Sunday 15 April 2012

Minimum pricing for food

Alone of all news networks, the BBC has chosen to turn a press release from the public health establishment into its top news story.



Nothing in this article is new or surprising. It is just another example of the anti-tobacco blueprint being extended to other areas of public life.

Just as it shouldn't be surprising to hear that the Department of Health is looking at plain packaging for alcohol (despite having not officially made its mind up about plain packaging of tobacco), it shouldn't be a shock to find that 'public health professionals' are excited by the idea of minimum pricing for food (despite the DoH having not yet officially made its mind up about minimum pricing for alcohol). That's right - minimum pricing for food...

The first phase of the campaign will try to find out what works. It will review evidence for diets, exercise, taxation, minimum pricing, changing advertising and food labelling, which medical procedures work and how children are educated.

How blatant do these people need to be for you to see that this is not just about tobacco? It's not even just about alcohol. Plain packaging for wine? Minimum pricing for burgers? This is not some libertarian paranoia about the slippery slope. This is actually happening. It is going on before your very eyes.

I don't want to say I told you so, but...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The process has proved so successful with tobacco that it is not just being applied to other "vices", but accelerating.
We are going to have to do something about the section of the medical profession that is behind this elitist and authoritarian agenda. We are going to have to do it soon.
Did you know that the American candidate for president of the world bank is a public health professional with no background in commerce, finance or economics? If that doesn't worry you, it should.

Plato said...

This is just so depressing. The fingers of the State and *health care professionals* are poking into every aspect of our lives.

Where is personal responsibility?

Gone fishin' ?

Anonymous said...

It's political.
The LibLabCon trick has got to go.

Mr A said...

The BBC TV News report even explicitly made the link with tobacco saying "similar measures had to be taken" whilst the footage showed several packets of shiny cigarettes.

So much for Tobacco being "a unique product.

a Salvia Diviner said...

For a number of very sound reasons my diet is vastly different to that promoted by the state. I eat as much animal fat and fresh berries and veg as I can lay my greasy mitts on. I eat no grain, sugar or starchy veg like potatoes.

Because I eat essentially like a cave man I am naturally fit, powerful and lean. I'm rarely ill and have more energy than I know what to do with.

If they implement measures to force me to eat as the government recommends it will be like a slow acting poison, impeding my health and shortening my life.

Nutrition is in the same league as climate change. A vast industry of self interest trying to force their semi religious beliefs upon everyone else to our great detriment. Reality is not centrally planned.

For a little more info on the myth that eating fat makes you fat: http://whakahekeheke.tumblr.com/post/10308047971/everything-you-know-about-nutrition-is-wrong

Mr A said...

Very well said. While I don't eat Paleo I do eat using a modified cyclical ketogenic diet. So I also eat A LOT of meat, mountains of salad but no grains, rice, pastas, breads etc. Since eating this way I have dropped 30 lbs without effort (as I rarely feel hungry), I feel energetic and my hunger is stable. I have one day a week when I eat what I want, although I try to keep it "clean" with oatmeal, rice etc. (It can be a day of beer and cake, though....). This is primarily because I workout 3 times a week and also put in a lot of miles on the bike.

My 72 year old father has recently started eating in a similar way and he has lost a lot of weight and his Dr, despite his initial wariness of the diet, has taken him off almost a dozen tablets to just one pill a day.

As an experiment, I have recently tried eating in the recommended "low fat" way and I found I suffered from massive appetite swings, cravings, binge eating etc and I also put on weight - more weight than can be accounted for from the water gain you usually get when you start eating carbs again.

Eating in the State-recommended way would be appalling for me.

(And obviously, that doesn't even include the MAJOR issue of access to food for the poor).

Mr A said...

And yes, my diet is pushing 50% fat. Mainly fats from the meat (which I always grill) but also fats from the good sources of meat (such as salmon) as well as flax seed oil, coconut oil and MCT oil. As I say, I have lost weight, feel great and peopl have even said I look younger (so much for smoking aging you...).

I haven't had any medical tests done, but as I say, my father sees a specialist regularly as he is diabetic, has a pacemaker, high blood pressure and various other ailments, and he has lost weight and all of his bloodwork (HDL/LDL cholesterol etc) as well as his blood pressure have improved to the point where he has gone from a small bag of medication to one pill a day.

His Doctor initially said the diet was "suicidal." Needless to say, he has since changed his mind.

My one small triumph against the evil of Big Pharma, I like to think....