When I was a kid, I used to read the comics in the newspaper. We called them “the funnies.” Does anyone still call them the funnies? Even the ones that weren’t funny–Rex Morgan, MD and Brenda Starr, for example–were “the funnies,” and I read them all.
I don’t read them much anymore–but yesterday I happened to see a Mallard Fillmore strip that made me angry.
Do you know Mallard Fillmore? He’s been around for about 17 years. It’s a strip with a conservative point of view; interesting that he’s a duck who’s named after Millard Fillmore, the sixth-worst President of all-time, who “backed the Compromise of 1850 that delayed the Southern secession by allowing slavery to spread.”
"Slavery? I'm okay with that."
I think politics in comics are just fine. But yesterday, Mallard Fillmore strayed into health care and hunger when our duckish hero proclaimed, “Most of the world would kill for the opportunity to have a childhood obesity problem.”
This is wrong on so many levels that I don’t know where to begin. But I’ll try:
Childhood obesity isn’t a problem because kids eat too much. It’s a problem because kids eat too much bad food–too much food filled with sugar and fat and cheap carbohydrates. According to the Food Research and Action Center, “Obesity is a major public health problem in the U.S. While all segments of the population are affected, low-income and food insecure people are especially vulnerable due to the additional risk factors associated with poverty, including limited resources, limited access to healthy and affordable foods, and limited opportunities for physical activity. Even individuals who are highly motivated can have difficulty eating healthy and being active if their environments do not support or allow such behaviors.”
The offending strip.
And that’s the issue. We subsidize bad food to make it cheaper, and we promote the hell out of it. We make more nutritious food more expensive and harder to buy–and we don’t help people learn to prepare it appropriately. It’s easier and cheaper to go through the drive-through at McDonald’s.
Childhood obesity is an epidemic in America. It’s leading to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and lots of other health problems that are avoidable–in kids. It’s also setting up kids for a lifetime of health issues and, to be frank, a very short lifetime overall.
Lots of people–including our buddy Peyton Manning with Project 18–are trying to do something about childhood obesity. But it’s a fight that’s going to have to involve all of us. Parents have to learn better nutrition. They have to model better eating behavior and promote more active lifestyles. We have to stop feeding our kids so much crap–and get them to understand that “you are what you eat.”
It would be nice if we could get the government to stop subsidizing the production of cheap food that’s bad for us. Don’t get me started on that topic.
And we need to do what we can to fight hunger and poverty in our communities. In Indianapolis, Second Helpings does a beautiful job of this. But the need is growing, and this and other community kitchens can use your support.
Childhood obesity, like Mallard Fillmore, isn’t funny. We’re killing our kids. It’s time to stop that.
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Congrats on the Ep and rated with hugs
You hear about childhood obesity and hunger every other day because these are alarming problems. These are not really separate issues; people who live in poverty are more likely to be obese. Check out these stats:
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has found the obesity rate among poverty-stricken women to be 50 percent higher than it is among women of higher socioeconomic status.
- According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 31 percent of women in U.S. households whose total annual income is less than $15,000 are obese. In households in which the total annual income is $50,000 or greater, the obesity rate among women is 17 percent.
- Researchers with the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, and other institutions determined that poor teenagers (ages 15 to 17) were 50 percent more likely to be overweight than were non-poor teens in the same age range.
In lots of our inner cities and small towns, the choices are to be hunger or to be obese. The government helped create this problem. Perhaps the government should help solve it.
Sorry to continue the lecture. I'm just sayin'.
Carrots, tomatoes, apples, beans, lettuce, and so on, are not cheap (calorie for calorie). Those foods are not subsidized. If you're poor, store brand Mac and Cheese looks like a good deal. Almost all of it is subsidized. Lettuce doesn't look like such a good deal.
Marcus: I understand your point, but disagree entirely. You may find "fat kids" funny, and you can make jokes about childhood obesity, but the effects are not at all funny. You can make jokes about the Holocaust and paint Hitler as a buffoon, but that does not make what actually happened funny. Hogan's Heroes didn't have anything to do with the slaughter of millions of innocent people.
Cranky: Yes, I understand the ironic point Mallard Fillmore was trying to make. I'm not really outraged by the strip; I just used it as a platform to write about my pet issues and to call attention to the link between poverty and obesity.
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And I agree.... Mallard Fillmore is not funny on this topic.(Or on any other, IMO. If I want my hackles put up, I read Mallard Fillmore--it always works.)
I totally agree that cheap junk food is far too convenient and widely available, while nutritious food is harder to buy and prepare. It's a hard cycle to break, too since there are so many contributing factors that make it hard even for motivated parents with good intentions, to cook good meals at home. They may have never had anyone to teach them to cook; if you're working two jobs, when do you have the time and energy to shop and cook. etc etc. Knowing how to cook and make good meals from inexpensive ingredients is one of the most useful surviva skills anyone can learn.Gardening and cooking should both be taught to children on a K-12 basis, although in this day and age of NCLB B.S. I'm afraid it's a pipe dream. It would certainly help people to stay healthier and save money through avoiding a steady diet of fast food.
The onslaught of the western "diet" of fast food in Micronesia, for example, is decimating those islands. The peoples' bodies are genetically disposed to store fat. This allowed them to survive famine in previous centuries. This genetic makeup works against them lethally, however, since they switched from fruit and fish to a Big Mac and fries.
This is true in other countries, too, such as the one I live in. Juvenile diabetes is becoming rampant.
Not only does that cartoonist have poor taste in humor, he is also abysmally ill read.
Holy Christmas!!! I would like to line all all those people up and give them a good hard slap or reality...