Seriously. He is now in West Virginia, and is apparently going to nanny at the residents there about how they are too fat and eat crap.
I used to love "the Naked Chef," I enjoyed the simple recipes and stuff. But I am irritated that he's now using his position to act all superior to people.
I foresee LOTS more of this. LOTS. Even if we don't see laws restricting food or certain people's access to certain foods, we're going to have more guilt-trips laid upon us for simply enjoying food.
Look, I'm tired of people wanting to save us from ourselves. I'm tired of being told how I'm going to get Teh Diabeeeeetus! because I don't obsess every waking moment about not-eating and exercising more than I already do.
If you WANT me to develop an eating disorder, I'd understand the nannying better. Because seriously, if I lived in a house with someone who was constantly after me in the way the news heads talk about obesity and Teh Diabeeetus! and heart disease and cankles and everything else, I probably WOULD. Just to shut the idiot up.
It's a form of psychological warfare. They can't tie a would-be terrorist to a chair to interrogate him, but they can tell millions of American people that they're fat, repulsive, will be dead soon, are a major drain on health care, should be taxed more because of their fatty fat fatness, that they should "just push back from the table already," that they should "cultivate an attitude of avoiding sugar," that they should learn to fear and loathe food...and that's just peachy keen.
It's NOT about our health so much as it's about control. I don't think Oliver is the worst of these; he still seems to enjoy food. But the worst people, the real joyless Puritan sorts - it's almost as if they are disturbed by the fact that someone, somewhere is happy. THAT MUST BE STAMPED OUT! Especially if the happiness is coming as a result of pumpkin-chocolate-chip cookies, or a chai tea with full-fat milk and real sugar in it, or a nice big well-marbled steak.
There was some "dietician" on Fox News the other day talking about banning school bake sales to "save" little children from becoming obese. (She was a size 2, and I suspect NEVER struggled to keep her weight down. It's NOT simply a matter of "pushing back" from the table or avoiding sweets. And even if it were - telling someone to NEVER enjoy something sweet because it's "bad" for them and might make them fat is fairly cruel.)
Dammit, there WILL come a point when I get so fed up with this that I shoot my TV.
Gah. This is my biggest issue. I know I constantly bore people on here with it but it makes me utterly insane. I do make an effort to eat "healthfully" and I do work out an hour most days. I am sufficiently healthy that it is rare I have used up my $500 health insurance deductible before August. And yet, I am made to feel like "the enemy" because I am bigger than a size 8, and that's wrong and MEAN and evil.
And yet people justify it as being OK because it's "for my own good."
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Jamie Oliver, go the F home...
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2 comments:
I used to be a smoker. I swear I would have quit ten years before I did except for wanting to do whatever the self-righteous health police were condemning. And at least my bad health habit was self-induced. No matter what we eat or how much we exercise, our body types are only marginally within our own control.
That's kinda weird, 'cause I don't think Jamie Oliver is slim. (Confession: I watch his cooking show just to watch his lips move.) I did like his attempt to improve school lunches, even though he did acknowledge the challenge wound up being too big to tackle.
But you're right--some people just go overboard. There's a difference between educating people and letting them make their own choices, and shaming people until they feel they have no choice but to conform. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say.
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