We Live In A Coronavirus World Now-- Did We Prepare By Electing Good And Competent Leaders?

The Doctor Will See You Now

Trump's contribution to the national discussion on the pandemic this fine day: "It will go away, just stay calm. Be calm. It’s really working out. And a lot of good things are going to happen." People who listen to him-- see the graphic at the very bottom of the page-- are most likely to get sick. Old people who listen to him are most likely to die. That, tragically, is a kind of Darwinistic thinning of the herd.

People my age who get Coronavirus seem to be prone to dying... and this morning NBC News reported that scientists aren't sure why-- nor are they sure why young children seem to be largely spared. "People over age 60, and particularly those with pre-existing health conditions, appear to be most vulnerable to the virus... While the immune systems of older people are typically not as robust as those of younger people, leaving them more vulnerable to a wide variety of illnesses, scientists say they can't definitively say why the coronavirus has been harder on people of advanced ages... Most people who have been infected have experienced mild to moderate symptoms, which... likely means either that the virus is not penetrating beyond the upper respiratory tract or that patients' immune systems are preventing it from reaching deep into the lungs.

It's thought that the virus spreads through close contact, traveling through tiny droplets and secretions when a patient coughs, sneezes or breathes.

Typically, when a virus infects a cell in the human body, the cell's so-called innate immune system kicks in if foreign genetic material is detected. This is considered the body's first line of defense against invading pathogens. The second line of defense is known as the adaptive immune system, which first has to detect foreign invaders before producing antibodies and T cells to counteract the infection.

But as people age, both of those systems can break down.

Underlying medical issues also increase the risks of disease because pre-existing conditions influence how a person's immune system functions. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that people with serious chronic medical conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes and lung disease, are at higher risk of getting very sick from COVID-19.

Very few children have been diagnosed with COVID-19 so far-- and most of the cases involving children have been mild. In China, children made up just 2.4 percent of confirmed cases, and no coronavirus deaths have been reported in young children to date.

I expect Trump supporters, like the ones in the video above, will be getting the virus in large numbers, going to work and social gatherings, spreading it and dying in large numbers. I've been tending to eat out less and less. Last night Roland said the celery root soup I made for dinner was the best soup he'd ever eaten. Today Emily Heil and Tim Carman, writing for the Washington Post took up the very touchy topic of going out to eat in restaurants. People are reconsidering their eating out habits-- especially at buffets and counter-service restaurants where customers may share serving spoons or credit-card touch screens or even condiment shakers."

Diners across the country are reassessing their relationship with restaurants, fast-casuals and even neighborhood bodegas as the coronavirus makes its rounds. Many diners remain wary of setting foot into eateries of all kinds, even though public health experts say restaurants are just as safe-- and perhaps even safer-- than other public spaces, such as buses, subways and event venues, where people are packed closer together than the three-foot buffer recommended by the World Health Organization between you and a coughing or sneezing person.

Owners and operators across the United States, from corporations such as McDonald’s to your local pizzeria, are hyper-aware of customer concerns. They only have to read the stories out of Italy to know how quickly fortunes can change from a packed restaurant to a ghost town. So they’re trying to get ahead of the fears by implementing new procedures and tightening up current ones.

... Right now, the CDC is advising people at high risk to avoid crowds. High-risk people-- older people and those with underlying conditions-- in areas where the virus is spreading should “take extra measures to put distance between yourself and other people,” according to the CDC, and “stay home as much as possible.”

... While you can’t come into contact with the virus through food, the hard surfaces you encounter in a restaurant, like menus, utensils, salt shakers and the like, are another story. Larry Lynch, senior vice president of certification and operations at the National Restaurant Association, says his organization is telling restaurants to pay particular attention to wiping things down. Restaurants are being advised to use fresh cleaning cloths, and they are circulating the Environmental Protection Agency’s new list of disinfectants that are effective against the coronavirus.

Lynch says diners should take comfort in the fact that restaurants have been meeting food safety and sanitation standards for decades, so they already have protocols in place.

Regardless, restaurants and chains are implementing new procedures to deal with potential contamination. At McDonald’s, for example, operators have increased the number of hand-sanitizer dispensers at entrances and in the waiting areas of their restaurants. They are also disinfecting trays, dining room tables and chairs after each use. They have even increased the frequency of cleaning and sanitizing high-touch surfaces such as doors, kiosks, touch screens, restrooms and more. They have also reminded employees to stay home when sick.

... There’s no indication, health officials say, that the coronavirus can be transmitted on food. Wen notes that the virus does not appear to be orally transmitted. Rather, it is a respiratory illness spread through droplets-- from a person’s sneeze, for example-- that are then transmitted through the nostrils or eyes of someone else.

That means you’re not any more at risk in a restaurant than in other public places, like on public transit or in retail stores. “In fact, there may be less risk because the risk is the number of people you are in contact with and in close proximity to,” Wen says. “The number of people who come into close proximity to you on a crowded bus is far more.”

One of the biggest concerns that diners cite is encountering restaurant workers who might be sick. Lynch, of the National Restaurant Association, says his organization is advising member restaurants around the country to make sure that members of their staffs aren’t reporting to work sick and that they have plans in place for how to deal with workers showing any type of cold or flu-like symptoms.

Iricanin says the operation’s 280 employees have been told through emails and in meetings to stay home if they are sick. They are also being instructed to alert their managers to fellow employees or customers who might be.

CapitalSpring, an investment firm that owns thousands of restaurants, including Taco Bell and Wendy’s franchises, told CNBC that it is offering its employees talking points to deal with customers or fellow employees they suspect of being ill.

Patrons should be aware that they could be the ones spreading the virus, and Lynch says he is recommending that restaurants offer guests hand sanitizer and tissues.

Not all restaurants are as careful-- and coronavirus threat or no, diners should always be aware of the potential for cross-contamination from objects at their tables, says Dawn Anderson, chair of the Department of Public & Allied Health at Bowling Green University. She conducted [a study] of fecal bacteria found on the menus, ketchup bottles and salt shakers at a few bar and grill-style restaurants in her area and found that at least one strain of such bacteria was present on every ketchup bottle and most menus.

Wen says the virus can lurk in these places. Both she and Anderson say diners should wash their hands throughout their meals. “The advice is not ‘don’t touch anything,’ it’s ‘wash your hands after you touch things,’” she says.

Delivery can be safer, but...

Getting your favorite eatery’s dishes delivered to your door is one way to limit your exposure to other people. The CDC advice to high-risk people in virus-struck areas includes: “Consider ways of getting food brought to your house through family, social or commercial networks.”

