Digging graves with knives and forks

Food has become the new cigarettes of our time, and sooner or later politicos are going to have to figure out what to do about it.

An article two years ago on an Earth Balance website, which promotes vegetarian diets, illustrates some striking parallels between cigarettes and food - particularly junk food.

* Both make you sick. Cigarettes contribute to cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure. Obesity covers all those, plus diabetes, kidney failure and other health issues.

* Everyone knows both are bad.

* Both are incredibly addictive.

The article focuses on junk food, such as potato chips, but the same principle applies to restaurants - and not just fast-food places. In restaurants, there seems to be a competition of who can pile the plates higher with fatty foods. And people are gobbling up those huge portions.

It's projected that if people continue eating more, nearly half the people in the United States will be considered obese (at least 30 pounds overweight) by 2030. By 2050, one of three people in the United States will have diabetes - which will cause an explosion in health care costs. Obamacare will seem like a clearance sale at Walmart by comparison. One saving grace is the national eating binge may cure the crisis with Social Security and Medicare. People won't be living long enough to collect the benefits.

The restaurant industry, as with the tobacco companies back in the days of the Marlboro Man, doesn't make it easy on America's health. Restaurants are gaining big profits, while promoting America's food addiction with aggressive, and often clever, advertising. At some point, this will become more than a sociological issue. It will become a political problem.

The Food and Drug Administration, under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), is taking a step in the right direction. Beginning on Dec. 1, chain restaurants will be required to list calorie counts on menu items and offer other nutritional information, such as carbohydrate counts, upon request. Many restaurants already are issuing calorie information, but the carb counts are a new twist - and one that's especially important for people with diabetes.

Laura Keller, a type 1 diabetic and Idaho's advocacy director for the American Diabetes Association, said carb information will help solve a big problem for her when she's on the road. As a type 2 diabetic who has management struggles on the road, I second her comments.

"When I'm at home, I know what I'm eating, but that's not always the case when eating out," she said. "I will be asking for carb counts, without a doubt. If you are taking insulin, you have to know what's in there, otherwise you are guessing."

SeAnne Safaii, a nutrition expert and associate professor at the University of Idaho, welcomes the FDA ruling, given the fact that about a third of people's calories are consumed away from home.

"Ultimately, people are responsible for their own choices, but now the information will not be hidden, it will be out there," she said.

Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador, a vocal opponent of Obamacare, has mixed feelings. "I support the educational efforts of the American Diabetes Association and voluntary steps taken by the restaurant industry to respond to consumer requests for more dietary information. However, I continue to object to the overreach of Obamacare and other regulatory burdens."

Safaii says that if healthier eating becomes society's norm, then restaurant managers might redesign their specialties so they are lower in calories, fat and carbs - without sacrificing taste.

Keller hopes that restaurants will benefit from the FDA ruling in the long run. Providing basic nutritional information, she said, "is a pretty easy step, and I hope businesses realize that. People still will have a choice about whether to use that information."

According to a Drexel University study, government mandates such as banning sodas from school vending machines, building playgrounds and walking paths have had a minimal effect on people's behavior. Safaii admits the findings, "took the wind out of my sails a bit."

But negative study results shouldn't prevent restaurants from doing what's right. Nutritional information should be made available to consumers, and people with diabetes should have carb counts available when eating at restaurants.

When TV ads glorified smoking more than a half century ago, people initially were not paying a lot of attention to the surgeon general's warning on cigarette packages. Now, they are. Maybe by 2050, people will change their attitudes about binge eating at restaurants.

God help us if they don't.

Chuck Malloy is a native Idahoan and longtime political reporter and editorial writer. He is a former political editor with the Post Register of Idaho Falls and a former editorial writer with the Idaho Statesman. He may be contacted at: ctmalloy@outlook.com.