The government plied me with tamale pie, something I believe was tuna casserole, whole milk, as well as fairly greasy and calorie intensive pizza during my formative years.
They also served me what today the very same government contends is pure poison - doughy, white starched buns with 100 percent butter.
I ate up the food. My weight as a kid proved that. My mom at times tried to convince me to take a bag lunch with a simple sandwich - I might add on Roman Meal wheat bread - with no mayo and fruit. But I would have nothing of it.
Given today’s standards, the government conspired to make me unhealthy.
I have no desire to sue, but given how the government these days is trying to control personal behavior, I could probably get a class action suit up among people of my age who have heart disease, diabetes, and who are overweight.
Don’t get me wrong. I have no qualms with what’s going on in school cafeterias these days especially in Manteca Unified. What I do have a problem with is the extreme that the government-knows-best-crowd is taking all of this.
Little Village Academy - a public school in Chicago - has banned sack lunches. Much like forced health care where the government provides everything, all students are required to eat school lunches. If their family doesn’t qualify for free or reduced meals it costs $2.25 a day.
Naturally, the benevolent government agency - the public school - is willing to make exceptions for food allergies or medical issues providing, of course, they have a certified doctor’s note. Just make sure it isn’t from the Wisconsin University physicians who stood on street corners recently in Madison doling out doctors notes saying that teachers playing hooky from their jobs to occupy the state capitol were really physically sick from stress over money.
I obviously have changed my eating habits.
But then again I seriously doubt the government would consider my eating habits healthy which means I wouldn’t be able to bring a sack lunch to Little Village Academy if I were a student there.
My idea of a lunch is the same thing, day in and day out - two apples, a banana, four yogurts, an orange and four to six ounces of almonds.
My dinner at least six nights a week is the same - salad, two Bocca burger patties, four more yogurts, a thing of cottage cheese and an entire broccoli crown. And, yes, I do partake in cookies and have unsuccessfully tried to rot my teeth with Lifesavers.
There is little doubt government health experts would view my diet as unhealthy and that I should have been dead six years ago.
That is especially true when you couple it with my old childhood habits such as having a little cereal with my sugar or what I ended up doing between ages 14 and 30 which was consume about six 16-ounce sodas a day.
Here’s the big surprise. We’re all different. And, the bottom line is even simpler - we’re all supposed to be individuals.
In a way, 1984 has arrived but in a much kinder and gentler format than envisioned.
It makes sense the military is changing how it feeds recruits. It also makes sense schools are working toward nutritional offerings. And yes, it is true you see a lot of kids willingly choose to hit the veggies and salad bar in cafeterias at lunch.
But forcing kids to do that doesn’t teach them to make wise choices or think for themselves. And besides, what is a wise choice? I bet there are nutritionists out there who probably don’t think it is wise for a 55-year-old man to consume at least 8 yogurts a day plus go through the equivalent of three cans of almonds a week.
And while I’m not an athlete by any stretch of the imagination, I’d like to see them argue with my blood pressure that’s typically around 110 over 70, my resting heart rate that’s under 60, and the fact I’ve had only one cavity in my life.
But given the government-approved public school way of feeding me back in the 1960s plus one that made PE not about lifetime exercise but dodge ball and such it is amazing I’m not a 400-pound couch potato.
The point is the government doesn’t always know what’s best. And while I agree with a lot of what is being done today in schools in terms of PE and the cafeteria, that doesn’t mean everyone does.
They also served me what today the very same government contends is pure poison - doughy, white starched buns with 100 percent butter.
I ate up the food. My weight as a kid proved that. My mom at times tried to convince me to take a bag lunch with a simple sandwich - I might add on Roman Meal wheat bread - with no mayo and fruit. But I would have nothing of it.
Given today’s standards, the government conspired to make me unhealthy.
I have no desire to sue, but given how the government these days is trying to control personal behavior, I could probably get a class action suit up among people of my age who have heart disease, diabetes, and who are overweight.
Don’t get me wrong. I have no qualms with what’s going on in school cafeterias these days especially in Manteca Unified. What I do have a problem with is the extreme that the government-knows-best-crowd is taking all of this.
Little Village Academy - a public school in Chicago - has banned sack lunches. Much like forced health care where the government provides everything, all students are required to eat school lunches. If their family doesn’t qualify for free or reduced meals it costs $2.25 a day.
Naturally, the benevolent government agency - the public school - is willing to make exceptions for food allergies or medical issues providing, of course, they have a certified doctor’s note. Just make sure it isn’t from the Wisconsin University physicians who stood on street corners recently in Madison doling out doctors notes saying that teachers playing hooky from their jobs to occupy the state capitol were really physically sick from stress over money.
I obviously have changed my eating habits.
But then again I seriously doubt the government would consider my eating habits healthy which means I wouldn’t be able to bring a sack lunch to Little Village Academy if I were a student there.
My idea of a lunch is the same thing, day in and day out - two apples, a banana, four yogurts, an orange and four to six ounces of almonds.
My dinner at least six nights a week is the same - salad, two Bocca burger patties, four more yogurts, a thing of cottage cheese and an entire broccoli crown. And, yes, I do partake in cookies and have unsuccessfully tried to rot my teeth with Lifesavers.
There is little doubt government health experts would view my diet as unhealthy and that I should have been dead six years ago.
That is especially true when you couple it with my old childhood habits such as having a little cereal with my sugar or what I ended up doing between ages 14 and 30 which was consume about six 16-ounce sodas a day.
Here’s the big surprise. We’re all different. And, the bottom line is even simpler - we’re all supposed to be individuals.
In a way, 1984 has arrived but in a much kinder and gentler format than envisioned.
It makes sense the military is changing how it feeds recruits. It also makes sense schools are working toward nutritional offerings. And yes, it is true you see a lot of kids willingly choose to hit the veggies and salad bar in cafeterias at lunch.
But forcing kids to do that doesn’t teach them to make wise choices or think for themselves. And besides, what is a wise choice? I bet there are nutritionists out there who probably don’t think it is wise for a 55-year-old man to consume at least 8 yogurts a day plus go through the equivalent of three cans of almonds a week.
And while I’m not an athlete by any stretch of the imagination, I’d like to see them argue with my blood pressure that’s typically around 110 over 70, my resting heart rate that’s under 60, and the fact I’ve had only one cavity in my life.
But given the government-approved public school way of feeding me back in the 1960s plus one that made PE not about lifetime exercise but dodge ball and such it is amazing I’m not a 400-pound couch potato.
The point is the government doesn’t always know what’s best. And while I agree with a lot of what is being done today in schools in terms of PE and the cafeteria, that doesn’t mean everyone does.