Taking the avoiding-people route a step further, food-delivery service Postmates last week introduced new drop-off options, including a “no contact” one in which customers can request that the delivery is left at their doors. Still, there is a chance that the person handling your delivery could have transmitted it to the packaging.

Kathy Hollinger, the chief executive of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, says she is helping to spread the directive from the National Restaurant Association that restaurant workers should keep an eye out. “We’re saying that if a delivery driver looks sick, there should be judgment used about whether the food should be given to them,” she says.

Last week two close old friends-- my age-- told me they were going to an informal school reunion in New Rochelle. I begged them not to. They went anyway. This morning, the NY Times reported that the State of New York has declared New Rochelle a coronavirus containment zone. "With New Rochelle, a small city just north of New York City in Westchester County, emerging as the center of the state’s outbreak, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York on Tuesday announced a targeted containment strategy to halt the spread of the virus. The state’s plan focuses on a 'containment area' in New Rochelle with a one-mile radius centered around a synagogue believed to be at the center of the cluster, officials said. Schools and other large gathering facilities like community centers and houses of worship within the area will be closed for two weeks beginning on Thursday, Mr. Cuomo said. Businesses such as grocery stores and delis would remain open. The state did not plan to close streets or implement travel restrictions, he said. 'You’re not containing people,' he said. 'You’re containing facilities.' The state also planned to deploy the National Guard to the containment area to clean the schools and deliver food to quarantined residents, Mr. Cuomo said."

More of today's vital corona-news:

Nursing homes should bar most family and friend visits, the industry says.

Nursing homes and assisted living centers should take unprecedented action to curtail most social visits, and should even take steps to keep some employees away, to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, the industry said on Tuesday.

The recommendation follows an outbreak of the virus in the region around Seattle, where five long-term care facilities have been hit with cases, including a facility in Kirkland, Wash., where 18 residents have died. There have now been 794 cases of coronavirus in the United States, including 27 deaths.

“The mortality rate is shocking,” said Mark Parkinson, president and chief executive officer of the American Health Care Association. He said that the death rate might well exceed the 15 percent reported in China for people aged 80 and older who were infected.

The challenge of the virus “is one of the most significant, if not the most significant” issues the industry has ever faced, he said.

Industry officials said they are recommending that nursing homes should allow people to enter only if it is essential.

Staff members, contractors and government officials should be asked, “Do you need to be in-building to operate?” said Dr. David Gifford, the health care association’s chief medical officer.

As for family members, he said, “Our recommendation is they should not be visiting.”

Anyone who does visit, he said, should be screened carefully at reception and anyone who has signs of illness should be turned away.

As the virus hits Europe, a variety of strategies are used to slow the spread.

With the first reported cases in Cyprus, the coronavirus is now present in every country in the European Union, health officials said on Tuesday, hours after Italy imposed sweeping travel restrictions across the whole country.

But the measures taken by the bloc’s member states to contain the virus varied widely from country to country, often with little relation to the actual size of the outbreaks, reflecting the lack of international coordination.

Greece and the Czech Republic announced that all schools and universities would close, though each country’s caseload is in the dozens, far fewer than some of their neighbors.

“We may decide on additional emergency measures later,” the Czech prime minister, Andrej Babis, said in a statement on Tuesday. “It is necessary to take active, exceptional measures at the start of an epidemic.”

Spain, with one of the largest outbreaks, closed all education centers in the Madrid region, but not nationwide. In Poland, schools in Poznan, a city in the west of the country, were ordered closed after a single case of infection was discovered. Swimming pools and other public places were also to be shut for two weeks.

Worldwide, schooling has been disrupted for more than 300 million students.

Across the Continent, countries also increased travel regulations and guidelines.

Austria barred travelers from Italy without a health certificate, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said. Switzerland was considering a similar measure.

Serbia has temporarily barred travelers from the worst-affected places, including Italy, while Croatian officials said that people entering the country from “highly infected areas” would be put into a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

Italy, with the worst outbreak outside of China, had more than 9,000 infections and 463 deaths by Monday. France and Spain each reported on Tuesday that they had more than 1,600 cases; Germany, had almost 1,200 by Monday.

The authorities in France, where 30 people have died, were resisting taking the kind of sweeping preventive measures seen in Italy or Japan.

“We are only at the beginning of this epidemic,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said on Tuesday after visiting an emergency call center in Paris. “We have anticipated, we have prepared ourselves.”

Trump pitches a tax cut to a skeptical Congress.

President Trump plans to brief Senate Republicans on Tuesday on his ideas for an economic stimulus package to respond to the coronavirus, including a payroll tax cut.

But the idea of a payroll tax reduction is running into bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill, where Democrats are openly hostile to the idea and some Republicans are skeptical, including Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader.

Mr. Trump has suggested the tax cut as part of an array of measures to boost the economy, which some experts fear is headed into a recession.

But Mr. McConnell, of Kentucky, has privately discouraged discussion of the idea, according to people familiar with his thinking. Two other top Senate Republicans, John Cornyn of Texas and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, have said they do not think a stimulus package is necessary at this point.

Mr. Trump is expected to discuss the coronavirus response with Senate Republicans at their policy luncheon on Tuesday, along with Steven Mnuchin, his treasury secretary, and Larry Kudlow, his top economic adviser.

Democrats insist that any government response be tailored narrowly to the needs of patients and workers directly affected by the virus. They want enhanced unemployment benefits for those who lose their jobs, paid sick leave for people who must miss work and affordable testing and treatment for those who get sick.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed suggestions that the House would decamp from Washington because of the coronavirus.

“We are the captains of the ship,” she said at a closed door Democratic meeting focused on addressing the growing health epidemic, according to two people present. “We are the last to leave.”

But she and her top lieutenants indicated they were unlikely to approve any additional emergency measures related to this week, before leaving town for a previously scheduled recess.

Coachella organizers are in talks to postpone the festival to avoid canceling.

Organizers of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival are in talks to postpone next month’s event to avoid outright cancellation, according to a person briefed on the negotiations who was not authorized to speak about it.

The postponement is not certain and would require the festival’s top acts to agree to move their performances to October, from April 10-12 and April 17-19, this person said. This year’s lineup features Travis Scott, Frank Ocean and a reunion of Rage Against the Machine, along with dozens of other acts.

Even if rescheduled, the postponement of Coachella, the giant pop festival in the picturesque desert of Southern California, could disrupt the annual concert season. The event, founded in 1999, draws up to 125,000 people a day and is a bellwether for the multibillion-dollar touring business.

Coachella joins a long list of cultural events that have been postponed or canceled over coronavirus fears, including the South By Southwest festival, which was set to begin on Friday. On Monday, Pearl Jam announced the postponement of its North American tour, and Neil Young said he was considering postponing his own tour.

