & high blood pressure.

[Sy]

Good point, Urine. Now, instead of being upset that people refuse to eat what the nice gov't man tells them, how about you go get mad at the people who thought it was a good idea to make you pay for everybody else's healthcare.

[o2]

Health care is a right, if people abuse the rights of others, then the government must stop them from doing it.

[o2]

^spoof fail^

so sy, since the free-market insurance cos spread the risk, how do you propose they be stopped?

[o2]

it is a right you dummy, there can be no markets for rights, you clearly do not get it.

[Live Free or Diet]

I have a right to keep and bear arms, does the government buy me a gun, a range and monthly ammo supplies?
I have a right to freely exercise religion, does the government buy me a church?
I have a right to free assembly, does the government buy me an place to meet?
I have a right to free speech, does the government buy me an amplification system?
I have a right to freedom of the press, does the government pay for copies of what I think is important?
No, there's a market for those rights.
(And those are just the first two articles of the Bill of rights.)

[Tony]

You have a right to own property and have it secured by police and the courts, which do have to be paid for.

[prolefeed]

The police and the courts should be paid for by voluntary subscriptions to those services by the property owners who wish for their stuff to be protected.

You don't have a right to steal from other people via taxes to make them pay for that service you benefit from.

[Objectivist carrying capacity]

The police and the courts should be paid for by voluntary subscriptions

Being that your land was taken by aggression of the agricultural city-STATE, you have to pay the STATIST piper for the privilege of your privation property.

Go to some science fiction asteroid Pallas if you want a place where your fantasy economics would be valid.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting for HayZeus to return. He will just before your fantasy economics find a place where they might be valid.

P.S. Take spare change for breathing air.

[Au H20]

But remember, the feminists say if you don't federally fund abortion, you are denying a right to poor people!

[Audrey the Liberal]

"But remember, the feminists say if you don't federally fund abortion, you are denying a right to poor people!" Hey now, I'm a feminist, and I've never said that.

[NotSure]

The insurance industry must be allowed to discriminate (that horrible dirty word), it needs to sell higher premiums for higher risk people.

Interestingly in Europe, some insurance companies sold cheaper insurance to women drivers because they are less risky driver. Then some men took this up with some regulators saying it was discrimination, and they won ! Guess what will happen to the costs to the female drivers.

If an insurance company does not want to sell insurance to fat people they should be allowed to, they are there to make profits, something you will obviously claim should not be allowed.

[Mr. FIFY]

Where is this "right"? I want to see the text.

Then again, only the stOOpid believe this.

[o2]

to which "right" does fify refer?

[Copernicus]

The right to health care?

Here's your health care: Take care of your health!!

Or is "right to health care" code for "right to free health care paid for by someone else"?

Just cos you say it, don't make it true.

[Let's get healthy!]

The right to health care? Here's your health care: Take care of your health!!

Roger that. Shall we get rid of civilization?

Ahhhh....thanks for the idea, Copernicus.

Thesis #9: Agriculture is difficult, dangerous and unhealthy.
Thesis :21: Civilization makes us sick.
http://rewild.info/anthropik/thirty/

[NotSure]

People who do sky diving also pay higher insurance premiums, that does not imply that I now should stop them from sky diving.

[o2]

but the obesity pop is MUCH larger (literally & figuratively) than skydivers. hence the shared insurance costs are correspondingly much larger for obesity.

[NotSure]

Which is why the insurance companies must provide for different customers and be allowed to as well. Let the insurance companies decide how much money they want to risk, why is it your problem ?

[o2]

id have no objection to insurance cos requiring an annual PT test in addition to a physical beofre setting individual premiums. regardless, risk pools which will continue. my main interest is public health for which proper nutrition & exercise is important.

[NotSure]

There is not public right to it. You want to make it a right, then use that claim to argue that the government must wage war on fatty foods and have endless snowballing growth of government rules to keep the costs in check. So the spoof is spot on, you implicitly declare cheap health insurance a right, it is not.

[o2]

affordable health ins - yes, once the risk pools are established. dont know how cheap tho.

[Suki]

o2 wants conscription for all. What are you going to call this new Army of All Americans? Red Army has already been used.

[o2]

i ll stick w my alma mater - the united states army. and yes i do support reinstating the draft w no exemptions.

[Suki]

That all fits with the rest of your commie talk.

[o3]

how is it "commie talk" to advocate national service?

