Free Republic

IT IS GREAT CVS is ending cigarette sales by October, and I know exactly what other dangerous products should go behind the counter when the wall of cancer sticks comes down: Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, Red Bull, and all other sugary beverages. I say this because I take CVS’s new public health pronouncements seriously. In announcing the tobacco ban, CVS chief medical officer Troyen Brennan said the drugstore industry is positioning itself to offer more clinical services for chronic diseases. He wrote Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association that it is a “paradox” to sell cigarettes as pharmacies...

Sixth-grader Chloe Stirling learned a tough lesson about government regulation of small businesses, no matter how delicious they are.The Belleville News-Democrat ran a story about an 11-year-old girl making about $200 a month selling cupcakes that apparently left a bad taste in the mouths of Illinois health officials. Middle-schooler Chloe Stirling of Troy, Ill., quickly learned a tough lesson about government regulation on small businesses after the story ran on Sunday. Madison County Health Department officials informed her family that the pastry party was over on Monday. “They called and said they were shutting us down,” said Chloe’s mother, Heather...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Hi. How are you? Welcome back. Great to have you. It's the EIB Network and Rush Limbaugh. "McDonald's Fighting to be 'Relevant' to Customers, CEO Concedes." You know, I've got some thoughts about this. "After outperforming rivals for years, McDonald's Corp. is facing a shift in eating habits toward foods people feel are fresher or healthier. The company has added options such as chicken wraps and breakfast sandwiches made with egg whites to keep up with the trend. But it's received a 'muted response.'" It isn't working. Healthier foods received a muted response. I mean, who could...

According to the Obama White House, the first family consumed a Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, honey-baked ham, cornbread stuffing, oyster stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, greens, green bean casserole, dinner rolls and macaroni and cheese.Then, the family washed all that down with nine kinds of pies: huckleberry, pecan, sweet potato, peach, apple, pumpkin, banana cream, coconut cream and chocolate cream.For years now First Lady Michelle Obama has been pushing her program called "Let's Move" for more exercise and better foods. She wants Americans to eat healthier, homemakers and schools to prepare her healthier recommended meals and to require restaurants to...

"They're coming after your doughnuts!" the Kentucky Republican said, referring to the Food and Drug Administration decision to ban trans fats. Paul added that if the FDA was banning trans fats, the employees of the agency should be forced to get healthy themselves. "I say we should line every one of them up. I want to see how skinny or how fat the FDA agents are that are making the rules on this," Paul said.

Prohibition: Washington is moving to ban trans fats. The obvious question, of course, is what will it ban next? If it can outlaw trans fats, it can outlaw anything. Is taking away choice what we want government to do? Trans fats, also called partially hydrogenated oils by many, have been in our foods for decades. These artificial fats help extend shelf life and in some cases simply make food taste better. Activists, though, tell us they're not healthy. We're not going to debate the issue. The health concerns of trans fats are not the point. But this is: Where does...

McDonald's will offer side salads and fruit as an option in its value meals in its bigger markets, and will also begin pushing healthier drinks for its Happy Meals. The moves are part of a number of health-centric global initiatives the chain announced today with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a non-profit founded by the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association to reduce childhood obesity.

First healthy eating, now healthy drinking. First lady Michelle Obama has teamed up with Hollywood star — and potato-chip promoter — Eva Longoria to push Americans to drink more water. The pair is set to kick off the water-drinking push at a high school in the aptly named Watertown, Wisc., community on Thursday, The Hill reported. It’s the next step in Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign to fight obesity rates around the nation and especially among America’s youth. Ms. Longoria has been one of the Obamas’ loudest supporters. She spoke at the Democratic National Convention and urged liberals to donate...

School administrations continue to hang posters in cafeterias trying to convince students that what is being fed to them is "fun food" which is healthier for them than the foods they enjoy eating. Meanwhile schools are having to purchase more garbage cans to contain the Michelle mandated foods that kids are dumping, some preferring to go hungry rather than eat "required" foods. Students just throw away the food being forced on them by the US Government.