Pearl Jam wrote on its website that it had searched for other options, “but the levels of risk to our audience and their communities is simply too high for our comfort level.”

On Friday, the South by Southwest festival was canceled just a week before it was set to start. Festival organizers have since said that they would be laying off one-third of their full-time staff.

Executives at the major promotion companies and talent agencies-- among them Live Nation, AEG, WME, Creative Artists Agency and Paradigm-- have formed a task force to share information and establish practices for dealing with virus-related problems and delays.

On the Iran-Iraq border, friends are kept at arm’s length.

The border police commander rose quickly to meet the visitors who entered his office on the Iraq-Iran border recently, among them a fellow officer and a friend. Like many millions of Iraqi men, he usually hugs male friends and family, or kisses them at least once on both cheeks when they meet-- a sign of friendship, of a bond between them.

But the commander, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Juma Abid, stopped short, and held his hands twisted together behind his back, looking down awkwardly.

“I am sorry,” he said, as if he were ashamed. “You know, corona.”

Instead of shaking the visitor’s hand, he reached out and squeezed his heavily clad arm, but kept him at arm’s length. General Abid, who runs a busy crossing with Iran-- where the government has reported 8,042 cases and 291 deaths since the outbreak began-- said he felt a responsibility to ensure the virus did not spread widely in Iraq.

“Frankly, our tradition is to embrace, kiss and shake hands,” he said. “But now, I say no,”

The lack of physical contact is not such an issue between women and men because typically the two sexes do not touch in public. Even shaking hands with the opposite gender is seen as slightly odd, or as a Western convention.

But for men, there is a sense of having to choose between safety from the virus, which is transmitted through touch, and rudeness.

It almost makes a person feel a little lonely, one tribal sheikh said. Another described the awkwardness of introducing physical distancing among his tribesmen.

U.K. says extreme measures may be needed, just not yet.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain has so far resisted imposing the sort of draconian restrictions on travel, school openings or mass gatherings that other European countries have introduced as the coronavirus has taken hold.

Mr. Johnson and his advisers argue that putting in place “social distancing measures” while the outbreak is still in its early stages could have downsides.

“There is a risk if we go too early, people will understandably get fatigued and it will be difficult to sustain this over time,” Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, said.

Many experts agree that some measures shunned by Britain, like screening airport travelers for a fever, are of limited use: Hand-held thermometers are unreliable, sick travelers can take temperature-reducing drugs and checks do not catch people still in the incubation phase.

“I think that’s a bit of a red herring,” said Jonathan Ball, a professor of virology at the University of Nottingham, referring to such tests. “You either stop flights, or you acknowledge the fact that someone coming into the country could be infected.”

But measures like school shutdowns and work-from-home policies do seem to be limiting the spread in parts of Asia, leading some public health experts to question why countries like Britain and the United States were not adopting them sooner.

In Hong Kong, for example, which has discouraged large gatherings and has shut museums and sports facilities, the winter flu season ended early, a sign that the same measures could slow the spread of the coronavirus, too, experts have said. The more extreme lockdowns and surveillance efforts undertaken in China have also driven down the number of new cases, international health experts said.

How the tactics of an authoritarian government can be translated to other countries, like Italy, is not clear. And some experts say they suspect that the memory of the SARS outbreak in places like Hong Kong has helped make people there more receptive to adopting personal hygiene practices like hand-washing and wearing face masks.

But while “social distancing” may help, travel restrictions appear less effective. Researchers have found that even strong curbs on travelers from China “only modestly affect the epidemic trajectory” unless they are combined with public health measures and behavioral changes that significantly reduce person-to-person transmission in a country.

Our Corporate Masters Are Poisoning Us And Making Us Sick-- For Quick Profits

Let me take a break from the election for a minute-- at least in terms of politicians. There were also food policy issues on the ballot around the country. The results were mixed.

Colorado Proposition 105: This statewide ballot initiative pushed for the labeling of genetically modified foods, requiring most GM foods to bear a label reading "produced with genetic engineering." Burrito chain Chipotle and Whole Foods came out in support of the measure, while agribusiness giants Monsanto, PepsiCo, and Kraft came out against it. (Unsurprisingly, 105's opponents raised more than $12 million-- many times what supporters brought in.) Outcome: Colorado voters resoundingly rejected Prop 105, with nearly 70 percent of voters voting no.

Oregon Measure 92: This ballot measure was nearly identical to Colorado's, requiring foods with GMO ingredients to be labeled. Like in Colorado, Big Ag mobilized big-time against Measure 92, raising more than $16 million. But 92's supporters-- including Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps-- raised an impressive $8 million. Outcome: Oregon voters barely rejected the measure-- just over half voted no. The narrow defeat means there are no GMO labeling laws in place anywhere in the country.

San Francisco Measure E and Berkeley Measure D: These two Bay Area cities both considered levying taxes on sugary beverages. San Francisco's Measure E proposed a 2 cent per ounce tax, while Berkeley's Measure D proposed 1 cent per ounce. Both races were considered something of a last stand for the soda tax-- if it couldn't pass in these two bastions of liberalism and healthy living, it was essentially doomed everywhere else. No surprise, then, that Big Soda spent more than $7 million in San Francisco and some $2.1 million in Berkeley (population: 117,000) to defeat the measures. Outcome: Failing to gain the necessary two-thirds supermajority, the San Francisco soda tax failed. Berkeley's passed overwhelmingly, with 75 percent voting yes.

Maui County, Hawaii, GMO Moratorium Bill: Hawaii's Maui County-- which includes the islands of Maui, Lanai, and Molokai-- considered one of the strongest anti-GMO bills ever: a complete moratorium on the cultivation of genetically engineered crops until studies conclusively prove they are safe. Agriculture is big business on Maui: The island is a major producer of sugarcane, coffee, and pineapple, among other things. Monsanto is among the companies operating farms in Maui County, and this bill would've effectively shut it down. (Under the law, farmers knowingly cultivating GMOs would get hit with a $50,000 per day fine.) Opponents raised nearly $8 million against the measure, making it the most expensive campaign in state history. Outcome: Maui citizens approved the temporary ban, with 50 percent voting yes.

Here in my own super-progressive Los Angeles district, grassroots independent, Steve Stokes, ran against corporate whore Adam Schiff and because Schiff was a big booster of the Monsanto Protection Act, Stokes tried to make GMO labeling a big issue. He raised a total of $6,893 for the campaign-- against Schiff's $819,788 (plus the $2,000,000-plus war chest Schiff is sitting on for the race for Boxer's Senate seat). Predictably, Schiff won-- but Stokes did surprising well-- 69,944 for Schiff to 22,083, almost a quarter of the voters). A lot more work needs to be done, apparently even in enlightened bastions like Silverlake, Los Feliz, Glendale, Hollywood, and West Hollywood. April McCarthy reported this week that scientists have officially linked processed foods to an increase in auto-immune diseases like multiple sclerosis, alopecia, asthma and eczema. Scientists from Yale in the U.S. and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany have found that "excess refined and processed salt may be one of the environmental factors driving the increased incidence of autoimmune diseases." And, as McCarthy reminds us, "Junk foods at fast food restaurants as well as processed foods at grocery retailers represent the largest sources of sodium intake from refined salts."