[Brandon]

Do you really need to ask that?

[teh rael o3]

yes

[Jordan]

From each according to his ability, dumbshit.

[TomD]

... Why Politicians Can't Make You Skinny in The Washington Post

I've found, however, that politicians are able to make me skinny in both the Des Moines Register and New York Post.

/geeky misplaced-modifier humor

[wylie]

*applause*

[R C Dean]

Dang. Now I want me some Frosted Flakes. I hear they're greeaat.

[Colonel_Angus]

Has a president's bitch ever done anything cool? Or done anything that is not an obnoxious paternalist pet project?

[Suki]

Don't you mean that she has dedicated her life to the well-being of others? She is breaking so many eggs to make a better omelet.

[Mainer]

and she has the expertise, too. as a former hospital executive in Chicago.

[DEM]

Is that the $300k/year job she landed just after barack became a Senator? Sheer coincidence, I tells ya.

[johnny cosmos]

Interesting that at least one of the "Myths" has been promoted by a lot of the reason crowd- the poor people having access to fresh food. I guess it was just schilling for Big Supermarket.

[Suki]

I like Brian Doherty's illustration of "we don't need government supermarkets". Is he still at reason?

[o2]

ever try to carry bags of groceries on a bus?...neither had the author

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

I have. It's no big deal.

Obviously you're limited on how much you can carry in one trip--making one shopping trip for a week or a fortnight is not really doable unless you live alone. So you have to make your grocery runs more often with smaller loads.

It's not the most convenient thing to do, of course. But you do what you need to do. At least, that's what grownups who don't expect everything to be done for them do.

[Almanian]

Carrying eggs on a bus? LUXURY!

Try carrying bread (with an overly full load of other groceries) on a motorcycle. I've become a master at tying off a plastic bag to keep the bread separate but attached so I don't have to smash it under the cargo netting I use for the eggs 🙂

[Robert]

I used to put the loops of plastic grocery bags over the handlebars of my bicycle. Tricky trying to minimize their scraping against the wheel.

I also frequently carry bags of groceries on the bus.

[Suki]

Great, just great. Now they will demand limo service to and from the holistic grocery store and Obama will promise it to them.

[Almanian]

Thanks for continuing to bring your special brand of stupid - including this wonderful non sequitur - Urine.

[o2]

access to fresh food for the poor means taking the bus fool. try whole wheat instead of just white bread

[Almanian]

Yes, of course, the poor only take busses. Most of "The Poor?" have cars, you simple fuck.

Try thinking with your brain instead of your earlobes.

[o2]

"Most of "The Poor?" have cars"
_
citation needed

[Suki]

Citation.

[o2]

That's gott a bee a fake lynk Sucki. ur a rasist.

[Suki]

SugarFree has the fake link monopoly here. Try again.

[Lamarck's Giraffe]

According to the latest census report, about 75% of the poor have a vehicle and nearly 1/3 have 2 or more.

[prolefeed]

I've carried groceries home in bags strung from the handlebars of my bicycle. It wasn't easy, but I wanted to eat, and so I got the job done.

[Robert]

Huh, didn't see this when I posted above. My bike's broken now, but I'd like to get any tips you have on keeping the bags from scraping against the wheel, thanks.

Also, what style of handlebars do/did you have?

[clothes horse]

Grain is the tool of tyrants; it is the food of slaves.

[Suki]

I saw someone touting a book about that. He contended that the cereal companies were just ripping you off and people would prefer raw grain over Cheerios. He had fancy letters behind his name, so it must have been scientific.

[Pablo]

Cereal--any cereal--really is a bad deal both from a health point of view as well as economics. You're paying 4 or 5 or 6 bucks for a few cents' worth of flour and sugar and food coloring. All that sugar and starch is not healthy for you. Much better off with fruit and eggs for breakfast.

[Suki]

Pablo, you sound like that guy who was on PBS or CSPAN talking about his book.

So, in my kitchen I can somehow make cereal that tastes as good as Cheerios for only a few cents? Tell me how! Oh, do I need a grain elevator? Because my lot is not big enough to store tons of raw grain so I can avoid paying 5 or 6 bucks.

[Pablo]

I meant that the raw ingredients are worth a few cents, not that you could produce the same thing in your kitchen for a few cents. Cereal is so highly processed it takes a lot of machinery to make that junk taste better than the box it comes in.

