The Obama Administration is getting ready to ditch the Food Pyramid, a symbol of healthy eating for the last two decades.
In its place, officials are "dishing up" a simple, plate-shaped symbol, sliced into wedges for basic food groups and half-filled with fruits and vegetables.
Beside the plate is a smaller circle for dairy, suggesting a glass of low-fat milk or perhaps a yogurt cup.
The revised pyramid is part of the administration's crusade against obesity, led by first lady Michelle Obama.
Great idea! I'm sure that changing the diagram from a pyramid to a circle will help our nation become lean and trim. I'm also confident that the First Lady can scrounge up the millions upon millions of dollars required to reprint all those nifty little brochures at the county health clinic.
With so many folks relying on the food stamp program, but yet still tipping the scales off the chart, perhaps the money could be better utilized to revamp the program. We could limit the foods these recipients are allowed to charge to the program to basic lean meats (no steak), fish (no lobster), fruits, veggies, whole-grain breads and pastas, dairy. No chips, sodas, cookies, or candy.
Also, I would like to know why the price of fresh produce has skyrocketed. Last week, a bin of 25-cent per ear, scroungy-looking corn created a mob of old people scrambling to fill their little plastic bags...at my local grocery store! It's ridiculous, scary, and sad. Meat is also gold-plated; even packages of hamburger or pork chops are extremely high.
My mom and I have been discussing doing some serious canning this fall, and perhaps putting a deer or two in the freezer. With so much of the Mississippi delta flooded, prices could rise even further by the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteIt's so hard to know where the line is between prudence and overreaction. We're stocked up on goods like flour, sugar, shortening, pasta, beans, etc, but we haven't resorted to buying the expensive "food buckets" being sold at outrageous prices by several companies.
We have also been building a small store of seeds harvested from our own garden. Over the last few years, we've installed a woodstove and built a good-sized greenhouse.
I'm hoping for the best, but trying to reasonably prepare for food/energy shortages.
Maybe I'm just another crackpot. Time will tell.
Add to the idiocy of this change from pyramid to circle ... the federal agency (USDA) that oversees school lunch programs now wants to ban potatoes. All white potatoes. Yams and sweet 'taters are not really potatoes, so they're still okay.
ReplyDeleteNo "honky 'taters" for you!! =))
lady red:
ReplyDeleteNothwithstanding my libertarian proclivities, I agree with your thread and comment- you are no crackpot. Healthful food need not be expensive, eating it lessens one's chances of requiring medical care, and those deriving public benefits should not expect untrammeled choices in life.
Now, whether a rejigged healthful food chart will accomplish anything, I remain unconvinced. Cheap, HFCS- and salt-laden processed food is well known to be bad- and no amount of nannying by the state will change anything.
Hey, I had to fight to get my share of that corn!
ReplyDeleteWe are getting a quarter beef this year. Other than that, I don't stock up. 3# bag of coffee beans at Costco went from 12.99 to 17.99 in a couple months.
Actually, there *is* something I have stocked up on - incandescent light bulbs.
Earl, the rejigged healthful food chart will accomplish nothing. It's gov't busy work, and a tremendous waste of money when we should be cutting back on such stupidity.
ReplyDeleteAridog, we actually grew a small crop of potatoes this year! White ones, even! Well, actually Noah did. He squealed when I went to weed my flower barrels of these huge green plants..I said "look buddy, them spuds are comin' outta my flower barrels". He harvested them, and they were very yummy.
Florrie, we have a cache of incandescents too! LMAO! Buying beef by the half or the quarter is smart.
Healthy eatin' is a good thing. But. Ain't nobody taking away my occasional double cheeseburger at Micky D's ... at 99 cents each I can eat a bunch. Had my first ones in college in 1960 ... and I ain't about to change now. :-L
ReplyDeleteI have a double weakness; Chinese food and Mexican food. Fried eggrolls with sweet & sour and fried rice. Cheese enchiladas, tamales, and chile rellenos. Oh, heaven! Oh, the fat and calories!
ReplyDeleteI used to enjoy an occasional Big Mac, but they just don't taste as yummy as they once did.
OT for a second...with all the talk about this vote on raising the debt ceiling, again, could someone point me to a thread about this or please share your thoughts on whether we should or no? I'm hopelessly muddled on the subject and am not sure *what* to believe.
ReplyDelete"No "honky 'taters" for you!!"
ReplyDeleteYeah, well, they can have my "honky taters" when they pry them out of my cold dead hands...
Florrie, essentially, we must raise the debt ceiling, or risk default on the current loans, since we are now borrowing money to pay the debt service (interest plus fees, no principle) on our prior loans.
ReplyDeleteAs to whether we should just let those loans go into default, I am of two minds.
We would certainly not be the first nation to do so, BUT we would be the first nation of anything near the stature of the US to do so.
In all, we MUST reduce our spending, and get our economy growing so that we can begin to pay off the principle, so any amount of spending reduction that can be made a condition of such a raise will be a good thing.
Essentially, the more spending reductions, the better, IF those monies are used to pay off principle.