The Canadian Medical Association Journal sent out an international team of researchers to compare the salt content of 2,124 items from fast food establishments such as Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Subway. They found that the average salt content varied between companies and between the same products sold in different countries.

U.S. fast foods are often more than twice as salt-laden as those of other countries. While government-led public health campaigns and legislation efforts have reduced refined salt levels in many countries, the U.S. government has been reluctant to press the issue. That’s left fast-food companies free to go salt crazy, says Norm Campbell, M.D., one of the study authors and a blood-pressure specialist at the University of Calgary.

Many low-fat foods rely on salt-- and lots of it-- for their flavor. One packet of KFC’s Marzetti Light Italian Dressing might only have 15 calories and 0.5 grams fat, but it also has 510 mg sodium-- about 1.5 times as much as one Original Recipe chicken drumstick. (Feel like you’re having too much of a good thing? You probably are).

Bread is the No. 1 source of refined salt consumption in the American diet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just one 6-inch Roasted Garlic loaf from Subway-- just the bread, no meat, no cheeses, no nothing-- has 1,260 mg sodium, about as much as 14 strips of bacon.

The team from Yale University studied the role of T helper cells in the body. These activate and ‘help’ other cells to fight dangerous pathogens such as bacteria or viruses and battle infections.

Previous research suggests that a subset of these cells-- known as Th17 cells-- also play an important role in the development of autoimmune diseases.

In the latest study, scientists discovered that exposing these cells in a lab to a table salt solution made them act more “aggressively”. They found that mice fed a diet high in refined salts saw a dramatic increase in the number of Th17 cells in their nervous systems that promoted inflammation. They were also more likely to develop a severe form of a disease associated with multiple sclerosis in humans.

The scientists then conducted a closer examination of these effects at a molecular level. Laboratory tests revealed that salt exposure increased the levels of cytokines released by Th17 cells 10 times more than usual. Cytokines are proteins used to pass messages between cells.

Study co-author Ralf Linker, from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, said:

“These findings are an important contribution to the understanding of multiple sclerosis and may offer new targets for a better treatment of the disease, for which at present there is no cure.”

Multiple Sclerosis develops when the immune system mistakes the myelin that surrounds the nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord for a foreign body. It strips the myelin off the nerves fibres, which disrupts messages passed between the brain and body causing problems with speech, vision and balance.

Another of the study’s authors, Professor David Hafler from Yale University, said that nature had clearly not intended for the immune system to attack its host body, so he expected that an external factor was playing a part. He said:

“These are not diseases of bad genes alone or diseases caused by the environment, but diseases of a bad interaction between genes and the environment.

“Humans were genetically selected for conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, where there was no salt. It’s one of the reasons that having a particular gene may make African Americans much more sensitive to salt.

“Today, Western diets all have high salt content and that has led to increase in hypertension and perhaps autoimmune disease as well.”

...Refined, processed and bleached salts are the problem. Salt is critical to our health and is the most readily available nonmetallic mineral in the world. Our bodies are not designed to processed refined sodium chloride since it has no nutritional value. However, when a salt is filled with dozens of minerals such as in rose-coloured crystals of Himalayan rock salt or the grey texture of Celtic salt, our bodies benefit tremendously for their incorporation into our diet.

Courtesy of Bob Mankoff we have a cartoonists' guide through the delicate subjects of proper eating habits and weight control

"Is everything O.K., sir? We noticed
that you aren't constantly eating."

This delicious offering from Christopher Weyant comes from the slide show assembled by New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff for his latest blogpost, "Three Amazing Cartoon Diets You Won't Believe!"

by Ken

As noted in the caption above, the title of Bob Mankoff's blogpost this week is "Three Amazing Cartoon Diets You Won't Believe!" And while Bob does eventually get to the promised cartoon diets, I'm afraid you'll have to check those out for yourself -- we're not going to get to that. In fact, as Bob sets up his premise, he litters it with cartoon illustrations that you'll mostly also have to check out for yourself. I've allowed myself one two three exceptions:

Obesity, as the media informs us daily, if not hourly, is no laughing matter. The truth is, humor is not kind to any deviation from body norms . . .



. . . or one's mind. Whether you are fat or skinny, dumb or too smart for your own good, you are grist for the cartoon mill.

"I just figured out why we've
never had girlfriends."

Now, when it comes to “people of size,” I’ve been there and done that cartoon:

"Get off me, lard-ass!"

[Cartoons by Alex Gregory (more from Alex in a moment),
Matthew Diffee, and of course cartoon-master Mankoff -- Ed.]

AT THIS POINT, BOB IS JUST ABOUT TO
GET TO THE THREE CARTOON DIETS . . .

. . . which are, by the way, The Reverse-Meal Diet, The Tiny-Utensils Diet, and The Zeno's-Paradox Diet. But as I mentioned, we don't have time for that. You can make it an independent-study project. We're going to skip ahead to this disclaimer and announcement:

One final word: before embarking on any of these diets, it might be advisable to consult a physician or a psychiatrist.

While you’re awaiting that consultation, here’s a big helping of diet-related cartoons. Enjoy! In moderation, of course.

AND THIS IS WHERE WE'VE BEEN HEADING --
TOWARD ONE OF BOB'S BEST-EVER SLIDE SHOWS

In fact, the chosen cartoons are all so good that I hate to omit any of them. But life is a series of choices, and here are mine, starting with a pair by William Haefeli and P. C. Vey which invoke The Wisdom of Expert Authority Through the Ages. (I confess that the Haefeli zinger, despite its perfectly clear sense, took an extra couple of beats to register fully for me, but when it did -- ooh, that poor guy!)

"I really shouldn't have any dessert. My trainer
told me never to eat out of boredom."

"My doctor says you should be drawing
more fruits and vegetables."

There are two characteristically species-muddling contributions (no puppies, though!) from our much-loved late comrade-in-cartoons, the great Charles Barsotti:

"I start every diet with the best intentions, but it
goes to hell as soon as I sense blood in the water."

"Eat lots of carrots."

I think it's clear why Alex Gregory, who needed no caption at all -- just a map legend -- for the cartoon of his we saw above, was allowed an unusually long caption for this one:

"I started my vegetarianism for health reasons,
then it became a moral choice, and now
it's just to annoy people."

