New York Rep. Elise Stefanik—the third-ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives—has at last captured the national zeitgeist! Americans aren’t worried about Ukraine, the economy, creeping fascism here and abroad, COVID-19, or any of the other stories the lamestream media keep pushing. The brutal truth is that most people are concerned about the continued availability of calorie-dense refined sugar in schools!
Seriously. This is what she’s focusing on. I’m not kidding. No, really. This isn’t a joke. I would insert a joke here so you could see the difference, but I’m honestly too gobsmacked to do that right now.
WRGB-TV, Albany, New York:
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R) is looking to make sure that kids have options for milk in schools.
This comes after New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ proposal to ban flavored milk in schools.
“Our dairy farmers in Upstate New York and the North Country work hard to produce nutritious milk for our communities, and I am proud to introduce legislation to ensure a variety of milk choices for our school children. Instead of taking away milk choices from students, my bill will give them better access to essential dairy nutrients critical for their development. Let our New York students drink chocolate milk!” she said.
The bill, titled the Protecting School Milk Choices Act of 2022, would preserve the rights and dignity of chocolate milk under the federal school lunch program. Because there are literally no other problems in this country that are more urgent right now, so it’s a convenient time to patch up the few remaining holes in our Bill of Rights.
Okay, aside from this sounding more like a petition circulated by third graders at recess than a bill introduced by a bona fide congresswoman (much less a high-ranking congresswoman), is it really a good idea? Is eating healthy only for beta and cuck children now? Is Stefanik looking at a Johns Hopkins study that proves American children aren’t getting enough simple carbohydrates?
I find that a little hard to believe.
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted in a 2020 study exploring the effects of removing chocolate milk from diverse secondary schools in San Francisco:
[The American Heart Association] recommends that youth consume only 6 teaspoons (25 grams) of added sugar a day.
[...]
If students drink a full 8-ounce carton of chocolate milk, they will consume more than a third of the recommended daily limit of added sugar in 1 sitting.
The CDC study found little impact on consumption of key nutrients, but a big reduction in how much sugar students were guzzling during lunch period.
Yet as a current vegan who was raised in Wisconsin and typically drank more milk as a child than a beluga whale calf, I have news for you: I don’t think this is about the health of kids so much as that of the dairy industry. Wisconsin legislators pushed the same kind of nonsense for decades, and there was little mystery as to why.
Opinions are mixed about the health benefits of dairy, but pretty much everyone with a genuine interest in pediatric health agrees that too much sugar in kids’ diets is a bad thing. And American kids are already getting way more than they need. But sure, let’s make sure they get even more with this ridiculous legislation.
I do find it awfully interesting that, to Republicans, “whites only” applies to people, but not lunch beverages. Seriously, isn’t it bizarre that they only seem interested in desegregation when it comes to the disparate hues of their oleaginous cow squeezings?
The GOP is no longer a serious political organization. Sure, President Joe Biden wanted to extend the child tax credit, subsidize child care, and fund universal preschool, but Republicans want to make sure kids have the same chance as anyone else to get too much sugar. Who do you think will win that argument? I wish I could be more confident that we will, but look around you.
Seriously, though, how do we lose any elections to these death merchants? Kids’ health? Pfft. Get over it, nerd.
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