But since you asked, it is easy to make a cheap healthy breakfast. 2-3 eggs and a piece of fruit cost me about $1.20. If you want to go cheaper, a 1-lb container of whole rolled oats is about a dollar if you shop around--makes about 8 servings of oatmeal so that's about 12 cents per serving. Add some fruit and nuts to the oatmeal so it tastes good, and you are still under a dollar per serving.

[Suki]

No, no, no! Oatmeal is great and it is a processed cereal. Now quit waffling and give up the secret to oat rolling that costs pennies per serving in my kitchen.

[robc]

proximity to fast-food restaurants

I can verify the truthiness of this. Since Ive been working from home, I eat breakfast much more often than I used to. I will often cook breakfast, but the nearest McDonalds is very near, and for $2.12 I can have a sausage biscuit and a jumbo coke. Its much faster than cooking.

No other fast food restaurant is close enough that I would go there instead of cooking breakfast.

So, yeah, guess what my breakfast was this morning?

[Colonel_Angus]

Nothing wrong with delicious breakfast sandwiches, but instead of the cola you might as well go full redneck and have Mountain Dew.

[robc]

McDonalds doesnt carry the Dew, it is a Pepsi product.

Plus, there is something about McDonalds cola. Everyone else must have the mix setting different, because McDs has, somehow, the hands down best tasting fountain Coca-Cola.

[Colonel_Angus]

Oh shit. You're right about Micks Coke having that sweet kick (ice brings it out). I just can't drink it for breakfast. I obtain caffeine from other sources.

[robc]

Actually, I think its the opposite, more bite, less sweet.

Its why I cant stand Pepsi. Most fountain cokes are too syrupy I think, McDs ups the Co2, I would guess.

I dont drink coffee, so Coke is more caffeine source. I need to quit it again. In the last 3-4 years, Ive had two periods of 11 months caffeince free.

[JW]

Ive had two periods of 11 months caffeince free.

Nurse! Red Bull! Stat!

That was a close one rob; we almost lost you.

[Almanian]

Mountain Dew and a Marlboro was Almanian's Breakfast of Champions? before I quit smoking.

I think that's right up there in the Redneck Death Wish Behavior Pantheon, yeah?

[FlyoverCountry]

Ha, I was a Mt. Dew and Newport man through college.

Every now and again when the missus is away I'll enjoy one of those breakfasts. The memories.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

What are you making at home that takes much longer than driving to McDonald's and waiting in line? You can throw together a sausage, egg, and cheese muffin at home in under 10 minutes.

[robc]

I can drive to my McDs, get the food, and get back in under 5. Its that close.

[R C Dean]

If its that close, why not walk?

[Almanian]

Fuck off, slaver!!!!onesytwosy!!111!

*gasps from shortage of breath due to lack of exercise after prolonged squawk*

[Colonel_Angus]

Then it would take ten minutes.

[robc]

Then it would take ten minutes.

The only place closer than the McDs is Quizno's. It is about a 90 second walk.

I think I go about once every 6 months. And they dont serve breakfast.

[uh]

Actually, they do, check the website.

[Robert]

How about the cleaning time?

[I]

I agreed with everything even before I read it. This happens a lot.

[sarcasmic]

But, but, but legislation is magic.

This was proven in the 1920s when the law said nobody can drink alcohol and everyone quit drinking alcohol.

What Congress really should do is amend the law of gravity a bit. This way fat people won't weigh as much.

Government can fix anything.

[Suki]

The law never said nobody could drink alcohol. It is in the Constitution and everything.

[tacey Roberts]

health care IS NOT a right! This Country is so screwed.

[My right to give you cancer]

I've got the right to pollute from my refinery.

You've got the right to spend $1,000,000 taking care of a child with a birth defect from my pollution.

Government for me, and not for thee.

Privatize profits, socialize costs. Ah hell, just let the costs of my profits fucking die.

~Koch Broz.

Pollution linked to birth defects
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1731902.stm

[Yawn]

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn

No, you don't have a right to "pollute". Nor to make others ill by your actions.

But you knew this, didn't you?

[Suki]

My right to give you cancer probably does not even rake his leaves from the neighbor's yard where they landed.

[My right to give you cancer]

Until the laissez-faire pollution and degradation of the environment -- which are quite profitable to the hierarchical elite -- stop, it would be equitable to use some of those ill-gained profits to take care of the victims.

[But...]

