"I’m a Pediatrician. There’s So Much That the MAHA Report Does Get Right."

[minoanmiss]

US politics. Article is here and on Slate

This is an interesting analysis, both of the MAHA report and of the Republican playbook in general: find a real problem, blame X group (often those trying to fix it) rather than the actual causes, and reject collaboration in favor of scapegoating and deregulation. "Americans are.... anti-corruption" so make sure to call the chosen enemies corrupt and venal. Intriguing. (And depressing.)

(Also the author sounds a little naiive but he may be trying not to sound partisian)

Comments

[bikergeek]

Food is a classic trilemma: Tasty, nutritious, cheap, you only get to pick two.

For much of the 1970s, when I was in school, schools went for "nutritious" and "cheap". The result was plates of "mystery meat" and "turkey tetrachloride" and vegetables that were boiled to death, much of which was unappetizing and ended up uneaten, in trash bins. So schools said, "What can we do to get kids to eat this stuff?" The result was that they went for "tasty" and "cheap" instead, and made school lunches look like fast food. "Nutritious" went out the window. They served burgers and pizza and fries and chimken noogies. Kids ate it up, but the result was childhood obesity and poor nutrition.

So they went back to "nutritious" and "cheap", during the Obama administration, aided by Michelle Obama making childhood nutrition her cause célébre, and the result was lots of photos of sad-looking, unappetizing school lunches tagged "#thanksMichelleObama".

They could get "tasty" and "nutritious", but it it would not be cheap. It takes money no one wants to spend—and spending it would likely get them accused of the "waste, fraud, and abuse" that Republicans are so fond of accusing government organizations of.

[adrian_turtle]

When you say "nutritious," you're lumping together "low in salt and sugar" and "plenty of fresh produce." Salt and sugar are tasty. Fresh produce is expensive, especially when you pay something like a fair wage to the people packaging and preparing it.

[bikergeek]

Fresh produce is also expensive in terms of prep time and labor, plus loss and spoilage due to short shelf life. I don't think it's been part of school lunches in the US in the history of ever.

[ethelmay]

I remember mostly liking school lunches when I was in school in the 1960s/1970s, because we had actual recess and I was generally starving in part due to having had some exercise. It wasn't fabulous food, but it was okay. And it wasn't nearly as dissimilar from what kids were getting at home, because food was expensive in general then, inflation was rampant, and our parents were also feeding us stuff like mac and cheese or much-stretched hamburger (meat loaf that was mostly loaf, etc.) and potatoes and frozen vegetables. Incidentally, we were in an area of the US that had the "chili and cinnamon roll" lunch, which was normal to many of us and completely alien to others. But it's one of the ways I learned to like beans and cumin (there was of course hardly any chili powder in the chili, if any at all).

[conuly]

You can have foods that are tasty and nutritious and inexpensive when bulk-cooked... but it requires going plant-based, which is a nonstarter in the US because of ag lobbying.

[full_metal_ox]

Aided and abetted by a cultural climate that’s turned “soy” into a dogwhistle for “effete 98-pound sissy cuck”.

[acelightning2]

I can't imagine any child who would voluntarily choose raw baby carrots over french fries. We're hard-wired to crave sugar, fat, and salt, and it's often difficult for logic to override "OH - that's the ambrosia of the gods! High-fructose corn syrup and Red Dye#6! Give me a two-liter drink of that and a feedlot-raised double bacon cheeseburger!, and some soft-serve frozen dessert!" That has to beat canned peas-and-carrots and slices of yesterday's meat loaf. (I brought a peanut-butter sandwich from home, and bought a half-pint of whole milk to drink).

[mekare]

an interesting read.

>> This is the reality of practicing pediatrics in America: We’re forced to medicalize what other countries prevent through policy.

What a harrowing sentence.

Germany isn‘t France, and there are always forces pushing for a more American model (ads for sugar heavy foods aimed at children are not regulated here, yet).
Re school lunches, the quality varies a lot here (I bet it does as well in France)