Whereas this inspiration from David Sipress also needs no caption:

#

West Virginia And Mississippi Duke It Out For The Title-- The Most Obese State Of All

Mississippi is no longer the most obese state in the nation. No, nothing has gotten better there; it's just that as West Virginia sunk deeper and deeper into a depressing right-wing death spiral, their collective waistlines have exploded with stress-related compulsive eating disorders and the dominance of cheap, unhealthy fast food. West Virginia is now the #1 most obese. Mississippi is #2. But Mississippi isn't going to leave it at that. Their political leaders are fighting hard to regain the title of America's Fattest And Most Unhealthy State.

So contrary, secessionist-minded and pig-headed are Mississippi's white political leaders that the state legislature is willing to sacrifice the well-being of the state's impoverished working people with insane laws that encourage obesity just for the sake of being dicks. This isn't about "freedom;" it's about a generation of children being sacrificed on the altar of high fructose corn products.

Mississippi legislators have passed an anti-Bloomberg bill that bars counties from passing and enacting laws that require calorie counts to be posted or caps the size of beverages or foods.

...Americans tend to be surprisingly supportive of restrictive laws aimed at improving public health. The Harvard School of Public Health recently polled 1,187 adults on a slew of public health regulations that aim to do everything from reduce obesity to cutting smoking rates.

A number of the policies in the survey got widespread support. Seventy-five percent supported barring food stamps from being used on sugary beverages (New York City actually tried to do this, but was shot down by the federal government). The same number liked the idea of requiring chain restaurants to reduce their sodium contents (New York City also tried to do this, and failed).

Eighty-percent liked required posting of calorie labels.

There were some regulations that went too far for the respondents: The majority opposed making possession of junk food or sodas a disciplinary offense. Only 37 percent thought that insurers should be allowed to charge the obese a $50 surcharge on their premiums.

The Harvard survey didn’t ask about a ban on large, sugary drinks, so we don’t know from this research whether that specific restriction would garner much support. But the numbers do suggest that lots of people are open to a role for government in regulating unhealthy foods.

Less than a month ago, on my birthday in fact, the NY Times Magazine published an extensive report by investigative reporter Michael Moss (author of Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us) on The Extraordinary Science of Junk Food and made the case, quite convincingly, that the big corporate food conglomerates (Nestlé, Pillsbury, Kraft, Nabisco, General Mills, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Mars, etc.) are just about as concerned about poisoning children with toxic "food" as the tobacco companies were about causing lung cancer-- and are using almost identical tactics... and obviously for the same reason: profits. The CEO of Pillsbury is worried that his company-- and their rivals-- "have gone too far in creating and marketing products that posed the greatest health concerns... from the body’s fragile controls on overeating to the hidden power of some processed foods to make people feel hungrier still."

More than half of American adults were now considered overweight, with nearly one-quarter of the adult population-- 40 million people-- clinically defined as obese. Among children, the rates had more than doubled since 1980, and the number of kids considered obese had shot past 12 million. (This was still only 1999; the nation’s obesity rates would climb much higher.) Food manufacturers were now being blamed for the problem from all sides-- academia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society. The secretary of agriculture, over whom the industry had long held sway, had recently called obesity a “national epidemic.”

...[A] quote from a Yale University professor of psychology and public health, Kelly Brownell, who was an especially vocal proponent of the view that the processed-food industry should be seen as a public health menace: “As a culture, we’ve become upset by the tobacco companies advertising to children, but we sit idly by while the food companies do the very same thing. And we could make a claim that the toll taken on the public health by a poor diet rivals that taken by tobacco.”

...[T]he one C.E.O. whose recent exploits in the grocery store had awed the rest of the industry stood up to speak. His name was Stephen Sanger, and he was also the person-- as head of General Mills-- who had the most to lose when it came to dealing with obesity. Under his leadership, General Mills had overtaken not just the cereal aisle but other sections of the grocery store. The company’s Yoplait brand had transformed traditional unsweetened breakfast yogurt into a veritable dessert. It now had twice as much sugar per serving as General Mills’ marshmallow cereal Lucky Charms. And yet, because of yogurt’s well-tended image as a wholesome snack, sales of Yoplait were soaring, with annual revenue topping $500 million. Emboldened by the success, the company’s development wing pushed even harder, inventing a Yoplait variation that came in a squeezable tube-- perfect for kids. They called it Go-Gurt and rolled it out nationally in the weeks before the C.E.O. meeting. (By year’s end, it would hit $100 million in sales.)

According to the sources I spoke with, Sanger began by reminding the group that consumers were “fickle.” (Sanger declined to be interviewed.) Sometimes they worried about sugar, other times fat. General Mills, he said, acted responsibly to both the public and shareholders by offering products to satisfy dieters and other concerned shoppers, from low sugar to added whole grains. But most often, he said, people bought what they liked, and they liked what tasted good. “Don’t talk to me about nutrition,” he reportedly said, taking on the voice of the typical consumer. “Talk to me about taste, and if this stuff tastes better, don’t run around trying to sell stuff that doesn’t taste good.”

To react to the critics, Sanger said, would jeopardize the sanctity of the recipes that had made his products so successful. General Mills would not pull back. He would push his people onward, and he urged his peers to do the same.

...The public and the food companies have known for decades now-- or at the very least since this meeting-- that sugary, salty, fatty foods are not good for us in the quantities that we consume them. So why are the diabetes and obesity and hypertension numbers still spiraling out of control? It’s not just a matter of poor willpower on the part of the consumer and a give-the-people-what-they-want attitude on the part of the food manufacturers. What I found, over four years of research and reporting, was a conscious effort-- taking place in labs and marketing meetings and grocery-store aisles-- to get people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive. I talked to more than 300 people in or formerly employed by the processed-food industry, from scientists to marketers to C.E.O.’s. Some were willing whistle-blowers, while others spoke reluctantly when presented with some of the thousands of pages of secret memos that I obtained from inside the food industry’s operations. What follows is a series of small case studies of a handful of characters whose work then, and perspective now, sheds light on how the foods are created and sold to people who, while not powerless, are extremely vulnerable to the intensity of these companies’ industrial formulations and selling campaigns.

Even if states like New York and California start to come around, there will be for General Mills, decades and decades of states like Mississippi and West Virginia, which insist on the freedom to doom their children to lives shortened by adult-onset diabetes and other symptoms of the obesity epidemic sweeping most of what we affectionately call "the red states."

Democrats Are Mentally Healthier Than Republicans But Are They Physically Healthier As Well?

Shoulda stuck to the tea at the Tea Party, maybe?

