Food for Thought
honestly, I'm just procrastinating while I write my thesis right now...but this is interesting in and of itself...
It seems Hardee's has created the ultimate in horribly fattening fast food burgers...I mean "kill you in a greasy bite" horrible...and you know what? Americans love it.
As always, Big Brother hates it.
"Food porn," cried the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Washington advocacy group.
A) This implies there's something wrong with porn to begin with. There isn't.
B) Can't we even let Americans choose what they want to eat? Is that really too much to ask? Hey, if they want to tell me what to eat, they should at least come cook it for me too.
posted by Will @ 5:46 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Food porn indeed
I'm sure the good folks at Center for Science in the Public Interest like porn as much as the next policy institute, but they do recognize that food and porn serve different purposes. The idea behind calling something "food porn" is kind of like the old Supreme Court criterion: "no redeeming value."
As for not letting the American people eat what they want to, does the Center for Science in the Public Interest have some sort of legislative power of which I'm not aware?
liberal hem and hawing aside, and really, at post 5am in the morning, most things should be left aside, though the Center has no real power behind it (thank God), the sentiment expressed - that a business should not be able to market what it wants - is a dangerous one.
The sentiment is rather that consumers should know the health content of their food and the repercussions of eating it: something that businesses are not always wholly eager to advertise.
When obesity is fast becoming America's foremost health problem, you're right, something is amiss.
What's amiss is a horrible inability / unwillingness to take responsibility for our own actions. When you get fat, it's your fault, not MccyDs. If you're not smart enough to know a "Thickburger" is bad for you, that's your fault, not Hardee's. And frankly, if you're that dumb, maybe natural selection needs to take its course.
The government / "concerned" groups should not have to and flat out should not be holding our hands like this.
Just to clarify.. the Thickburger was the original and not nearly as impressive.. we're talking about the Monster Thickburger here
"The government / "concerned" groups should not have to and flat out should not be holding our hands like this."
The group is disseminating information, and making recommendations based on their expertise. That sounds like responsibility to me, not nanny-stating or hand-holding. The point of the organization is to promote healthy eating. It makes sense that they would draw attention to a burger like this one. Similarly, the American Lung Association points to the dangers of cigarette smoking; are they hand-holders too? Would it be better if they just quieted down, and doctors continued to prescribe cigarettes for stress-relief like they did in the '50s? None of these organizations are preventing anyone from exercising their free will. Instead, they are giving people more information to work with, and individuals are better able to make decisions by weighing various facts.
Are the people at this nutrition center engaging in a campaign of threats and harassment against Hardees employees or patrons? Of course not. I would love it if pro-lifers would follow this lead, instead of harassing women, destroying clinics and stalking -- sometimes even killing -- doctors. I support the right of any group to disseminate truthful information. If the Center for Science and Public Interest employees were parking themselves outside of Hardees, screaming that the people entering the building were sinners and killers, and trying to trick them into going elsewhere, I would definitely not approve of their actions. But I support the right of everyone (pro-lifers included) to conduct accurate research and publish their findings. Of course, the pro-life crowd hasn't been so strong on the whole accuracy/truthfulness thing, but that's another story...
Leave it to a conservative to go from Monster Thickburger to abortion...
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