Michelle Obama & Olive Garden Forge Cartel of Hypocrisy
In her squabble with childhood obesity First Lady Michelle Obama has partnered with the fast food equivalent of the sit down restaurant industry, Darden Restaurants. Darden is the parent company of such culinary counterfeits as Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse. The crux of their accord centers around a reduction in calories and sodium – 10% over the next five years and 20% within ten.
The meaninglessness of this partnership is many faceted. So much so that it is hard to figure out where to start but let’s begin with the obvious. The agreement between Darden and the First Lady is, in every sense of the word, nonbinding. Should Darden fail to satisfy their end of the bargain there is no penalty. It is simply a pledge. Not to mention that there is a very real possibility that in five years Mrs. Obama will no longer be the First Lady.
For Darden’s part this is likely about surviving the ever slowing economy. In exchange for pledging to reduce calories and sodium they receive a ton of free publicity. There could also be tax incentives for “the pledge” as recent history has proven that companies willing to support the President have been absolved of any tax liability and/or granted waivers from the President’s oppressive health insurance laws. No doubt another win for the Orlando-based dining corporation is that though support for the President has waned greatly since inauguration day, 
many are still faithful to Mrs. Obama.
Heck, I still like Michelle Obama. Although I am starting to realize that her efforts such as the White House organic garden and other partnerships with huge fast food chains are largely politically motivated one cannot argue with the positive things to come from them. More communities are planting gardens and parents are more aware of what they feed their kids. Regardless of the motivation, the outcome is positive.
Presumably Darden is counting on “the pledge” to convince parents that their food is suddenly healthy. While reducing calories is a step in the right direction calories and sodium are the least of the dangers of the Darden menu. The quality of ingredients in use at the typical Darden restaurant is on par with the GMO saturated fare you find at most of the giant fast food chains. It’s just dressed up on a plate instead of crammed into a bag.
Chief among the gastronomic affronts is Darden’s use of farm-raised imported seafood. Both Asian farmed shrimp and Chilean farmed salmon contain lethal amounts of toxins. This is the result of using chemicals to fight infection and illness in farms that contain populations hundreds of times more dense than what is found in nature.
These chemicals are banned from use in the US but are also 
manufactured here therefore the Big Ag companies that make them have a vested interest in the unfettered flood of imported seafood. That is why Big Ag companies like Monsanto have “invested” so heartily into the Obama White House and have been rewarded with cabinet posts for their most influential lobbyists like Michael Taylor (FDA), Regina Benjamin (Surgeon General) and Tom Vilsack (USDA).
The disastrous result this influence has had on our food system has meant ever increasing regulation on domestic, sustainable and organic foods and a dangerous lessening of the regulations over factory-farmed, imported and highly processed foods.
Under President George W. Bush a paltry 2% of imported seafood was inspected, however under President Obama that number has dropped to 1%. Furthermore that scant 1% is checked not by trained inspectors from the USDA or FDA but rather from agents of the Department of Commerce – the same people charged with conducting the US census. This is quite disconcerting considering that Red Lobster is the largest seafood chain in the US and they haven’t used US shrimp since 1971.
It is a little suspicious that the timing of this initiative between the White House and one of the world’s largest restaurant conglomerates occurs just days after lobbyists from the chain restaurant industry (including Darden) petitioned that they be allowed to accept EBT cards (food stamps) for payment on restaurant purchases. Fast food establishments were added to the list of businesses allowed to accept EBT cards right around the time a number of them decided to make token attempts to lighten their menus.
It seems that if the First Lady were genuine in her goal to improve the diet of American children she would first encourage her husband to severe his ties, both financial and political, with Big Ag companies, effectively closing the Monsanto revolving door. Then she should focus her energies on reforming the food stamp system so that EBT cards can only be used to purchase whole foods – no canned foods, bags of chips, bottles of soda, no fast food or frozen dinners – just fresh produce, proteins and dairy.
The dirty secret of the childhood obesity epidemic is that the majority of 
children who fall into this category live in households of the bottom 15% of wage earners. Their parents are either employed on a part-time basis or not at all. As a result they have ample time to cook meals from scratch but instead are loading down the cart with processed, high calorie, ready-to-eat foods.
Another thing that Mrs. Obama needs to do to prove she is earnest about childhood obesity is set a better example. There are literally hundreds of pictures on the Internet of her gorging on junk food like French fries and ice cream. It is starting to detract from her mission.
I don’t fault the First Lady for eating those foods; they are delicious. I certainly don’t begrudge her any weight gain. I, like many Americans have long fought the battle of the bulge. However, if Mrs. Obama continues to package herself the First Lady of Healthy Diets she has to set an example. Her well-documented weight gain from the campaign trail to today is startling and threatens (see for yourself below) to undo the good work she has already done.
The First Lady needs to make a decision, either champion a healthy lifestyle or eat whatever she wants but the hypocrisy has got to stop. America is sick and tired of an administration that repeatedly sets rules that apply to everyone except themselves. That is after all why we fought a Revolution in the 1770’s. For more about the Obama/Olive Garden pact check out this article from AP.
