Wednesday 23 March 2011

McHealth Food

That real life thing is getting in the way again, so best not to watch this space too assiduously, really.

What's that? The Budget? Well, unless Osborne can raise taxes in Adinkerke I'm marginally better off thanks to the reduction in corporation tax**. Of course, the hardest hit by the deeply regressive - and blatantly bullying - rise in tobacco duties are the less well off, who will mostly continue to vote Labour despite the fad of ever-escalating sin punishments having been made almost obligatory by vulgar lefty ideologues.

Turkeys, Christmas, etc.

While I'm passing by, though, here's a happy ending to one of the stories featured in Saturday's link tank.

Long-time distance runner Joe D'Amico challenged himself to eat only fast food in the 30 days before the [Los Angeles Marathon]. (This is a big no-no to food scolds since fast food is “processed” and may be high in calories, fat, and sodium.) But D’Amico proved the food haters wrong, finishing with a personal best time of just over 2 hours and 36 minutes. Running just one mile in under 6 minutes isn’t too shabby, but D’Amico averaged less than 6 minutes per mile throughout the entire 26.2-mile race.
And finished it in 29th place no less.

[...] there’s no such thing as “junk” food; even the much pilloried fast food doesn’t fit the bill. (Sorry, Morgan Spurlock.) Eaten in moderation and combined with exercise, any food can be part of a healthy lifestyle.
This is the problem with arbitrarily placing blame for life's ills on singular factors in a naturally diverse human experience. In doing so, health obsessives will always be barking up the wrong tree.

They will also continue to create dangerous unintended consequences thanks to their single-minded wickedness.

Because they're tax-draining idiots, unfortunately.

** That part of it we haven't already avoided (out of spite at the actions of a hideous state), of course.



6 comments:

Ian B said...

Well, on the turkeys voting for Christmas thing, I wonder how many people voted Tory? I didn't. I said before the election that the Tories weren't going to be any better, and lots of libertarians said, "well, they'll be a bit better, at least they're not lefties". And that is why we continue to get the same old shit, because people keep convincing themselves that the Other Lot won't be as bad as This Lot.

Well, to be fair, they scrapped the ID cards. But on the "nanny" state, they were bound to be as bad. They are part of a class who believe in nannyism. It is the Calvinist influence in our society. It was briefly in recession for a few decades, but now it is back in full flow.

My fury at our masters is beyond description, as I said in a blog post. But I will be honest, so increasingly is my fury at the ordinary people around me. They keep voting for this shit, and they fucking deserve it. I just wish to God that I wasn't chained to the stupid fucking idiots.

Anonymous said...

I’ve just done a very quick and very roughly estimated rekkie of how much money I’ve saved since the smoking ban came in through fewer visits to the pub, meals out, theatre and cinema visits, holidays, and sports and various other social events. And guess what? I’ve worked out that since the ban I’ve saved significantly more money each year than I actually spend on cigarettes! No wonder the Chancellor is so desperate to hike the amount of tobacco duty up by so much. If I’m anything to go by (and I lived a far from extravagant lifestyle, believe me), he’s having to make up losses from a darned sight more than a few smokers giving up and a few more turning to the illicit cigarette trade!

It isn’t much by way of consolation, I hasten to add – I’d still much rather be going out and enjoying myself, but being as none of above activities actually count as “enjoying myself” these days (more of an endurance test preceded by days of worry – and something of a sense of relief if they’re cancelled), it does give me at least a grim sense of satisfaction that in their efforts to price cigarettes out of the market they’re actually giving smokers more money to spend on – well, er – cigarettes, mostly!

Oh, and I wholeheartedly agree with you, Ian B. It’s frightening sometimes when you speak to people these days – even perfectly nice people who aren’t raving anti-smokers or anti-anything else – and you hear them parroting the same old predictable opinions (from either side of the political fence), as if they were cast-iron fact. Even a few well-placed questions are met either with a repetition of the same views (as if “questions” just don’t get through) or that "look" - as if they can't make up their minds whether your're joking or whether you’ve actually taken leave of your senses for even daring to think that maybe, just maybe, the status quo isn’t as simplistic and straightforward as they’ve become convinced that it is.

I really, genuinely believe that there must be something in the water these days to make people so moronically easily led. Or is it just (given the emerging studies from Denmark) that they’ve all been coerced into giving up smoking and have thus lost their ability to think outside their own limited little lives …….?

Anonymous said...

I voted Tory the last time. I hoped for a change in the Health Dept (less ASH), bu have been disappointed.

I really see no point in voting at all. It would be interesting to see what the situation whould be if the turnout was less than 50%. In theory, it would not matter, but in practice...?

Dick the Prick said...

Fair points all chaps but I voted Tory and indeed worked for the bastards because of QE. That's not to say that the Tories wouldn't have done it but I would genuinely fucking hope not.

Anonymous said...

'Junk Food"

That term is subjective and is NOT a term used by actual nutritionists or dietary experts.

Gary K.

Dr Evil said...

No such thing as junk food? Well I agree that what is called 'junk' food is perfectly fine as part of a varied diet. Even gels such as xanthan, carrageenan, carob et al though indigestable do provide a kind of roughage effect. The only unpleasant type food are trisaccharides which humans do not digest but which is food heaven to anaerobic colon-dwelling bacteria. Whops! Go steady on the peas, beans and other trisacchardie-containing foods!