You Can't Have Your Pudding if...
It's OK to eat eggs; a couple of times a week anyway, but don't get too nutty with them. I found that out because I saw a TV commercial some years ago that said so. It was sponsored by some government-supported group so I know it's trustworthy. Of course for the prior ten years the government had been telling me that eggs have cholesterol and that they were no good for me because they would harden my arteries and then of course I wouldn't be able to move about so freely as they got harder until I was frozen like an iceberg. I think. That was a long time ago in my mind.
And then there was the 'got milk?' campaign that said it was OK to drink milk. I don't remember exactly why it was originally 'not OK,' but I think it had something to do with fat and milk sugar or lactic acid or something. I'm guessing fat now because the anti-milk campaign spawned the amazing variety of everything on the gaddam shelf that had different percentages of fat except real milk which it took me at least an extra minute in the supermarket to find until I figured out it was always the 'red' container.
Then there was the 'Beef. It's what's for dinner,' campaign. This one seemed different to me because it didn't take the mealy-mouthed maybe a couple is ok approach as the egg campaign. Well, one or two won't kill you. And then there was the messy hog wild get it all over your face approach for milk. Janet Reno with a milk mustache physically made me retch the first time I saw it. I was for the first time at that moment sorry that I had ever heard of pornography, never mind seen it. It still makes me queasy just writing this.
Beef. It's dinner. Eat it. Don't swallow the whole cow ferchrissakes. I vaguely remember Bo Derrick doing a spot. As beef has both fat and cholesterol it had taken a beating worse than eggs and milk, but there's not much of a substitute like eggbeaters or skim milk. Chicken? What do you have after chicken, pork? Trichinosis laden pork? (Pork: the other white meat. Which reminds me of another campaign, which seemed to be taking advantage of beef by kicking it while it was down) The campaign seemed to come from the people that had taken a hit, the beef-producing people. There was a kind of in your face "I don't care what the government says, I'm gonna eat whatever I want. And I want to eat a big greasy burger washed down with a T-bone and a beer. So there."
The campaign wasn't backtracking by the government with no explanation why they screwed up in the first place; it was taking back the initiative. At least it seemed that way. Turns out no. It was a government program, and the government doesn't want to give it up. It even went to the Supreme Court the other day, which amazingly ruled for the government and is requiring the cattle industry to keep paying for it when they don’t want to. What is wrong with this picture?
In a related question, have you seen the new government food pyramid? What the hell are you supposed to do with that? Hire a nutritionist or an archeologist to interpret it?
Anyway, if you're interested here is the AdAge link that started this rant explaining why we'll have to continue to pay for the government to keep telling us to eat meat. As well as drink milk, and of course the eggs and the pork, because left to our own devices we'd eat mercury contaminated fish or something. You might have to register.
