Posts Tagged ‘National Heath Care Plan’
FAT & FIT Even Monique Is Working At It!
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
Between the passing of health Care Reform, the plus sized Dr Regina Benjamin being confirmed as Surgeon General and Monique “Queen of Big Girls” being on a weight loss program; I can feel a BIG FAT & FIT campaign coming on.
There was much controversy about Ms Benjamin being too fat to be surgeon General, In spite of her excellent credentials and spectacular record of professional and community service. If she hasn’t already, I suspect she will have to make an effort to get fit and loose a few pounds; she’s talked a lot about the family members she lost to lifestyle related illnesses.
Queen sized comedienne Monique says she’s down 40lbs from 262lbs since last summer, She was motivated by her husband’s concern’s for her health. She was on Ellen last week promoting “Precious” she looks fabulous! I can’t believe that people are actually mad at her for losing weight. True she had a big mouth about loving her fat but couldn’t we all see past the bravado.
Fat acceptance is all about loving yourself wherever you are, it is not about misery loving company. I’m happy for her and really glad she didn’t go for the surgery. Looks like she did it sensibly with a nutritionist, acupuncture? and a personal trainer. She said her goal weight is 200lbs I feel you girl. I look good and feel good at 200lbs. I miss taking the stairs two at a time. Do what you gotta do.
Hopefully a lot of us will be inspired to get on the bandwagon . Personally I don’t want to be nagged and feel judged by anyone who hasn’t been where I am. Nor do I ever want to feel that food is my enemy, I want to always enjoy and appreciate good food, but I’d like to also put an end to my see sawing blood pressure level lately.
Both Dr. Benjamin and Monique will be a good example especially to African American women. Not with the dreaded “d” word, but by encouraging us to to make healthier food choices and to get moving. In the long run it will be a great start toward slowing down the obesity epidemic among our kids . When you teach women how to eat properly they teach their children
Humm… I’m actually thinking about doing something fun like taking a Zumba class
A Junk Food Tax, Why Not?
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
I thought I’d had a stroke of genius recently when I woke up from a sound sleep believing I’d found the way to pay for the national health care plan; then I learned that New York Governor David Patterson beat me to it with his proposed tax on Soda. Oh well great minds think alike I guess. I read somewhere that taxing soda at 10-15% would raise an estimated 14.9 billion dollars the first year and 150 billion dollars over the next 10 years. Soda consumption would decline 8-10% leading to weight loss and reduced health risk.
So I want to know why just soda . Why not all fast food and all junk food. It’s only fair, there are taxes on Liquor and cigarettes. The smokers and drinkers pay extra for their indulgences. and smoking has decreased significantly with the increase in cigarette prices. Imagine a .45 tax on a Big Mac, .25 on the fries, .30 cents on those delicious soluble plastic milk shakes, .15 on a donut, .20 on a personal size bag of chips, .50 on the family size, 1.50 on a bucket of chicken and .80 on a large pizza. All earmarked for health care and education . Cha- ching, cha-ching it would all add up pretty fast. In fact at the end of the first year I bet we’d have a surplus, more than enough to fund health care for a few years, maybe even enough for another war!
One argument against such a tax is that taxing fast food would put and additional burden on the poor who are the largest consumers of fast food because it’s cheap. Well Duh, aren’t the poor also the largest segment of the population in need of free or subsidized health care? I think its only fair that the poor pay for It, and I’m not even a Republican.
Now if there is indeed a correlation between fast food, obesity, and ill health we will have solved more than one problem. Raising the price of junk food will make it less accessible which will have the benefit of making us eat less which will improve the quality of our health and cause less of a burden on the health care system right?.
The truth is by the time McDonalds, KFC and the SFA (Snack foods Association) are through lobbying it wouldn’t happen. Heaven forbid we should slow down consumption. As it is the the SFA has been lobbying against:
- limiting choice for Food Stamp Program participants
They believe food stamp recipients should be able to use their stamps to buy all the cheese puffs they want.
- Redefining Foods of Minimal Nutritional Value
They don’t feel they should have to inform you that those tasty cheese puffs are as good for your body as eating sawdust or toilet paper.
And they are in support of:
-The Commonsense Consumption Act
It’s too bad if you get fat or have any health challenges because of eating their cheese puffs Its your fault. You won’t be able to sue them .
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Without a doubt they will see a consumer tax on junk food as their tax in the long run. The poor and uniformed are essential to their bottom line.