Political Dirt

There was a political WWF (WWE these days?) smack-down on the Laura Ingraham Radio Show regarding childhood obesity. “Smack-down” may not be the correct term considering only one person was doing the quote on quote smack-talk but, none the less, this is politics and that’s how smack-downs are done.

The opponent wasn’t there to defend herself, most likely because she was on the move.

Politicians may not understand health, rightfully so, they studied politics, but one thing I am sure of is that they know money. Or at least know how to manage it. Let’s ignore the fact that Dr. U. S. America has done some serious overdraft spending lately.

Did you like how politically correct that was not to assign a gender to America? And I made America look smart! (2 smackdown points for Murph). 

America spent $147 billion last year on obesity related illness according to the U.S. government. Obese Americans spent 42 percent more per year for medical care than non-obese. 

Let’s break it [smack]down further. There are direct and indirect costs.

• Direct: hospitalization, medication by weight dosages, DM2, HTN, CAD, CHF, ESKD, OA?, the abbreviations could keep flowing.

• Indirect: low productivity due to sick days from work because of an obesity related abbreviation and larger cars to seat larger people so they can drive through the drive thru. I meant to say more accommodating wheelchairs in the hospital and back pain medication for the nursing staff. 
  

Or, you  know, paying shipping costs of pants ordered over the internet because sizes in the store aren’t what they used to be. I’m just saying. Just saying, it’s enabling. 

At Saint Louis University, I had the opportunity to help the H.E.L.P. Grant. The Healthy Eating with Local Produce Grant buys local, sustainable food from Missouri farmers and processes it to serve lunch at inner city schools. Vegetable gardens, set up at these schools, teach students about healthy, sustainable practices and nutrition educations from dietetic interns top it all off! It literally helps children get back to their “roots” while emphasizing nutrition, activity and sustainability. 

And speaking of sustainability, maybe Dr. America wouldn’t be doing so much over-drafting if we were buying from ourselves. And maybe we would have better nutrition education programs and healthier school lunch programs if we saved some money for ourselves and had it to spend on some glossy, new textbooks.We could make Dr. America smarter yet!

…But America just has to be the popular country at the lunch table. 

And, unfortunately, sometimes there are bullies at the lunch table. “Take her anti-obesity thing that she is on. She is on this kick, right. What she is telling us is she cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should eat,” ...says the 46 year old grandma. 

Ding, Ding. Zing.  

I wash my hands of any political "dirt"