The allfather government protects usfrom all the possible ills of the world. It can't possibly have failed to protect us from the transgressions of mere mortals. It can't have posssibly colluded with and enabled the very sinners it was intended to stop. It just can't. It's perfect. It's our savior and implying that it has failed is blasphemy. Implying that it is inherently flawed and will never accomplish anything actually worth a damn (without equal or worse costs) will get you sent to the nearest torture chamber. All hail our god, the manifestation of our every impossible Unicorny dream, the Mother Fucking Government! HAIL HYDRA!...

[Mr. FIFY]

No, we'd be screwed IF health care was a right... which it isn't.

[Tony]

Yeah paying half per capita for healthcare everyone has access to would suck so bad.

FIFY's "thoughts" brought to you by the insurance industry and its unwitting talk radio puppets.

Because while we don't have a right to healthcare, insurance companies do have a right to maximum profits.

[France and Canada and N.K.]

If we have a right to health care, we'll be like North Korea! 'Cuz France and Canada are so much like North Korea.

[PR]

Why Politicians Can't Make You Skinny

they keep buying fat people's groceries?

[Almanian]

Oh, snap! This!

[Almanian]

Let's go hunt and gather - that will solve the Weight Crisis! As well as reduce the surplus population. And free people's minds!

#WINNING

[Mr. FIFY]

Hush, Al... you'll wake up What Idiocy, and he'll start cut'n'pasting bullshit about the evils of private property.

[Almanian]

Why do you hate Man's Natural State, Mr. FIFY?

[Dolphins solitary, brutish?]

Have dolphins evolved naturally to live a solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short existence?

Have crows evolved naturally to live a solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short existence?

Have squirrels evolved naturally to live a solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short existence?

Then why do you imagine that humans evolved naturally to live a solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short existence?

Is he naturally sinful, and must needs receive salvation by civilization?

That's your false religion, Almanian.

[Libertarians hate Non-State]

Hush, Al... you'll wake up Mr. FIFY, and he'll start cut'n'pasting bullshit about the evils of Non-State* sociopolitical typologies.

* NON-STATE AND STATE SOCIETIES
http://faculty.smu.edu/rkemper.....ieties.pdf

[NotSure]

White Indian probably thinks he will flourish in his hunter society, my gut tells me he will be the first to perish in it.

[Full of Fear]

You're psychologically projecting your own domesticated poodle foo-fooism: fear of wilderness.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Live the dream White Injun! The rest of us are screwed! Quick...put down your computer, leave your mother's heated basement, and escape to rural Wyoming or Montana (they're mostly empty)! Quick...Save YOURSELF. IT'S TOOOO LATE FOR US!!!!!!!!!!! RUN. YOU. FOOL. Please...for all that's holy! God Forbid you buy an Ipod and start tweeting from an OWS rally! The Horror...THE HORRROOOROROORROROROROROROR

[Drax the Destroyer]

Ipod = Iphone. You kids and your technology. It's all the same to me.

[Objectivist carrying capacity]

Surplus population? LOL

Rand apparently accepted a form of Malthusianism which held that we have too many philosophically undesirable people in the world. Just withdraw the energy supplies (Galt's motor, Ellis Wyatt's shale oil, Ken Dannager's coal) that sustain them, and the resulting die off will restore Earth to its Objectivist carrying capacity.

~Mark Plus
http://aynrandcontrahumannatur.....go_10.html

Pol Pot wanted to "restore civilization" by eradicating parasitical liberal influences.

Ayn Rand wanted to "restore civilization" by eradicating parasitical liberal influences.

Put that in your peace pipe and smoke it.

[Tony]

The cheapest calories come from fried foods, chips and sodas

What do these cheap and convenient foods have in common? They're almost entirely made of corn, which is heavily subsidized by the US government, hence its cheapness. Combine that with a car culture encouraged by transportation dollars going to roads instead of rail and housing incentives that encourage less dense communities, we can conclude: We are fat because of US government policy. So it stands to reason that we can be made less fat by changing it.

It's all too horrifying to think that we're a fat disgusting society because of freedom, so rest easy, it's because of government. Let's just not pretend that a diet almost completely made of corn and mobility based on moving as little of our bodies as possible is the result of free individual choice and should be maintained for that reason.

[o2]

the burbs continue to damage our national security.

[NotSure]

Well then end subsidies for these things then... Yeah, didn't think thats what you are trying to say, what you want is more government rules to solve previous government rules.

