Ainsley Earhardt, one of the “Fox and Friends” airheads, is very excited about the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
We’re all excited about him. How wonderful is it that we don’t — might, we might not have to worry about our children with autism or our kids with, you know, developing cancer or, you know, just — it’s wonderful that he wants to clean up our foods. Our foods, in Europe, when we go to Europe, we can eat pasta, we can eat pizza, we don’t gain any weight. I know you walk a lot, but you don’t gain weight. You feel fresh, you feel clean. You come back here, you start eating pasta and you gain weight immediately.
Again, so there’s something wrong with our foods. It’s the pesticides, the chemicals. We want all of that out. We’re excited that he’s a leader. He’s very knowledgeable. He has said he’s going to give you choice. He’s not going to take away vaccines. Everyone’s not going to get polio. He said if you want a vaccine, you can vaccinate your kids, but I’m giving you choice. And he says he’s going to be transparent.
Yay! RFK will end autism and cure cancer by “cleaning up” our food. He’ll remove “chemicals” from our food!
Let’s not equate autism with cancer, but no, RFK is not going to prevent either of those. He’s not going to eliminate pesticide use. What’s driving our agricultural system is money: pressure to increase yields and lower costs, and corporate consolidation to make farms bigger and service Big Ag. These are Republicans. They aren’t going to change the system, but are more likely to amplify it.
You know, I’m pretty sure that Europe doesn’t have magical pasta and pizza with no calories (Europeans in the comments, tell me if I’m wrong.) What they do have is smaller portions, which, as a resident of the American midwest, I can tell you would elicit howls of protest here if we suggested that maybe you don’t need 3 pounds of carbohydrates with every meal. That’s not going to change, either. Also, another reason you might not get as fat in Europe is that European cities are much more walkable — you don’t drive to the all-you-can-eat buffet at Pizza Ranch. So sure, RFK is going to persuade Americans to drive less, walk more, eat less, and pay more for food from small family farms, and Fox News will call it “wonderful”.
Oh god. The future looks bleak.
Someone who eats roadkill is going to “clean up our foods”?
How much is this idiot paid to be a walking, talking dumb-blonde joke?
I figure the Republicans will just block all reporting of actual autism and childhood cancer rates, so they can say they are fixing the problem with no evidence.
Sorry, but that must be satire.
Our foods, in Europe, when we go to Europe, we can eat pasta, we can eat pizza, we don’t gain any weight. I know you walk a lot, but you don’t gain weight. You feel fresh, you feel clean.
So she’s actually saying Europeans do something better than Americans?! For the Fox crowd (the current carriers of a torch of anti-European hate and know-nothingism that’s as old as America itself), that’s MAJOR progress. So cheer up, PZ — we may not have to listen to this twit much longer!
submoron: Better get used to four more years of loony-right self-parody.
Wow.
Peroxide killed a lot of brain cells that other (normal) people might have otherwise wanted to keep around.
She’s aware that RFK Jr.’s trunk monkey lawyer sued the FDA to remove the polio vaccine from use, right?
Right?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/12/13/rfk-polio-vaccine-fda-aaron-siri/
Maybe she could ask Siri. On her phone. Which could give her actual news.
Oh he’s transparent all right. It’s transparently obvious he’s sucking up to the supplements/health woo lobby. Check for insider trading of health supplements stocks. Forsythia!
Nah, he isn’t going to do much of anything.
The Red states lead the Blue states in having higher obesity rates, and shorter life spans.
The MAGAts didn’t elect Donald Trump so they could eat less fast food, watch less TV, and get out and exercise more.
They elected Donald Trump in part so he would go after all the groups they hate. That would be Progressives, Democrats, gays, Trans, atheists, children, women, nonwhites, nonxians, scientists, etc..
@ 1,6 Yeah, that was pretty much my first thought too.
It wasn’t all that long ago that Fox would have ridiculed anyone who talked like this as some hippie-dippy loon who burns sage and fondles crystals to cure life-threatening illness rather than using modern medical science. Then the Alex Jones conspiracy kooks gained prominence on the right and now “Big Pharma” is a totalitarian villain while singing the praises of “natural cures.”
