There are some social issues on which we can disagree and have debate without becoming mired in the tribalism of partisan politics. But the list is dwindling, with food poised to become the newest casualty of the culture wars.
Take for example the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. This bill reauthorizes and expands the federally-funded school lunch program and has the support of the First Lady, as well as an organization of retired military commanders called Mission: Readiness. Yet its passage was almost blocked in the House last week by the procedural maneuverings of representatives who felt the bill’s nutritional requirements were too great an expansion of government powers.
In the same vein, prominent conservative social critics like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin have recently begun taking issue with Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign that is aimed at promoting healthy eating and exercise to end the epidemic of childhood obesity.
For example, Sarah Palin, mistakenly believing that a proposed regulation in Pennsylvania would ban sweets from schools, brought dozens of cookies to a school fundraiser to protest the “nanny state run amok.” In a subsequent interview she attacked the First Lady’s effort to promote healthy eating in schools, saying that parents, not the government, should decide what children eat.
In a speech at a meeting of the National Restaurant Association, the First Lady encouraged fast food restaurants to restructure their menus so that healthier options were the default choices instead of special requests. This prompted Fox News’s Glenn Beck to worry that discouraging unhealthy eating could lead to prohibition of junk food and riots. He also argued that rather than being concerned with the health care costs of obesity the “really fat” people should be left to die.
Thankfully Beck does not make health policy. The idea of just leaving people to die because of health issues – whether the result of bad luck, bad choices or a combination of the two – is reprehensible even in jest. We cannot, should not and will not ever do such a thing. But as a result, taxpayers will continue to pay for obesity related diseases in the form of Medicare payments.
Besides healthcare costs, our national security may also suffer if current trends in childhood obesity continue unchanged. Mission: Readiness reports that over a quarter of Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 are too heavy to enlist in the military. They worry that unless something is done to alter current trends, the military will be unable to recruit enough men and women to meet our nation’s needs.
Because obesity and related health problems are a significant public concern, it is in everyone’s best interest to reduce their prevalence, especially among young people. The First Lady’s campaign does this by engaging not only government resources, but all elements of the private sector, from the restaurant industry to faith-based groups. It’s not a heavy-handed ban on unhealthy eating, but an attempt to generate public discussion and thought about the ways we feed ourselves and our children.
Which is not to say that critics don’t make a good point. No one wants to be told what to eat. It’s insulting and patronizing to have someone – be it a parent, doctor, or president – tell us what is and is not healthy. Government regulations, however well-intentioned, cannot make people eat more healthily or solve the problems of obesity.
But this is a problem that must be addressed. An unhealthy nation is an unhealthy nation. Piddling over whether or not the government should decide what gets served in schools will mean little if we cannot pay for health care or raise an army. The problem is multifaceted and so must be the solutions. Some may be regulatory such as limiting sweets that can be sold in schools. Others may be market-based such as providing incentives for local farmers who work with school districts to provide fresh produce and meat. But if we allow food to fall victim to the type of divisive battles that make productive and rational solutions impossible, no one wins.
Geoff Jara-Almonte ([email protected]) is a 4th year medical student going into emergency medicine.
