On Freedom and Eating

Question:  Should the federal government via The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 make extra federal funding for public school lunches dependent on the school's  restricting meals to no more than 750 calories and to mandatory portions of fresh fruits and vegetables?

Bad Taste, Less Filling

Argument:  Freedom of Eats No!  Free Eaterprise YES!!

Isn't there something in the U.S. Constitution or any of the Amendments that we have the freedom to eat what we want.  No state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, property, or the pursuit of calories.  There has got be something there.  Where are the attorneys?
Unfortunately not.  But there is something better-- the freedom to make money.

Great Taste, More Filling

Now my school experience may not be reflective of the entire nation of people who attended public schools between 1970 and 1982.  I developed from a scrawny elementary age child, dressed in tough skins, corduroy bell-bottoms, and his mother's homemade shirts (complete with embroidered yokes and puffed sleeve) who carried his lunch from home in a post office themed lunch pail, and who regularly distributed his Suzy Q's according to who created threats most likely to be executed.  After distributed all the attractive portions of my lunch, I was typically left with a chicken loaf sandwich until it was suggested by the recipients of my largess that I tell my mom not to include such a lame sandwich-- when I began to bring peanut butter and jelly, I was left with nothing.   Even the contents of my thermos were regularly drained until I implored my mother to change the apple to prune juice.  From then on, at least I could quench my thirst worked up after the mentally exhausting process of choosing the more worthy donees and having to incur the anger of the many have-nots.  Suffice it to say that I went through elementary school hungry, a disability I silently blamed on the government whose idea of a healthy lunch was an unappealing cold or equally unsatisfactory hot combination that including healthy fruits and vegetables.  If supplied with something more gastronomically tempting, bullies would never have gravitated to me, and I would have been able to enjoy my own lunch.

When I got to public high school, however, school lunches had evolved into better fare-- mashed potatoes, Salisbury steak, hamburgers and cheeseburgers, pizza, and the like.  These were available to all at full, reduced, or no cost.  I was somewhere in the middle.  During these idyllic days, I  discovered that a little charisma went far in securing extra helpings from the lunch ladies.  To hold up the line for only a few seconds, I could say things like "Give my compliments to the chef," "You hair looks lovely today under that hair net," or "I just want to let you know that you make lunch worth living."  In return, it was not unusual for me to receive two cheeseburgers, an extra square of chocolate cake, or even three pizza slices always demurring with the pleasant, "If you insist."  I am sure that during those days in Arcadia, I put away some 2000 plus calories per meal.  Then I would hurry out to the playground to smoke a cigarette or two to ward off any imminent dyspepsia.


The strange thing is that during my high school years when the lunches were chalk full of fat and carbs, there were only a few obese or corpulent students.

I think for many of us, school was the only place where we cold feast on such unhealthy but filling food.  McDonald's or Dairy Queen were once a month treats, and even then there were no such combination meals or extra large sizes that compelled us to engorge ourselves.

Let's face it.  Back in the day, food was not that tasty, and we were all so much better for it.  I think out of necessity, we ate to live.  No one was running around thinking about what to eat next.  No one was walking around eating out of habit.

A drink of Pepsi, Coke, or RC Cola and a Slim Jim or bag of Funyuns was the special reward for a successful expedition for recyclable soda bottles for which we would receive a nickel apiece.  And we sat on someone's steps and yapped and made jokes about the loud-mouth lady in the second floor apartment across the street with the huge breasts or the bearded lady who lived in the corner group home.  The food was never the raison d'etre but always just a side for something more important.

Now food products have become so must tastier, the packaging has become so much more appealing, and there is an almost unlimited variety.  Food  has become yet another form of American entertainment.  Now, kids no longer need to be responsible for their own entertainment.  We no longer need to make ii up.

In the old days we were not consumers.  Today thanks to the success of the free enterprise system, that is all we are.

So, the only thing we can do is to make cafeteria fruits and vegetables such that our kids absolutely must have them.  Give them new names; have Lil Wayne or One Direction or Nicki Minaj all over the walls munching on Pomows,  a succulent Chitty poised between their lips or golden grille, licking a Trottah.  I am confident that the same country that brought us happy meals and Glee can open up a whole new market for accumulating large profits off of healthy fruits and vegetables.