Meckler: Just say no... to the poison

The following was written by Convention of States President Mark Meckler.

Americans are pumping their bodies with poison. We are paying food manufacturers and restaurants to kill us — DoorDashing our way into a sugar, fat, and sodium-induced early grave.

Allow me to be frank. As a grassroots activist leader, I encourage Americans to fight to preserve liberty for their children and grandchildren. It’s an effective message. Older Americans, in particular, dream to spend their sunset years relishing the blessings of liberty with their progeny. The sad reality, however, is that many of us will not have nearly enough time with our families because of the food we eat.

I get it. It’s difficult to resist the buffet of mouth-watering foods that surround us. But resist, we must.

It’s time to take responsibility for our diets.

Imagine that you and your buddies go out for burgers. Twenty to 30 years ago, you would find a cheeseburger and a serving of fries for an average total of 543 calories. Today, if you’re at Five Guys, the order of fries alone could clock in at more than 1,300 calories! A cheeseburger would cost you an additional 1,000 calories, while a large drink or milkshake would add 500-800 more.

Additionally, you would consume dangerously high levels of sodium and fat. The fries alone contain nearly as much sodium as the Institute of Medicine and American Heart Association recommends for an entire day. Various studies recommend between 45 and 70 grams of fat per day: Five Guys’ fries contain 57.

And would you like an ice cream to go with that? Ninety percent of Americans eat ice cream regularly. Indeed, we eat more ice cream per person (20 pounds per year) than any other country! Well, a large Dairy Queen Blizzard can fetch up to 1,480 calories, 67 grams of fat, and 800 milligrams of sodium. Now, between your burger, fries, soda, and ice cream, you are at over 4,000 calories.

I’m not picking on Five Guys or Dairy Queen. Across the board, America is experiencing a food inflation crisis. And it is just as harmful to you as economic inflation.

“From 1986 to 2016, the number of entrées, sides, and desserts for all restaurants combined increased by 226%,” the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics discovered in a study. “Portion sizes of entrées (13 g/decade) and desserts (24 g/decade)... increased significantly, and the energy (kilocalories) and sodium of items in all three menu categories increased significantly.” 

The study, which tracked Arby’s, Burger King, Carl’s Jr, Dairy Queen, Hardee’s, Jack in the Box, KFC, Long John Silver’s, McDonald’s, and Wendy’s, found that, “on average, the calorie content of entrees went up by 30 calories a decade, while the calorie content of desserts went up by 62 calories a decade.”

Per decade!

They achieved this in part by significantly increasing serving sizes. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) admits that serving sizes are “based on how much food people actually consume, and not on what they should eat” — hence, the serving size for ice cream is now ⅔ cup instead of ½.

“The FDA… changed the criteria for labeling based on package size. With the updated requirements, more food products previously labeled as more than one serving are now required to be labeled as just one serving. Why? Because people are more likely to eat or drink the entire container or item in one sitting. Examples include a 20-ounce can of soda…. And many large muffins that were previously labeled as two or even three servings will be labeled as a single serving under the updated requirements, consistent with how people generally consume them.”

In other words, we are not only pumping our bodies with poison. We are pumping ourselves with more of it than ever before!

Of course, tracking calories is the easy part. But what about the illegible list of “ingredients”?

If you had to pronounce all of the ingredients in your foods before you ate them… well, let’s just say your pantry would probably be empty! Since when did it become normal to consume “foods” with names like propylene glycol, carminic acid, ammonium sulfate, tertiary butylhydroquinone, Red 40, and Yellow 5? Why are even our meats banned in other countries due to the estrogen, testosterone, ractopamine, progesterone, and other growth hormones we use on our farms?

We must realize that the American medical complex does not care about our well-being. As long as they can rake in billions of dollars from our unhealthy eating habits, they will have little incentive to implement change. That’s why the FDA is more than happy to medicate you, even as they rack up your serving sizes!

… which means that if the medical community won’t take care of you, you must take of yourself!

In the end, it’s a very basic principle. You must play your part to ensure that you are healthy for your children and grandchildren. No one else can do it for you. That’s part of what it means to be self-governing.

As Bill Maher once said, “It’s not between you and the government; it’s between you and the waitress.” We don’t need the government to tell us what or how much to eat. As with all things, self-governance in your diet begins at home.

You have the power to change!