Let's Move

I made the mistake today of listening to right wing talk radio today host on the way to work.  The unknown idiot was ranting against Michelle Obama calling upon the National Restaurant Association to get on board with her Let's Move campaign and help fight obesity in this country. She has asked that restaurants do things like cut back on the salt and fat and reduce portion sizes.  Sounds reasonable to me and in sync with the trend of American consumer to start turning to more healthy food choices.

But, No!  In his idiotic rant he was saying things like let's have two menus.  One that has the regular menu and one that has half portions at the same price as regulare menus so "we can see which one will win!"  That made sense...NOT!  He went on to rant that "I want as much food as I can get for little money so that I can take the leftovers home and eat them there for several days."  Really, restaurants are in the leftover business????  I could go on with the brainless commentary but essentially the talk show host was saying that it is the right of every American to eat food that is not good for us and get as fat as we want -- afterall that is why we fought two wars to protect our freedoms.  Yikes.

There are other well known idiots who have a national stage who mimick the sentiments of the talk show host I heard today.  Here is an excerpt from an article on the Let's Move Campaign:
During a December episode of Sarah Palin's Alaska, the one-time governor took a swipe at Obama's Let's Move campaign — designed to encourage kids to eat better and exercise more — when she was showing how to make s'mores. "This is in honor of Michelle Obama," Palin said, "who said the other day we should not have dessert." When Obama successfully persuaded Wal-Mart to cut prices on fruits and vegetables and reformulate some of its foods to reduce calories and fat, Rush Limbaugh accused her of bullying or pressuring the retail giant.  Read more at:
http://healthland.time.com/2011/02/07/obesity-the-first-lady-takes-on-the-nra-no-not-that-nra/

I am appealing for us to do the right thing, regardless of whether you did it based on Michelle Obama's campaign for healthier eating and exercise in our nation.  We need to lead the way and provide tasty, healthy food options for the American consumer.  I still deal with far too many chefs who think meat is in vogue like this was the 50's even when the ACF chefs project trends that are anything but meat, meat, meat.  Our students are the future and we must do all we can to make it a healthier one. 

I can tell you I am like a pit bull here in my department at Purdue pushing for more healthy, vegetarian options to serve in our student run restaurants.  And guess what, every time a vegetarian option is provided it is a home run because that is what more and more Americans want.  So here is to moving vegetables to the center of the plate!  For more information on Let's Move visit: http://www.letsmove.gov/