State readies campaign to curb obesity epidemic Restaurants, schools targeted

Boston Globe ^ | January 8, 2009 | Stephen Smith

[ninonitti]

Major restaurant chains in Massachusetts would be required to prominently post the calorie counts for all their offerings - at the counter or on the menu - under a far-reaching anti-obesity campaign that Governor Deval Patrick's administration is expected to announce today. The administration's battle against bulging waistlines also calls for public schools to measure the height and weight of first-, fourth-, seventh-, and 10th-graders and calculate whether a child is overweight. The finding would be sent home with students along with detailed advice on eating better and exercising more, with the goal of reducing the incidence of health conditions once almost unheard of in the young, including type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol.

[ninonitti]

So if food shortages occur this program would be rendered obsolete?

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

The fat police... watch out, they will handcuff you, taser you until you get skinny...

[SumProVita]

Lol! The next thing we’ll see is the hiring of personnel to “tie the shoes” of those who can’t. Wait....not enough qualified for those positions. I guess they’ll just ban shoestrings and limit all school children to shoes with velcro closures.

[econjack]

Wow! What a great idea: Tell people who are fat that they are fat! I’ll bet they didn’t have a clue they were fat before the State came in and told them!

[unixfox]

Guess these won't be around long.

[AD from SpringBay]

How much do the taxpayers of Massachusetts have to spend to implement this campaign and how much do restaurants have to spend to comply? The forgotten men need to start speaking out.

[hunter112]

It's not that much money to print a sign that people are going to ignore, anyway. Remember that surgeon general's warning on the cigarette packs forty-five years ago? Yeah, they really made some changes, didn't they?

It's funny to watch the nanny state get frustrated because they think finger wagging and tongue lashing is enough to make some sort of difference!

[zimfam007]

This is what I find so fascinating about the liberal “mind” — if there is such a thing. They will force businesses to post the caloric value of their meals and even stop the development of businesses in certain areas b/c it gives people too much access to fast food...”people” just cannot be left to their own devices. However, they will fight tooth and nail to deny girls/women access to educational material(s)/resources/pictures/etc. when they are contemplating an abortion...... As Rush states on a daily basis... our most expensive commodity here in the US is stupidity.......

[Mase]

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Henry Louis Mencken

This has little to do with concern over obesity. This is about power, control and money.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I'm surprised more organizations aren't involved with this war on fat.... I mean if women didn't get fat, their men wouldn't have to beat them, and if the men weren't frustrated by their disobedient wives/women, they wouldn't have to kick the dog (PETA), or abuse the kids (CPS) - they wouldn't have to go to bars to forget their fat wives and drive home drunk (MADD/AA - double whammy there) -

(am I taking a chance if I leave off the sarcasm tag?)

[rollo tomasi]

[pnh102]

It is nice to see that Gov. Patrick solved all of the other problems in Massachusetts so now he has time to focus on these issues.

[AD from SpringBay]

It's not that much money to print a sign that people are going to ignore, anyway.

A lot of menus from a lot of restaurants, a lot of corporate chains will have a lot of meetings to decide how to comply, a lot of state codes will have the new laws included, someone (somewhere) will be hired to enforce the code, lawyers will receive more retainer fees... to print a sign that people are going to ignore anyway. And then the state will still be in the red and taxes will be raised for the next round of crap, another Kennedy will be elected - repeat.

[MEGoody]

We told 'em and told 'em. You know, all those smoking Nazis who were in favor of smoking bans? We told 'em that the next 'bad guy' would be food, and that government would, again, be trying to play mommy.

We told 'em. They wouldn't listen. Maybe now they'll believe us.

[Leo Carpathian]

Ban everything, mainly the kitchen weapons - knives.
Just like guns kill, they are cause of fatnessss, they just cut everything too fast.
Jail fat people and elect more idiots to “govern” us.
Vegetarians get stupider, get into government and see wasaaaaap?

[massgopguy]

Oh this will get the government into everyone’s refridgerator. Start in your own home Deval or is the reason your wife is fat and depressed because you’re a closet case? You want kids to exercise but cut gym and ban tag. You sir are a retard.

[Darnright]

I’m going to play devil’s advocate here. It’s not a bad thing for people to understand just how much they’re eating when they order some fast food/restaurant items. For example:

Wendy’s Gourmet Mushroom Swiss Burger

“A 1/4 lb. of fresh, hot ‘n juicy beef, topped with natural Swiss cheese, sautéed Portabella mushroom blend, hickory smoked bacon, a savory peppercorn sauce, crisp lettuce and red, ripe tomato.”
Gourmet and gourmand aren’t synonymous, Wendy’s. This burger would be better named the “Glutton Mushroom Swiss Burger.” A regular 1/4 pound hamburger has 170 fewer calories and 16 fewer grams of fat! Stick with the chili and a baked potato if you want to watch your girlish figure, Wendy!

600 calories
36 g fat
14 g saturated fat
1.5 g trans fat
110 mg cholesterol
1,090 mg sodium
37 g carbs
2 g fiber
35 g protein

Restaurants even try to kill you with some salads:

Romano’s Macaroni Grill
Seared Sea Scallops salad

Why bother even calling this a salad? Could we ask restaurants to have a calorie and fat limit for the salad section? I’d like to be able to order salads without worrying I’m consuming an entire day’s worth of protein and fat. Judging from the Macaroni Grill menu, it’s impossible to create a salad with more than lettuce and dressing for under 500 calories. Macaroni Grill flunked the Men’s Health restaurant review.

“Seared sea scallops, tender leaves of spinach, arugula, feta cheese, crispy prosciutto, toasted walnuts and Parmesan crisps with light citrus dressing.”

Psst… vegetables and lean protein taste good. You don’t need to douse them in fat for us to eat them. (Don’t you just love that it comes with a “light” citrus dressing? Nothing in this salad is light, judging from the nutritional info!)

1,270 calories
94 g fat
27 g saturated fat
2,740 mg sodium
42 g carbs
76 g protein
6 g fiber

[HoosierHawk]

Well, the campaign is for your own good, ya know. After all, it is designed by those who know what's best for everyone.

/s

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

“My opinion is that the media is the main
supporter of healthy eating. We’re certainly
not hearing it from our customers”
— Andrew Puzder, CEO of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.

[achilles2000]

Now they are going to use the government schools to “regulate” food and exercise in the home.

Fine. I want every teacher to be weighed and measured quarterly, with those who don’t have the appropriate BMI to be suspended until they adopt “a healthy lifestyle”.