A big factor is the rampant use of corn syrup in all kinds of food and drinks in the US. Here in Germany it’s usually beet sugar and in far smaller quantities than the American palate is likely used to.
Well, there’s an exemplar of understaetment if ever there was as one..
i so wish I was wrojng but… don’t think I am. (Natch but; prove me wrong, pleasec please do.)
In my experience from Finland, cheap diners and lunch cafeterias typically provide an unlimited buffet of carbs (bread, boiled potatoes and rice), while meat or similar protein/fat source is sensibly rationed. In slightly fancier dining, the proportion of meat to carbs increases, and any hot dishes are more likely to be loaded with butter and salt. That last thing is what Finnish public health advocates complain about, if anything.
Basic diners will typically also provide a buffet of green salad. It’s made of cheat ingredients, but still it’s said to be something of a Finnish specialty, born out of some sort of political public health advocacy.
I broke down and watched the first episode of Enigma on Netflix about Aaron Rodgers. It was actually pretty good as it chronicled his recovery from an Achilles injury while highlighting his early college and pro football career. I had forgotten the controversial Jesse Ventura like stuff he said about religion. The second episode went full nadir, nosediving into the RFK Jr septic tank and I immediately stopped watching. Uggh!
What is this “four years” nonsense? Do people really believe that if we just hang on for “four years” something legit and face-saving will happen at the end? It seems the reality of what’s happening here is still lost on many.
How quickly they forget… https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/05/10/the-michael-bloomberg-nanny-state-in-new-york-a-cautionary-tale/
Not so very long ago, Michael Bloomberg’s attempt to limit the portion size of sodas was decried as “government overreach” and “social engineering.” Either the worm has truly turned, or else RFK Jr. is about to run headlong into a buzzsaw.
As a European, I remember one specific thing about American food that really, really put me off. As lasius mentions, corn syrup is in everything, and as a result, everything is sweet. The whole time I was in the USA, I desperately craved ordinary, unsweetened bread, and I was not alone.
I was a working seasonal student with J-1 visa and there was a bunch of Czechs, Slovaks, Croatians, Poles, and Russians with at the venue and we all agreed that American bread is shit. We all were poor – we were there to make money after all – but when one Slovak accidentally found a bakery that made “European style” bread at several times the price of ordinary bread, everyone went there and bought one at least once. It was still not as good as it is here, but way better than the American standard and it took the edge of the craving.
When traveling after the season, we had to eat fast-food, because American restaurants were insanely expensive. And when I found out that the hamburger buns at McDonalds in the USA are sweet too, I nearly hurled up. I mean, sweet bun with savory meat? WTF?
I never ever got used to it. To this day it makes my stomach twist.
The other thing that was new to me at that time and that I laughed at was drive-throughs. The concept of buying food from the driver’s seat of one’s car seemed absolutely comical. We do have them now here in Europe, too, but they are not particularly popular or busy.
And what I found particularly hilarious, in a not at all funny way, were ads for walking that were plastered everywhere (1999 Idaho). I have never seen an ad telling people to get out of their cars and walk somewhere as if it were some revolutionary idea before.
Mmm, I can just about guarantee that if you overeat in Europe, you will gain weight nonetheless. Sad, I know… how I wish it weren’t so, especially with the end-of-year eat-a-thon round the corner!
My take on this is obvious: watch portion size. In Europe, they are generally medium-to-large, in Japan quite small (ooooh, Japanes are all so slender… there is a reason, and they comment on it when out of country) and in the US huger than huge. Not that the quality is bad: the servings are simply way big, at least from what I could see in my only two visits to the US. I remember a choc ice cream in LA, excellent but the “small” beaker was half a pound! Bring a forklift for the large!
Anyone want to bet on the annual all-cause death rate in the US decreasing rather than increasing over the next four years? No? Didn’t think so. Even if RFK Jr manages to reduce the negative health impact of something somewhere, against normal Republican policy, the benefit of that will be wiped out by the death toll of the very first measles outbreak and its sequelae.