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama likes burgers, hot dogs and such, but when it came time to answer a kid journalist's question about his favorite food, broccoli was the first word that sprang from his lips. This revelation came on Tuesday at a White House event that recognized children who won a healthy recipe contest, as part of first lady Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign. Having fun with the children, Obama agreed to take two questions from the journalists among them. The first asked what was Obama's favorite food. Broccoli was the presidential reply, according to a White House aide.

(CNSNews.com) – First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” initiative is praising textbook publishers for “swapping out cupcakes for apples in math problems,” in a campaign to incorporate health information into the learning resources for kids. “Today at the White House, we celebrated a group of educational publishers on their development of voluntary guidance to incorporate health information into textbooks and other learning materials,” Let’s Move! said in a blog post entitled, “Cookies 2 Carrots,” on Wednesday. “Publishers are making simple changes, like swapping out cupcakes for apples in math problems,” the anti-obesity initiative noted. “They are also finding ways...

For a long time conservatives have warned that the heavy propaganda and regulatory hands of the Obama administration were not going to change the exercise or eating habits of 315 million Americans... Now comes early statistical proof that after reelecting Obama with fewer votes the second time and 1,567 days of his reign of government intervention and stimulation, many Americans are deciding that maybe the Obamas' plans for their lives do not fit their plans for their own lives.

From popcorn to pretzels, and cookies to corn chips -- a new bill would slap the state sales tax on a wide range of snack foods, and it could make your grocery bill balloon. The so-called "snack tax" bill would apply Minnesota's sales tax to potato chips, pretzels, cheese puffs, popcorn, nuts, trail mix, cookies, pastries, and ice cream. The bill was heard in a House committee for the first time on Wednesday afternoon, but no vote was taken. Five Eyewitness News went to Tim and Tom's Speedy Market in St. Paul and stocked up on pretty much everything on...

"I agree with Mayor Bloomberg," Morgan asserted. "And what's the point of being a mayor of a city like New York? He's been big on gun control, big on smoking – he wants New Yorkers to be fitter and healthier. What is wrong with that?"

If you thought Nanny Bloomberg’s meltdown was bad yesterday when the judge smacked down his soda jihad, you have to watch NBC/MSNBC leftist hack Mika Brzezinski meltdown this morning on Morning Joe. Her temper tantrum made Nanny Bloomberg look calm, cool and collected. Brzezinski, whined about how soda makers are ‘poising and killing our children,’ ‘liquid sugar and sugar is poison,’ etc.

<p>A state judge on Monday stopped Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration from banning the sale of large sugary drinks at New York City restaurants and other venues, a major defeat for a mayor who has made public-health initiatives a cornerstone of his tenure.</p>

Goodbye candy bars and sugary cookies. Hello baked chips and diet sodas. The government for the first time is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful, a change that would ban the sale of almost all candy, high-calorie sports drinks and greasy foods on campus. Under new rules the Department of Agriculture proposed Friday, school vending machines would start selling water, lower-calorie sports drinks, diet sodas and baked chips instead. Lunchrooms that now sell fatty “à la carte” items like mozzarella sticks and nachos would have to switch to healthier pizzas, low-fat...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools. For the first time, the government is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful. Under the new rules the Agriculture Department proposed Friday, foods like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out of lunch lines and vending machines. In their place would be foods like baked chips, trail mix, diet sodas, lower-calorie sports drinks and low-fat hamburgers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama has a new look, both in person and online, and with the president's re-election, she has four more years as first lady, too. That's got many people wondering: What will she do with them? Take on a new cause? Travel more? Trace the path of another first lady and keep the Obama political brand alive by running for office? The answers are to be determined. The first lady is trying to figure out what comes next for this self-described "mom in chief" who also is a champion of healthier eating, an advocate for military families,...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Faced with the high cost of caring for smokers and overeaters, experts say society must grapple with a blunt question: Instead of trying to penalize them and change their ways, why not just let these health sinners die?