Wednesday, August 03, 2011

First They Came For The Smokers

And I didn't say anything, because I didn't smoke. Then they came for the fat people. I didn't say anything, for I was not overweight (not one bit true, but bear with me here). Then they came after sodium, but I didn't say anything, for I did not live in NYC under Nanny Bloomberg.

Then they came for


Tony the Tiger?
The Obama administration is after your Lucky Charms, or at least your children’s. The public comment period closed on July 14 for a set of “voluntary” guidelines for the marketing of food to children. If adopted, these rules will transform the advertising of breakfast cereals.
Put forward by an interagency working group, the guidelines will establish nutritional standards that most cereals flunk—and not just those of the “Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs” variety. Corn Flakes will not be advertisable to children, along with Raisin Bran, Special K, Rice Krispies, and Wheaties. Plain Cheerios squeak by the proposed 2016 rules but fall foul of the “ultimate goal” for sodium effective in 2021.
While cereals are the most obvious targets of the guidelines, all foods marketed to children will have to meet the proposed nutritional standards. Many don’t. Peanut butter (both smooth and crunchy) has too much saturated fat. Jelly has too much sugar. Forget about apple-cinnamon instant oatmeal and Mott’s apple sauce.
These foods may still appear in grocery stores, but not in brightly colored packages adorned with cartoon characters. Toucan Sam, Cap’n Crunch, and Tony the Tiger will have to retire.

Are you freaking kidding me? Well, apparently not. We ignerint gun-totin' Bible thumpin' hicks need tendin' to by our upper crust.

It's all for our own good. Shut up and eat your peas.

H/T Ace

3 comments:

drjim said...

Yeah, and everytime you see a picture of his fat-assed Wookie of a wife eating something, it's food she would deny us, "the little people".
What blatant hypocrisy!

threecollie said...

Funny how we all grew up surrounded by smokers and chubby folks (not unlike myself), and ate sugary cereals (which were called just that...remember Sugar Pops?) and lived and thrived without government interference. Guess they don't make kids like they used to...or parents...or presidents.

Lisa Paul said...

I won't say what, but something's wrong with our food supply and it ain't Tony the Tiger.

Just returned from three weeks in Oaxaca Mexico where they cook with lard. But it's naturally rendered lard, not the hydrogenated stuff sold in tubs. And it's part of meals that are very low in meat or largely vegetarian. Plus those vegetables are the vitamin packed heritage types grown largely on small farms without pesticides. And dessert is fruit or rice pudding. That and I walked to and from school and around town every day and I dropped 10 lbs. on three restaurant and cafe meals a day.

It's basically the way our grandparents and greatgrandparents ate. But would be hard to reproduce today given the subsidized products of big agribusiness making organic produce look artificially overpriced.