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Fun Fast Food Facts with Soda and Burger
Here’s a cartoon that cuts through the conjecture surrounding fast food and how healthy it is or isn’t. It’s an adult discussion:
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How E Coli Entered Our Food System
I am a chef and food activist but admittedly not a scientist. Still there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that e coli entered our food system via genetically modified seeds, specifically corn.
To make corn that was resistant to their “Round Up” weed killer, Monsanto Chemical Company developed a way of changing the genetic structure of corn so that “Round Up” wouldn’t hurt it. The way they got the genetic modifications into the seed germ was to piggyback it on an obscure bacteria found in feces and soil. That bacteria was e coli. This is a well known and well documented story that has been mentioned in documentaries like King Corn and Food Inc. Monsanto does not deny that they use e coli in their GM products but they do deny that it is connected to the outbreaks of the past few decades. The time line of outbreaks corresponds perfectly with the introduction of GM seed into the food system.
Cows are fed this e coli laced GM corn. Corn is not a natural food for cattle therefore it takes their stomachs longer to digest than it would natural foods like grass or hay. A cow’s stomachs (they have four of them) are the absolute best breeding ground for e coli reproduction. Now the bovine scat is teeming with the deadly bacteria; this scat is then sold as fertilizer all over the world. That is how it finds its way to produce like spinach, cilantro and sprouts. Since these foods are commonly eaten raw there is no heat application to kill the e coli microbes.
As far as prevention of e coli dosing simply spray all of your produce with a combination of water and white vinegar. The vinegar will kill most any bacteria including salmonella and e coli. From the The Vinegar Institute:
Add 2 tablespoons white distilled vinegar to 1 pint water and use to wash fresh fruits and vegetables, then rinse thoroughly.
E coli symptoms according to WebMD:
- Severe stomach cramps and stomach tenderness.
- Diarrhea, watery at first, but often becoming very bloody.
- Nausea and vomiting.
Soy Makes You A Sissy, Literally
When I was a young man growing up in rural Alabama it seemed my friends or brother were always sticking some kind of food in my face with the assertion, “that’ll put hair on your chest.” Likewise I often heard my father refer to something as, “sissy food.” More than once I’ve heard that real men don’t eat _______.
Soy was one of the things real men don’t eat. Except, of course, as soy sauce. Some how that’s butch. But soy milk, soy nuts and especially soy burgers have always meant an immediate revocation of one’s man card. Well, there has been a lot of scientific data recently that suggests soy actually does have an effeminating effect on men.
In a 2005 study the Journal of Nutrition reported that soy protein is inferior to casein protein (meat) for building muscle tissue. That one is a no brainer. There is absolutely no reason to believe that protein from a legume would build more muscle than protein from actual muscle. The universe just doesn’t work that way. But it was nice of the Journal of Nutrition to prove it on paper for all to see.
In a recent Harvard study submitted by Jorge E. Chavarro, M.D., Sc.D there is a significant amount of evidence that soy protein decreases testosterone while increasing estrogen. This leads to lower sperm counts and Gynecomastia (he-hooters, papa’s tatas, man-mories, dude boobs, man teets, gentleman jugs, etc.). It appears science has actually proven that soy really does turn you into a girl.
Now my question is did pre-Monsanto soy have the same effect? The majority of the soy growing on this planet today is the result of the genetic mutations of a chemical company in St. Louis, MO. Monsanto has genetically modified soy beans to survive it’s chemical herbicide Round Up and, as they did with their frakencorn, have made sure that their frankensoy has infected virtually all of the soy farms on the planet.
The only cultures to largely incorporate soy into their daily diet before the 1970’s were those in Asia. I don’t recall anyone ever referring to Asian men as effeminate. Certainly you wouldn’t call Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan or Jet Li a sissy. Same for Yao Ming or Sammo Hung so it kind of makes you wonder if it’s the GM soy that is in fact the problem. Of course we can’t exactly compare the two since Monsanto has all but eradicated non-GM soy. At the same time, there has long been a 10 percent higher incidence of erectile dysfunction in Chinese men so maybe Monsanto’s genetic modifications aren’t to blame.
I don’t think anyone should abandon consuming soy but like we are finding out with everything on earth the key is moderation. I might suggest keeping your soy milk and soy nuts but getting rid of tofu. Let’s all be honest here for second shall we? No one likes tofu. 
As you folks who always profess your love of tofu know, deep down in the places you don’t want people to see your internal voice screams “yuck!” every time you eat that crap.
What must be addressed is that this information is yet another blow to the rapidly collapsing house of cards about the safety of vegan diets. After all vegans rely heavily on soy to replace the protein their body is supposed to get from animal sources. Sure they can consume other legumes for protein but few are as versatile as soy. Could this mean the quinoa burger is the next big craze? Maybe and I bet it’ll beat the hell out of a tofu burger.
For more on the health risks of veganism check out this experiment by independent health researcher Matt Stone or the shocking article by a self-described, “hardcore, self-righteous and oh so judgmental vegangelical” entitled Vegan No More. The revelation that veganism was killing her has actually earned death threats from all of those meat-is-murder vegans. For more about the new findings about soy you can check out this extensive article by Jim Thornton of Men’s Health Magazine.
