Mar 17 2010
Salt and Chemicals to Blame for Obesity: Really?!?
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| Really?!? (This is not Dawn, nor me for that matter.) |
I want to start perpetuate a new catch phrase: “Really?!?”
I think I picked this up from Dawn. When someone doesn’t get the real point, or is hung up on the weaker argument, or comes at an issue with an incomprehensible perspective, Dawn creates a pregnant pause, squints, and then, with just the right hint of exasperation, asks, “Really?!?”
Jenn sent me to this article on MSN:
Fat epidemic linked to chemicals run amok: Fast food not solely to blame for obesity, new research suggests
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35315651/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition
Notably, the title of the web page, which appears in the browser, reads: “Don’t blame fast food for making you fat.”
In searching for that one, I also found this one:
Stealth Health: Your favorite prepared foods may be getting healthier. You just don’t know it.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/235011
“Forget about fat. What’s really killing Americans is salt.”
Pause. Squint. Really?!?
To my marketing-manager’s eye these articles smack–smack!–of public relations gurus trying to take the heat off fast food companies, and prepared food manufacturers, respectively, for the nation’s obesity problems. They divert attention from the ginormous elephant in the room: the sugar and other simple carbs that make their wares oh-so-tasty and oh-so-profitable.
I am a believer–and a scared one–that chemicals and salt are dangerous. When I read about PVCs and Teflon® I feel like I’m in a sci-fi horror movie.
But the symptoms we’re talking about are obesity and diabetes. The culprit, pure and simple, is sugar.
(The lead “Forget about fat. What’s really killing Americans is salt” forgot to mention high fructose corn syrup.)
Food makers must be developing nervous twitches over the spotlight being thrown on the obesity epidemic, and they’ve sent their PR minions to divert that spotlight to other risky substances. Risky, yes, but the “real” sources of the problem? Really?
Be afraid. Be very afraid. And be skeptical of the news.
5 Responses to “Salt and Chemicals to Blame for Obesity: Really?!?”
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I guess it’s a new catchphrase, because it’s made it to SNL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyaFZkH6v64
Aha! I guess neither Dawn nor I were first to the punch. The way SNL tries so hard to start the new catchphrases, maybe they have finally landed one–it has caught on with me.
I don’t know; that show was just last weekend, so maybe “Really?!?” has already been around a while.
You’re right–Dawn was saying “Really?!?” a month ago. I think Jerry Seinfeld totally ripped off her material.
Dawn is a leader. She has been saying “Really?!?” in just that way for as long as I’ve known her.
Recent tweet from @ShitMyDadSays:
“I lost 20 pounds…How? I drank bear piss and took up fencing. How the fuck you think, son? I exercised.”
I think what he really meant is “I ate real foods.” But that’s less funnier.