Lady Red, there is a bank commercial here with a Chexican restaurant. If I could have found it on You Tube I would have posted it.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dances. I knew the "why" of raising the debt ceiling but I've heard all kinds of different versions of what will happen if we do or do not raise it again. I really appreciate your input.
ReplyDeleteLady Red, here is the commercial Matt was talking about.
ReplyDeleteI think we should reduce the spending so that we can pay the debt service. If we raise the debt ceiling, we will also raise spending to go along with it.
ReplyDeleteLady Red ...
ReplyDeleteBig Mac's were a later offering, as were the quarter pounders. Neither is as good. The "original" recipe combination tiny onions, mustard, ketchup,and pickle of the plain old original burger or cheese burger is the only one I like, and double meat only makes it better...so does 99 cents each.
Of course, I'm a 60's guy, which means I also like the occasional bag of "sliders" from White Castle.
A local only favorite of mine is "Carter's" diner cheeseburgers ... big and greasy as hell, covered with lots of shredded onions, with pickle and condiments added as you please.
Healthy eating doers NOT mean you cannot splurge and enjoy food now and then. These Kashi crazed yogurt sucking wackos are control freaks. Kashi has less flavor than old dried out alfalfa and the ones with "fruit" (dried up old bits) are obscene. You want fruit, buy fruit ... I always have a lot around for snacks.
With my f'ing greasy burger when I feel like it ... live free or die!! :D
Reference the "debt ceiling" ....
ReplyDeleteI'm not an expert on US Fiscal Law at the securities level, however, I believe that similar anti-deficiency rules (like those I had to abide as a fed) apply to any obligation of the US government ... e.g., pre-existing obligations must be met before you can spend anew ... an "obligation" in fed-speak is funds both committed and dedicated for payment of a specific pending debt.
I believe this current fandango is a "Mexican Standoff" ... The administration, I believe, knows full well it must service and retire prior debt on schedule ... which means they must short other "commitments" (future debt not yet "obligated")and reduce other programs, etc. ... which would tear in to all their fantasy expenditures, as well as much of other federal services.
This "clean" debt ceiling vote is juvenile nonsense ... they got it and it failed, as it should. It is the same as your 12 year old demanding you give him/her an unfettered Visa card for their use at the mall 24/7.
Who will blink first? Donno.
Matt and Fay, I love it! Chexican! :)
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that raising the debt ceiling yet again is lunacy.
ReplyDeleteWe should cover our military, essential gov't employees, loan/interest payments, social security, and medicare. If there is anything left over, THEN figure out who gets what.
Gov't layoffs. Union subsidies sh*tcanned. Farm and energy subsidies and foreign aid...buh bye, at least until we can get back on our feet. Maybe forever.
Oh, and cut taxes. Then take a machete to the mountains of ridiculous regulations strangling our manufacturers/producers. Throw in some tort reform limiting law suit payouts, and we might be able to crawl out of this hole. Especially if we also take the time to sweep our entire education model out with the dust bunnies, and actually focus on TEACHING our children to compete in the 21st century.
Speaking of taxes, I am in the middle of my US taxes now (I have an extra two months). I have to declare all of my trips to to the US and how long they were.
ReplyDeleteGood grief! That sounds like a nightmare. Did you keep a log, or are you trying to reconstruct from memory?
ReplyDeleteReconstruct them from credit card bills. If we drive to the US, I WILL get gas (at 25% lower price, who wouldn't?) and if we fly we have something there, too.
ReplyDeleteBut this year I finally wised up and started a spread sheet.
Right now not only is the gas cheaper, but the Obamafied US dollars is worth less than the Canadian -- so I save twice!
RMM ...
ReplyDeleteGreat!! F'ing JEM is good for something! Travelers from Canada. Just like oil drillers from Brazil and oil ticks from the ME. Everybody love on big "0" now. Bwahahahaha. x(
To clarify my #16 re: Debt
ReplyDeleteCongress appropriates funds, but doesn't "spend" them. Spending is done by agencies, based upon appropriations, and you cannot "spend" isn't there. Once a purchase order is issued, or a check is cut, those funds are dedicated to that obligation. Without a debt ceiling increase appropriations won't mean diddley squat since Treasury cannot borrow the funds to fulfill the future obligations. Thus, funds not previously obligated cannot be spent under the law, IMO. Means government will have to shut down some things ... just as Lady Red indicates.
My # 23 expanded...of course, the government could always issue "script" (IOU's) to its employees, West Wingers, and Congress persons and staffs. 8-}
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the comments on the debt ceiling, everybody. I felt that we shouldn't increase it again but with all the spin being regurgitated from the Beltway...
ReplyDelete#18
Lady red for president. Seriously, I'd vote for you. I'm totally behind your solutions. Why TF can't someone do those things? When are the pols going to take this crisis seriously? I am waaaay beyond being able to listen to them mindlessly repeating talking points. Both sides.
I give up on them, I'm going to go see if there are any new details on Weinergate...
lady red said: It's so hard to know where the line is between prudence and overreaction.
ReplyDeleteI don't know where it is either - but - I think the line is moving.
IE, what was overreaction is now prudence.