Vitamin Shoppe is a relatively inexpensive way to buy nutritional supplements and vitamins online. And they send a magazine with lots of ads and some interesting content from time to time. Last week I was looking at a list of the 10 best foods for weight loss, which includes beans, sweet potatoes, grapefruit, sardines, spinach, cayenne pepper, eggs, yoghurt, artichokes and fresh ginger. (They also suggest burning extra calories by kickboxing, racquetball, roller skating, cross-country skiing, riding a stationary bike and doing an hour of ballet. An hour of ballet burns 354 calories. An hour of hustling back and forth across the length of a mall for an hour will burn 384 calories. higher if you take stairs and not escalators. I'm not as sure of the mall crawl vs the ballet dancing as I am of the artichokes and sardines.

Artichokes contain a compound called cynarin that is thought to improve liver function and enhance weight loss. Consuming an artichoke also slows eating, giving your stomach ample time to send “I’m full” messages to your brain. Artichokes are also low in calories and loaded with fiber; one artichoke contains 10 g-- more than a third of the recommended daily amount.

...Sardines are loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, which help improve transmission of serotonin and other neurotransmitters that regulate mood. Omega-3 fats also increase oxygenation of the blood, which further enhances neurotransmitter function. Other good sources include wild Alaskan salmon, tuna, walnuts, and flaxseed. Many fish oil supplements and liquids contain sardine oil and may promote weight loss by helping stabilize blood sugar and boosting mood (depression can lead to overeating).

Depression can lead to overeating... interesting, especially because overeating can lead to diabetes and diabetes is the main driver of increased medical costs in the U.S. The depression, though, may, at least in part, explain the results of a study on American obesity from Gallup this week. If you live in Colorado you're least likely to be obese. If you live in West Virginia, you're most likely to be obese. Take a look at the states in this chart. The variance is significant-- not just in terms of obesity, but in terms of depressing environments:

The national obesity rate remained steady at 26.2% in 2012, compared with 26.1% in 2011, but is still higher than the 2008 average of 25.5%. Across states, obesity rates were statistically unchanged in 2012 when compared with 2011, with the exception of four states. Obesity rates increased in New Jersey, Georgia, and North Carolina while obesity rates in Delaware decreased.

These data, collected as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, are based on respondents' self-reports of their height and weight, which are used to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI) scores. Americans who have a BMI of 30 or higher are classified as obese. Gallup and Healthways have been tracking Americans' weight situation daily since January 2008.

Obesity rates continue to be highest in Southern and Midwestern states and lowest in Western and Northeastern states... Obesity is now one of Americans' top health concerns-- surpassing smoking and alcohol-- with nearly four in 10 Americans saying it is an extremely serious problem to society. With obesity rates up in nearly all age groups since 2008, it is a problem that requires the nation's attention. The economic impact to the U.S. carries a heavy cost-- the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that obesity alone costs about $147 billion annually.

Many of the states where ObamaCare is most resented are the states where preventive healthcare could be most useful. But take a look at the list of the highest incidences of obesity again. With the exceptions of Ohio, #8, a virtual tie, and Iowa #10, Romney beat Obama in all of them. Here was Obama's percentage of the vote in the ten most obese states, which also happen to be among the most "religious" states:

West Virginia- 36%
Mississippi- 44%
Arkansas- 37%
Louisiana- 40%
Alabama- 38%
Kentucky- 38%
Tennessee- 39%
Ohio- 51%
Oklahoma- 33%
Iowa- 52%

I'm not going to say anything. Just some food for thought... though probably not as good as the artichokes. Besides... in their guts, most Americans already know...

Man Has Been Dying Because Of Germs For Centuries-- But Now We Have Ways To Prevent Death And Sickness

Low wage workers at the Poland Springs Bottling Plant in Maine, which is owned by Nestlé, are so angry with the way the company treats them that they're doing pretty disgusting things to pollute the water-- not that Nestlé gives a damn. Nestlé settled a law suit accusing it of using water under a former trash and refuse dump, and below an illegal disposal site where human sewage was sprayed as fertilizer for many years. Nestlé paid $10 million in the settlement but continues to sell the same Maine water under the Poland Spring name.

I started traveling in the Third World when I was still a teenager. And I'm leaving for India again-- I can't even remember how many times I've been there-- in a few weeks. One of the things I love about traveling abroad, whether to Paris, Bangkok, Rome, Delhi, Tokyo, Marrakech or a tiny village know one ever heard of in Cappadocia, is trying the local food. These days, we're careful where we eat, of course, but I do recall seeing some young Indian boys refilling some bottled water bottles from a hose behind an upscale Mumbai restaurant one time.

I'll never forget watching a beautiful, smiling young Thai waitress bringing our table a big tray of food one time, when she suddenly sneezed all over everything. She didn't miss a beat, just kept smiling and served us the food. Germ theory isn't something they teach in some countries apparently. Yesterday Digby had a very interesting post on her site about why it's important for all of us that people who work in restaurants have health insurance. She explained the anti-social, reactionary and dangerous policies of Papa John's Pizza, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Hurricane Grill and Wings, Applebee's and then concludes with a plea:

There are a lot of chain restaurants in this country. If I'm going to eat in one I'd like for the employees to have access to health care. I'd prefer not to have germ-laden, typhoid Mary's handling my food, thank you very much. And it is common sense to ask, if they are cutting corners on this, what other health regulations are they skirting? I think I'll be eating elsewhere.

And here's something to remember about Olive Garden and Red Lobster-- not in Bangkok or some Third World hellhole but right here in U.S. cities: "The CEO of this company is a real ball buster, and he is NOT going to make YOU pay ten cents more for a plate of noodles, no way Jose. That is a solution for pussies. This CEO is just going to cut back on employees’ hours so that they work 29 hours per week instead of 30, exempting them from health care coverage mandate. So the next time you go to Olive Garden or the Red Lobster, rest assured that your server is not going to have health care coverage." There's the Republican solution to a problem, one that harkens back to Alan Grayson explaining the GOP plan for health care a few years ago on the floor of Congress.

You Eat Ethically... Right?

Ancient aliens religious figures were very concerned about how and what we eat. Cannibalism was a real no-no-- and neither Jews nor Muslims are allowed to eat pigs, shellfish or amphibians. And then there's the whole thing about kosher and halal coming from ancient times. Both observant Jews and Muslims are only allowed to eat meat from animals slaughtered according to rituals that involve using a sharp knife that in a single cut across the throat severs the carotid arteries, jugular veins, trachea and esophagus and both religions have lists of food that they consider "unclean." Both religions insist that all utensils and kitchens used to prepare food must also be deemed as halal or kosher.

