McGovern’s Ghost
March 6th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Some hardcore Weschler Moments these days.
Beyond George McGovern’s recent appearance in The Election (despite the Clinton Camp’s inability to recognize that Obama is this election’s McGovern), McGovern’s ghost is also haunting our pantry.
I’m reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food and on page 22 we have this:
“No single event marked the shift from eating food to eating nutrients, although in retrospect a little-noticed political dustup in Washington in 1977 seems to have helped propel American culture down this unfortunate and dimly lighted path. Responding to reports of an alarming increase in chronic diseases linked to diet – including heart disease, cancer, obesity, and diabetes – the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs chaired by South Dakota Senator George McGovern held hearings on the problem. The committee had been formed in 1968 with a mandate to eliminate malnutrition, and its work had led to the establishment of several important food-assistance programs. Endeavoring now to resolve the question of diet and chronic disease in the general population represented a certain amount of mission creep, but all in a good cause to which no one could possibly object.
“After taking two days of testimony on diet and killer diseases, the committee’s staff – comprised not of scientists or doctors but of lawyers and (ahem) journalists – set to work preparing what it had every reason to assume would be an uncontroversial document called Dietary Goals for the United States.”
The committee recommended cutting down on consumption of red meat and dairy products.
Big Red Meat and Big Dairy Products were not pleased. Shit storm of criticism ensued.
The recommendations were rewritten: “choose meats, poultry, and fish that will reduce saturated fat intake.” Big Tobacco has used the same linguistic tactic to get around those pesky little warning labels that they have to slap on their product.
And with that we were marching on our merry way to enjoy a long and unhealthy parade of food fads, incessantly unreliable and contradictory reports, and a perverse relationship with food and nutrition.
Where do we draw the line? It seems that everything these days causes some form of cancer or heart condition. My golden rule is consume everything in moderation, too bad more people don’t follow that.
Of course, you could always blame the companies, but I think it’s much deeper than that. The problem lies with this generations youth, and man…what a shit storm that’s going to be when they get older. But who’s responsible for the kids? Parents! Parents are not only misinformed about general nutrition, but they are also allowing their kids to be subjected to an array of advertising assaults. You want a healthier country? Get rid of the fucking cartoon infested cereal boxes and replace them with black labels and a white box. Tell me how good this cereal label would sound: Tasty Degermed corn meal mixed with bits of dicalcium phosphate, trisodium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate. MMMMMM!!!
*rant off*