The Politics of Nutrition

Thank you for sharing!

Last Updated on May 20, 2015 by Chef Mireille

Since its inception, this blog has been about food and travel related issues.  My fans come here to find out what I think of a new restaurant I have tried or to find a unique recipe or to learn some interesting facts about a travel destination.  They don’t come here to have a political discourse, so I try to keep my opinions to myself, as difficult as this may be.  Some things that I feel strongly about, especially food/travel related issues, I feel compelled to comment on.  I came across a story today that I feel forced to comment on.

Michelle Obama has taken on child nutrition as one of her issues, which I feel is necesary. We are the most obese developed country in the world, which contributes in a big way to our exorbitant health care costs as a nation.  Instead of the right wingers spreading lies that Obama is doing to start death squads killing senior citizens, they need to be instructing their constituencies that ketchup is NOT a vegetable and teach them to eat and lead healthier lives to help reduce the national healthcare budget.

After I read this article about Mrs. Obama trying to get more fruits and vegetables into school lunch programs and eliminating junk food options, I proceeded to read the comments.  Although I should not be surprised, I am amazed at the amount of anger in the comments.  People are calling this a ruse by her and the President to spread socialism in the US.  Really? – Oh how horrible of them to try to bring more nutrition to our children.  What evil exists in the Obamas! Give me a break!

On another note, many people comment about this being a parent’s responsibility and not the school’s, but it is the school’s responsibility if they are giving children free lunches, it should be a nutritious, healthful lunch and NOT detrimental to their health and well being.  Even if we decide to take the school out of the equation, finding fruits, vegetables and healthy options is not always easy, especially in lower economic areas.  The government needs to make fruits and vegetables accessible at affordable prices to the people in lower economic areas.   Many of these people do not have cars so they are limited to what is available in their neighrborhood.  I have seen the quality of the fruits and vegetables available in some of these areas and I would not want to eat produce looking like that.  These are the ones that are lucky enough to even have fresh produce available. There was a CNN special on this issuea few years ago, which indicated in inner city Chicago it was easier to buy a gun than it was to buy a tomato.   In the better neighborhoods where most people have cars and can drive to do their shopping, they don’t have to because there you find healthy looking produce at better prices.   

It is the government’s responsibility to provide the infrastructure so that all it’s citizens have access to quality food at affordable prices and this is something that is sorely lacking right now, so Mrs. Obama I support you!!!

This is an issue I feel strongly about, providing healthy food to all people and it amazes me that people would find fault with Mrs. Obama on this objective.

But this is not a political blog, so I’ll stop now..but I am interested in hearing your opinion back!

Chef Mireille
Global Tastes & Travels Inc.
facebook.com/GlobalTastes
twitter.com/GlobalTastes
[email protected]

Thank you for sharing!

Join the Global Kitchen Travels community!

Sign up for updates!

Thanks! Keep an eye on your inbox for updates.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.