Times have changed, though, at least for most of the world and ethical eating has evolved as well. And still is. Maybe you've heard about a new project by the AFL-CIO that features a book, Beyond The Kitchen Door by Saru Jayaraman.

From locally grown, organic greens to grass-fed beef, we care about the food that comes out of the kitchen-- but what about the workers who chop, grill, sauté and serve our food? Today, the restaurant industry is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the United States. Despite its size and growth, the industry suffers from pervasively low wages, wage theft, nonexistent benefits, rampant discrimination and often dangerous or unhealthy working conditions.

...It’s no coincidence that seven of the 10 lowest-paying jobs in America are in the restaurant industry, 90 percent of restaurant workers lack paid sick days and only .01 percent are represented by a union. Workers represented by unions, on average, are paid 20 percent higher wages than nonunion workers and are more likely to have paid leave and a secure retirement. Despite facing many barriers, restaurant workers across the country are building awareness among consumers and organizing to improve their working conditions.
As one Washington, D.C., restaurant worker quoted in the book, says:

"Customers always ask us if this dish is organic or local, thinking that is what will ensure that they are having a healthy meal, a meal they can feel good about but if they knew about what workers were dealing with…working with the flu, tips and wage being stolen by the owner, getting screamed at and abused by managers, being called racial slurs, getting groped by male workers-- they would think twice about the quality of their food."

Take a look at the video above. It might make you think more closely about eating out next time.

Pizza And Polis

If Jared Polis (D-CO) doesn't tread more lightly on this healthy eating kick, a herd of angry elephants led by Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) is going to charge down the aisle and sit on him one day. There he goes again, expressing concern about children's health. Doesn't Polis understand that the Republicans control Congress now and the priority is corporate health, not children's health? If Big Business-- read big campaign donors and their lobbyists-- want to force-feed garbage food to public school kids... well, it's only temporary anyway-- until the GOP can abolish public school altogether.

What angers Sensenbrenner and other obese slobs in Congress isn't that Polis and those damn health hippies in states like Colorado and California want to give children a chance to escape from the obesity epidemic that is making America into one giant Jim Sensenbrenner; it's that if he doesn't shut up, he's going to dry up all the campaign contributions from Agribusiness. And that's not chump change. It's what makes the Beltway go round and round. Since 1989 Agribusiness has spent $386,243,081 bribing federal lawmakers. This doesn't count the tens of millions they spend bribing state legislators who are even more corrupt that the federal ones. The contributions favor the GOP better than two to one-- and almost all of the money they give to Democrats, goes to Blue Dogs and other corrupt conservatives inside the Democratic Caucus. Sensenbrenner has gobbled up $123,196 so far. This year alone Agribusiness has kicked in $33,960,930, 66.9% to Republicans and almost all the rest to conservative Democrats-- primarily Blue Dogs and their enablers-- who vote with the Republicans.


Sensenbrenner led the battle against Michelle Obama's organic garden and against her talking to school kids about exercise and healthy food choices. But it isn't just Sensenbrenner. Almost all Republicans hate choice. So Polis' new legislation-- the SLICE (School Lunch Improvements for Children's Education) Act is probably doomed to a quick death. How dare he try to claim frozen pizza isn't a vegetable! What do people in Boulder know about pizza! Just look at Polis and look at Sensenbrenner and you tell me who knows about pizza!

Now, keep in mind, Jared Polis isn't against pizza; he just thinks it shouldn't count as a vegetable in school lunches. "Pizza has a place in school meals but equating it with broccoli, carrots and celery seriously undermines this nation’s efforts to support children’s health," he said Monday. Republicans say the tomato sauce makes it a vegetable and Polis blames the frozen food industry lobbyists. "Big food companies have their priorities," Polis continued, "which include selling cheap, unhealthy foods at high profits. But parents and schools have their priorities: making sure our kids eat right."

Were Congress to pass SLICE-- it won't, probably not even Democrats retake Congress (not with all the corporate whores Steve Israel and Joe Crowley are recruiting-- would empower the USDA to implement "healthful" standards for the pizza served in public school cafeterias which would include "sodium reduction targets" and "whole grain requirements." Polis' bill "would close the loophole that allows a pizza without vegetables to be counted as a serving of vegetables in federally subsidized lunches eaten by almost 32 million U.S. school children."

Two years ago, Congress passed a child nutrition law that called on schools to improve the nutritional quality of lunches they serve but then lobbyists for frozen pizza sellers like ConAgra Foods Inc. and Schwan Food Co. started hanging around the Capitol and the next thing you know pizza was classified as a vegetable. Lobbyists for french fry makers like the one that supplies McDonald’s Corp. also succeeded in preventing limits on how many starchy vegetables, like potatoes, are served.
There is an epidemic of childhood obesity across the nation and around the world. Experts estimate one in five children between the ages of 6 and 17 are overweight in the United States.

“We all eat pizza. I eat pizza. I enjoy pizza,” Polis said, calling a slice of pie “a good snack from time to time” that “can be part of a healthy diet” so long as all of its carbohydrates, calories and saturated fat are balanced out by exercise and overall healthy eating. While “pizza can be a lot of things to a lot of people,” he stressed that one thing it certainly is not is a vegetable.

Suzanne Merkelson tackled the legislative agendas behind the American obesity crisis at Republic Reports yesterday.

Nearly half of all Americans will be obese by 2030, researchers reported at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Weight of the Nation conference in Washington earlier this month. 42 percent of us are projected to be obese, placing a huge strain on our already compromised health care system. Brian Fung at The Atlantic points out that the healthcare costs of obesity-- $550 billion over the next two decades-- is more than the U.S. Department of Defense asked for in its fiscal year 2013 budget.

There are a lot of reasons-- chemical, psychological, environmental-- for why people are obese. But explaining societal obesity means looking at what the food system is providing for us to eat-- and how government policies might promote certain foods over others.

“In the political arena, one side is winning the war on child obesity,” a new Reuters report on the food lobby begins. “The side with the fattest wallets.”

...The food and beverage industry has definitely outsmarted the federal government when it comes to targeting children: Efforts to tax soda have been crushed; 16 states have been persuaded to prohibit lawsuits over fatty foods; Congress has even declared pizza a vegetable, for Pete’s sake. The Boston Globe notes that young people fighting obesity have little chance against the food and beverage industry who “have waged an unprecedented war against even voluntary guidelines.” Even supposed Obama allies, like former White House communications director Anita Dunn, have been hired by the industry to lobby against obesity initiatives.

