The First Lady headlined an event in which the U.S. Department of Agriculture unveiled its decision to scrap the food pyramid and replace it with a diagram of a plate, wherein half is heaped with vegetables and fruit and the rest of the plate is divided for grains and protein. On the side of the plate is a circle representing dairy. The diagram makes no reference whatsoever to fats, alcohol, oils, or sweets.
Meanwhile, President Obama appeared utterly delighted to enjoy his meal, despite the absence of such items as chili dogs and French fries from the new food diagram.
The Daily Mail notes the irony of President Obama’s meal:
When [Michelle Obama] unveiled the USDA’s new nutritional plate yesterday, there definitely wasn’t a space for chili dogs.
The president happily munched on the unhealthy meal before he visited the city’s Chrysler factory, and even teased one of his hosts for ordering ketchup, a faux-pas in his home town of Chicago.
According to USA Today, he told Representative Marcy Kaptur: "Marcy just wants ketchup. By the way, as an aficionado of hot dogs, you shouldn’t put ketchup on hot dogs…. I’m trying to teach my girls."
Those culinary lessons would hardly go down well with his wife, Michelle, who has spent this year touring the country on a crusade against childhood obesity.
Yesterday she unveiled the USDA’s new healthy-eating guide, which replaces the famous "My Pyramid" with a plate divided into four nutritional quadrants: fruits, vegetables, grains and proteins.
Michelle Obama has become the virtual spokesman for healthy eating habits, as she has made childhood obesity her platform. Under her guidance, the Department of Agriculture went so far as to spend $2 million on food behavior scientists to engineer and utilize marketing techniques to trick children into choosing fruits and vegetables as a healthier alternative to cookies and chips. Responding to pressure from the federal government, some school districts have removed flavored milk from school menus, despite the negative impact that such a maneuver has had on milk consumption among children.
In April, the Federal Trade Commission, the Agriculture Department, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration responded to a 2009 order from Congress and released new guidelines that limit the marketing of food to children.
Michelle Obama’s efforts to encourage healthy eating habits have targeted both children and adults alike. She recently spoke at the National Restaurant Association, where she asked restaurant owners to take butter and cream out of their dishes and use low fat milk, in addition to providing apple slices or carrots as a default side dish on the kids’ menu.
“We have to do more, we have to go farther, and we need your help to lead this effort,” she told restaurateurs.
Ironically, however, last October — just one month after the First Lady spoke to the National Restaurant Association — she was seen in Milwaukee, Wisconsin eating a cheeseburger and French fries with her cousin.
It seems that the hypocrisy of the First Family knows no bounds. Perhaps if President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama stopped undertaking efforts that impede individual food choice, they would not have to be concerned about appearing as food hypocrites on camera. Just something to consider.
Photo of Barack Obama: AP Images