You really are a petty tyrant, you would be willing to curtail peoples freedom simply because you can't stand to see fat people. What next, make people pay fines for bad fashion decisions ?

[Tony]

Yes I believe we should end corn subsidies. My argument is one that should fit in perfectly well here, so stow the name calling.

My only critique is one I have for libertarians on many topics: they assume the status quo is "freedom" and any policy change is evil government interference. They can't get it through their heads that there really is no such thing as no policy. You have to legislate to change bad law, and you can't get around that.

So ending corn subsidies would make food more expensive. I still think people should have a right not to starve for the crime of being poor, so we'd need something to take its place. The problem now is that Iowa is a disproportionately influential state in presidential elections. Strange as it sounds, a good first step in solving our country's obesity problem would be to reform our presidential election system.

[Lamarck's Giraffe]

Libertarians already support the end of farm subsidies... what's your point?

Oh, yeah... planned communities and more trainz = freedom!

[NotSure]

So you believe that there will be swing from an obesity problem to starvation should the subsidies end ? Even if that were true (which is far fetched), not all food is subsidised, and surprisingly it is cheap. Many governments subsidise their food and it often has had bad long term consequences.

[Tony]

Almost everything Americans eat is made of corn. Even meat. It is a problem, and it was created by government (in collusion with industry and spoiled Iowans).

Ending the subsidies would probably make food more expensive, but it would equalize things so that unhealthy food is just as expensive as healthy food. Believe it or not this country does have significant problems with malnutrition and lack of access to proper amounts and kinds of food. I don't know how we'd have to do things once we ended ag subsidies, my only point is that fat & greasy = freedom is a flawed outlook.

[Copernicus]

Tony, shut the fuck up!

And...
don't tell me I must have medical insurance

and..
don't tell me I must pay for someone else's medical insurance

and...
don't tell me what I can and cannot eat

and....
just shut the fuck up!

[Tony]

I am making a libertarian antigovernment argument. You are just too stupid to realize it.

You will always have to pay for someone else's medical bills unless and until we have universal coverage. We're not going to start checking heart attack patients' pockets for insurance cards before we give them CPR.

[Maybe...]

People could carry cards in their wallet that would specify what they would want done should they be indisposed by, say, a heart attack. If a person states on his card that "Holy SHIT! If I am having a heart attack, SAVE. MY. ASS and send me the bill" or "Fuck it, I had a good run, but if you feel like being charitable, save me. If not, donate my bloated corpse to science" maybe society(curiously a club that refuses to let me join) could stop insisting that it needs to save everyone. If a person wants to be saved from a life-threatening disease, fine. He just might have to sell his house he didn't really need to pay for it, assuming he had no other mitigating plans (i.e. Catastrophic Insurance). Sure, it would suck, but hey, what's owning a McMansion compared to not being worm-food.

[dunphy]

and AGAIN, in addition to the loathsome idea of govt. intervention, let's remember that ... if these foods are so bad, and so many people are getting fat off of them... then there is massive opportunity in a capitalist society for CORPORATIONS to produce alternatives. if the demand is there, the market will provide these alternatives.

when i was a kid, a lot of the foods and supp's i use now were very difficult to find. now, they are easy due to the proliferation of the fitness culture, and a greater demand for diverse ethnic food products (try finding fish sauce, or korean chili flakes in 1985 in yer average town).

i remember years ago mcdonald's introduced the "McLean" a low(er) fat lower sodium etc. burger. it didn't FUCKING SELL, so they stopped making it

it is ultimately up to consumers to demand products, and companies to fill that need. if the demand is there, the market will provide them.

it is not up to GOVERNMENT to punish people or corporations for making food choices they disagree with

and i say that as a weight classed strength athlete who has great blood pressure, lipid profile and bodyfat percentage but also enjoys the occasional big mac or whatever.

no individual food product is the problem. people's lack of personal responsibility and unwillingness to stop stuffing their fat fucking faces is the problem.

we spend less per capita (especially of disposable income) on food than most other nations, to include europe.

when poor obese people are wasting money on cigarettes and buying frozen tater tots, laden with crap, instead of cooking from scratch (which can be very cheap and healthy), they are to blame ... not corporations.

and govt. isn't here to hand out food speeding tickets to violators.

it fucking disgusts me.

i also say this as a former personal trainer and current strength coach who sees that if you WANT to make body composition changes, you can do it - w/o govt. intervention...

leave it to churches, community groups, schools (as long as they allow kids to bring in their own lunches provided by parents , they should provide healthy cafeteria food), corporations (crossfit for example encourages healthy eating)...

not the heavy hand of govt.

