Friday, January 9, 2009

THE OBESE POLICE

Boston Globe article on Deval's newest initiative: http://tinyurl.com/8xnb8u

Don't get me wrong here, I'm all for restaurants letting you know the calories/carbs/fat/protein breakdown in their meals, but please, please, please don't make them print them right their next to the descriptions. If I'm ordering Alice Springs Chicken at Outback, I already know it's bad. A piece of otherwise healthy chicken smothered in tasty sauce, sauteed mushrooms, bacon, and cheese, with fries on the side has to bad for you, really freakin bad for you, but please let me enjoy my infrequent gluttony in blissful ignorance! It is not as if I'm eating like this with any regularity. But this is not really my gripe here.
They say "It Takes a Village"to raise a child. Well, here in Mass, our government officials are "The Village People" indeed. Does anyone really need a report from the school letting them know that little Johny could stand to lose a few? I was always a chubby kid. I knew it, my parents knew it, and my peers knew it. I can't imagine that a detailed report on my fatness provided at the already financially strapped school system's (i.e. taxpayers') expense would have been a great tool in my parent's quest to quell by obesity. People are who they are, letters from school will not make parents stop buying the groceries they buy. The Village People can not save them from themselves. If a parent is so inattentive, or so stupid, as to not realize that their kid is overweight, what makes people think getting a report from school will change them?
So Deval Patrick, having failed on his campaign promise to offer real property tax relief, failed to get his all important casinos built, failed at virtually everything, is now going to all out to stop childhood obesity. Well, given his track record so far, I guess they should start ordering larger desks for the schools right away!

2 comments:

rockandcookies said...

Rather than a report on a kid's fat level how 'bout a nutrition class for PARENTS of obese kids? You could title them things like "How to keep track of how many packages of ramen noodles your kid eats in one sitting" or "Calling your child a beached whale and buying diet book after diet book isn't going to help if you keep making pork chops smothered in cream of mushroom soup with white rice, and you make 30 servings of it to feed six kids". Or "How to be present at home and occupy your children so they don't learn to turn to food out of boredom, AND for comfort, AND have to make cheap, easy, non-nutritious 'meals' for themselves."

Wow. Holy comment-turned-rant. Maybe I have deep-seated issues. Who would have thought?

Sawcutting Shogun said...

Remember microwaved cheese on bread?