...As the 2012 farm bill heads from the Senate to the House of Representatives, it’s important to keep in mind that this isn’t just a farm bill-- it’s a food bill, helping to dictate what kinds of food people can afford. Not everyone on the House Agriculture Committee sees it that way: last month, Republicans on the committee voted to cut $33 billion from food stamps while keeping farm subsidies intact. With recent high crop prices and a record of $136.3 billion in farm exports in 2011, big farmers growing corn and soy don’t really need the help (even the powerful Iowa Farm Bureau agrees). Instead, the farm bill should work on making healthy foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables, available at lower prices. Because if there’s one thing that the country can’t afford, it’s having a population that’s half obese.

The Blue America candidates all admire Jared Polis' serious attempts to so something constructive about the obesity epidemic. One of our candidates, Dr. Lee Rogers, was the national spokesperson for the American Diabetes Association. He's keenly aware of how dangerous corporate-driven American food policies are. This morning he told us that "We have an epidemic of obesity and diabetes in America and one of the fastest growing segments of that population is school-aged children. This threatens the financial security of the US because we will spend $2.5 trillion on diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease in the next 10 years. It threatens our national security because the top reason to fail physical readiness tests in the military is being overweight. We need to get serious about the health and wellness of our children and realize the connection to our economy and security." If you'd like to help replace corrupt California curmudgeon Buck McKeon-- a steadfast ally of Sensenbrenner's and the whole anti-health GOP mob-- you can do it here at the Blue America ActBlue page.

E. Coli Conservatives Are Willing To Gamble With Our Children's Lives For The Sake Of Their Deranged Ideological Convictions

Long before the Republican Party adopted Ayn Rand as their newest ideological goddess, right wing sociopaths have been adamant that federal regulatory agencies were an outrageous interference with the "free market." (Remember, to a Republican "free market" goes beyond caveat emptor into the realm of the "freedom" of unscrupulous "businessmen" to rip off, even to the point of manslaughter, their customers .) They have always opposed all regulations on business. And they still do. In fact, they are busy trying to defund the agencies that regulate modern society, whether they be agencies that are supposed to protect us from predator banksters or agencies that make sure corporations aren't polluting the air and water or, ironically, the FDA, which is struggling to make sure the food we eat is safe. In Ayn Rand/Paul Ryan-world, a merchant whose products poisons a thousand people will sooner or later be driven out of business. Take that!

House Republicans are pushing back against a series of public health measures, including school lunch standards and tobacco regulation, teeing up a confrontation with Senate Democrats and the White House over the reach of government in daily life.

The Republicans have used an agriculture appropriations bill to send several messages: They don’t want the government to require school meals that are more nutritional but also more expensive, they don’t want the government to prod food companies to restrain marketing to children, and they don’t want the Food and Drug Administration to regulate any substance based on anything but “hard science.”

They took aim at measures that are part of the Obama administration’s efforts to combat obesity among children and adults as well as some initiatives enacted by the previous Congress.

On Tuesday, the GOP majority on the House Appropriations Committee approved a 2012 spending plan that directs the Agriculture Department to ditch the first new nutritional standards in 15 years proposed for school breakfasts and lunches. The lawmakers say meals containing more fruits and vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy will cost an additional $7 billion over five years-- money they say the country can ill afford in difficult economic times.

The committee also directed the USDA to scale back participation in an effort to develop voluntary guidelines for companies that market food to children. And it directed the FDA to exempt grocery and convenience stores and other businesses from regulations set to take effect next year requiring that calorie information be displayed.

So on the very day Michelle Obama was working with the Department of Agriculture to unveil a plan to replace the long outmoded and virtually useless "food pyramid" with a more up-to-date way of helping parents and care-givers make healthy choices for their children, the GOP was up to their old anti-social tricks.

The first part of the campaign will encourage people to make half their plate fruit and vegetables. Later phases of the campaign will urge consumers to avoid oversize portions, enjoy their food but eat less of it and to drink water instead of sugary drinks.

Ayn Rand characters William Edward Hickman & Paul Ryan have different approaches to murder

Meanwhile, a deadly strain of E. coli is killing consumers in Europe and seems to have jumped over to the U.S. with two tourists who returned last month from Hamburg. Yesterday the first cases were reported in Britain and the Guardian provides us with this update:

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has said that three of the seven people in Britain who have been infected by the strain of E coli sweeping Europe have developed haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a rare and severe kidney complication that destroys red blood cells and can affect the brain and spinal cord.

The HPA confirmed that all seven patients had recently visited Germany, where an 81-year-old woman became the 18th victim of the previously unknown E coli strain when she died on Wednesday at Hamburg-Eppendorf university hospital. More than 2,000 others have so far been infected in 10 countries from eating contaminated vegetables.

The HPA reminded Britons travelling to Germany to avoid eating raw tomatoes, cucumbers and leafy salad including lettuce, especially in the north of the country, until further notice. Anyone returning from Germany with symptoms including bloody diarrhoea should seek urgent medical attention and ensure they mention their recent travel history.

Dilys Morgan, head of the agency's gastrointestinal department, said: "The HPA continues to actively monitor the situation very carefully and we are working with the authorities in Germany and with our counterparts across Europe as to the cause of the outbreak. We have alerted health professionals to the situation and advised them to urgently investigate and report suspected cases with a travel history to Germany. ... Though the EU continued to insist there was not enough evidence for any foodstuffs to be banned, Germany's disease control authority, the Robert Koch Institute, has advised German consumers against eating raw tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce.

...Genetic sequencing of the bacteria behind the outbreak suggests that it is a previously-unknown strain. Dr Hilde Kruse, a food safety expert at the WHO said that "this is a unique strain that has never been isolated from patients before". She added that the new strain has "various characteristics that make it more virulent and toxin-producing."

Paul Wigley of the University of Liverpool's School of Veterinary Science, said that the E coli outbreak was caused by a type called O104, part of a group of bacteria that produces a chemical called verocytotoxin (Vtec).

"[These bacteria] normally infect people directly through animal faeces, or more usually through poorly cooked meat contaminated with the bacteria. Whilst most strains of E coli do not cause disease, Vtec are able to attach to the wall of the intestines very tightly and produce toxins.

"It is these toxins that cause damage to the gut, leading to bloody diarrhoea and may cause damage throughout the body including the kidneys."

He added: "Animals, and in particular cattle, may carry Vtec in their intestines without disease, which may lead to the bacterium being shed in their faeces. It is most likely that the use of manure as a fertilizer in organic salad vegetable production has lead to contamination of cucumbers and other vegetables.

"Although E coli infection is most commonly associated with meat, there have been previous reports of the disease being contracted from raw vegetables."

It's a complicated world, not quite as simpleminded as the way Ayn Rand and Paul Ryan have painted it. Without well-funded regulatory agencies to protect consumers, we'd be stuck on our own battling these kinds of things constantly-- whether or not someone was eventually run out of business.