[dunphy]

and yes, i realize many schools ARE govt. however, since kids are required to be there (unless home schooled ) and they offer food, then due to their in loco parentis role, they should be providing decent food. but NOT limiting parents from providing kids their own lucnhes as some schools HAVE done

[Team Perry]

Heard on CrossFit. I *heart* their philosophy on diet and exercise.

Some schools have limited what kids can bring to school, and it's fear inducing. A piece of candy, a PB sammie, chocolate cupcakes for birthday parties - all out the window.

Problem is dunphy, it starts in school, getting the gov't approved nutrition pyramid/myplate/whatever fed to you in the classroom, pizza and chocolate milk in the caf, and school fundraisers at fast food restaurants.

Have you heard of that? Happens at my niece's school twice a year. You go in, tell the clerk you're there for XYZ school, and a percentage of the food sale goes to the school. What a mixed fucking message to send people.

[Libertarians hate Non-State]

What do these cheap and convenient foods have in common?

Profits to the hierarchical elite -- thus they control the USDA.

And then the libertarians blame government. So backwards, so funny.

"Agriculture creates government." ~Richard Manning, Against the Grain, p.73

[Lamarck's Giraffe]

If only the government had access to courts, guns and soldiers to fight back against the food lobby. Then we would finally be safe in the war against obesity.

It's unfortunate that us libertarians can't see how the benevolent government is being bullied by those grain-wielding bastards. Control the USDA, control the world!

[Archer Daniels Cargill]

It's pretty well established by agrarian historian Richard Manning who controls the FDA and USDA, and how.

They have a surplus of one kind of grain, next thing ya know, it's on the "food pyramid." Magical, ya know.

Government is just middle management for the real owners of this country.

[Lamarck's Giraffe]

Hey, lets not beat around the bush. People need to know the truth about the vast conspiracy! Perhaps a literary analogy might help?

Corn = spice
USDA = Sardaukar
Food lobby - Fedaykin

But who is the Kwisatz Haderach?

[Suki]

Apparently it is not the Jews, since pork is abundant and of high quality.

[Spoonman.]

Chips and fries are made from potatos, moron.

[Suki]

So is vodka, comrade.

[dunphy]

it really is not rocket science. losing FAT (this is not about losing weight. muscle weight and increased bone density weight are GOOD things) is simple,but it's not easy.

i've had to make weight for various competitions for over a decade, and of course when i was a distance athlete and a surfer, being overfat would have sucked too.

it comes down to - some discipline, some common sense, and you must recognize that you can't lose fat or maintain reasonably low bf (unless you are a genetic lottery winner - hate those guys) without enduring some discomfort.

there is no subject on earth, not even politics, that people have a greater capacity to lie to themselves about.

that's why they can rationalize getting incrementally fatter day by day month by month despite the ready access to mirrors, fat calipers, and scales.

i also say this as somebody who celebrated a recent contest PR by eating a double quarter lb'er with cheese, two apple pies, large fries,... and a diet soda!!!!

discipline does not mean you can't indulge ONCE IN A WHILE

[Copernicus]

Ok, I think we got it now.

[Robert]

This idea of food deserts is a laugh. Last night on something of an impulse, I bought green & red peppers from a street vendor. If you can buy good produce from a lady on a sidewalk, how can there possibly be food deserts anywhere other than a real desert?

[o2]

street vendors dont go into the hood. duh

[Robert]

This was on 207th St. & 10th Ave. at the el stop on the 1 train.

[o2]

youre an lying sack of shit Tobert. And probly a rasist to booot.

[teh rael o3]

^poor spoofer got the wrong name

[Suki]

Sure they do. See?

[Mainer]

"food desert" is clearly just a sound bite.

[Robert]

Next night I opened the package, which I'd refrigerated. The green peppers were slimy on the outside and smelled rotten, but the red one was good. Usually red peppers spoil faster than green, so presumably the green peppers were much older when they were mixed together. Must've spent too long at ambient temperature in a closed plastic bag. I never see peppers rot that way from an open bin; those peppers spoil from the inside out.

[Audrey the Liberal]

Lefties have weird definitions for things like "right" and "justice".

[Viral Stories]

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