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Photo: Kraft.com
A health advocacy group is calling on the city of Irving, Texas, to back out of its deal with Kraft Foods, which paid $75,000 to sponsor next month's implosion of Texas Stadium.
"These are not food products government should promote," says Susan Levin, director of nutritional education for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. "The city says it's fighting childhood obesity, but it's taking money from the company that makes Velveeta."
Kraft plans to use the event to promote its new "Cheddar Explosion," a mac-and-cheese dinner billed as having "bigger shapes" and "more cheese sauce." The star of the hoopla will be the winner of an essay contest Kraft conducted to find a tween to press the detonation button.
"Because it's targeted to kids, it's especially egregious," Levin says. "I understand we all need financial support, but this is poor judgment."
City officials rejected the doctors' group's offer of $75,000 to shelve its contract with Kraft and instead use the Apr. 11 event to spotlight childhood obesity. The group proposed unfurling a giant banner reading "Cheese really blows you up."
Mayor Herbert Gears told the Dallas Morning News he thought the anti-cheese banner was "tacky" and "offensive," words some diehard Cowboys fans have used to describe the commercialization of the stadium's demolition. Still, Gears stands by the plan, citing the additional $150,000 Kraft has promised to local charities and food banks.
"You've got to talk to them about lasting change and habits – water instead of soda pop and the role exercise and managing portions plays," Gears told the paper, outlining his non-explosive strategy for reducing childhood obesity. He suggested the group give its $75,000 to existing health programs.
"We're not trying to run behind Kraft, cleaning up their messes," Levin grumbles. "It's ridiculous for government to lock arms with them."
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3-15-2010 @6:52PM Dean said... A lot of a do about nothing?
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3-15-2010 @8:06PM Angela said... Stop picking on Kraft; first the Cadbury purchase, now this. Thomas Jefferson was responsible
for bringing pasta to the states, so kudos to him for opening our minds to other possibilities.
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3-15-2010 @9:42PM al said... Hey angela, That was a good choice of words because in Texas Thomas Jefferson has just been written out of their high school textbooks. You can look it up!
3-15-2010 @7:02PM chodan75 said... My body, my choice
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3-15-2010 @7:01PM Roy S. Mallmann II said... And I thought there were no intellectual liberals around. Please target me. I am in the TEA PARTY MOVEMENT. You know, the SAME TEA PARTY MOVEMENT that in 231 days is going to the polls at the midterm elections to REMOVE to politicians in the government who cannot seem to tell the truth about anything. On the other hand, you have obviousl never been to Texas because if you had, I don't think you would make such a deceitful comment. Do you feel threatened by Texas and the TEA PARTY MOVEMENT? Be afraid...Be very afraid. Midterms in 231 days.
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3-15-2010 @7:14PM Sonja said... Kraft Mac & Cheese has been around since the Stone Age - at least since I was a kid and I'm 67! And, kids weren't fat back then!! My kids ate plenty of it and they aren't fat, either. Granted, I don't know why they want to add more cheese, but, on the other hand, cheese had protein and calcium - yes, fat, too. But, if kids got enough exercise, like playing outside everyday after school and during the summer and walked back and forth to school like we did, kids could eat most everything without getting fat. Quit picking on a traditional food like Kraft Mac and Cheese!!
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3-15-2010 @7:31PM Linda said... BLAH BLAH, BLAH BLAH BLAH.....I am growing weary of the pitch fork wielding, screaming control freaks. IF, and I say IF, one feeds themselves a steady diet of high "anything" carbs, sugar, fat etc, then yes that's unhealthy. However, with that said, please remember that grandma said do everything in moderation To go into hysterics over this is really a waste of time and energy, and quite frankly a means to control the population in yet another insidious way. Please tell these people to butt out. Before long there wil be food police roaming the aisles of the grocery, and beating on your door at midnight to haul you out for eating someting they deem to be baaaaaaaaaaaad. Eat a balanced diet of fruit, vegetables, meat, and yes, it's ok to include a little mac and cheese now and then, but as a side dish, not as the whole darned thing, day in and day out. Even the damned food pyramid ended up skewed to favor carbohydrates. Check it out.
Also these idiots need a reminder that food is expensive, and let's face it; people wil eat what they can afford.
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3-15-2010 @7:46PM mark turner said... ARE there people stoopid enough to not be able to make their own choices? The gov't has completely changed the rules of "Thinning the Herd"; now the ones who SHOULD be thinned out are a protected species and allowed to survive, thrive and (shudder) reproduce. In LARGE quantities.
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3-15-2010 @7:50PM seriously... said... Okay even too much fresh fruit can make you fat. And what are you supposed to do when your toddler or older child is saying they're hungry? You feed them. Neither of my children are fat (they are actually underweight for their height/age/etc) and we EASILY run up AT LEAST $600 in fresh fruits and veggies a month... that figure doesnt even include when my husband is home from being deployed. I also buy frozen veggies that we breeze through monthly as well. You add that to a trip to the local grocery store or produce stand two or three times a week and thats a junkload of gas being burned up as well. The costs add up. It is almost impossible to maintain a good diet with nutritious foods in this country unless you are stabally set in the middle class. We are being punished financially on either end. You can not get good produce for a comparable price to unhealthier options and we are going to be taxed for choosing those unhealthier options. The only person anyone is looking out for is themselves. And you know its more important to have a roof over your head than it is to buy apples instead of mac and cheese. And considering the massive increases in crimes (pedophiles snatching up kids, etc) you cant even let your kids outside unless you're outside with them. So sometimes its not possible for kids to spend hours outside like it was 20 or 30 years ago which is why older generations are not as obese. I live in a wonderful neighborhood filled with military families and retirees and i still wont let my children outside alone. It's the price we pay of busy lifestyles mixed with financial strain.
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3-15-2010 @8:04PM Lynn said... Being healthy does not mean eliminating foods like macaroni and cheese from your diet. There are foods that are much worse! It's just another form of advertisement and promotion. Companies that produce foods that aren't the healthiest have just as much right to do so. It's up to consumers to choose what they want to eat. If you cut your child off from anything remotely unhealthy, its just going to make the problem worse. Whats important is generally healthy choices and moderation.
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3-15-2010 @8:16PM marilyn said... Mac and cheese is what most people can afford now a days. Thanks to Obama
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3-15-2010 @11:04PM number32 said... Every time I read one of these blogs on aoHell I wonder why the median IQ of responders is 3 points lower than a box of rocks.. This starts off addressing a group wanting the city fathers to not accept a total of $225,000 from Kraft Foods. $75,000 to allow Kraft to sponsor the demolition of the old stadium and an additional $150,000 for local charities. It took about 3-4 posts for the losers to degenerate to attacking the federal government. "We don't need the Feds telling us what we can eat ! ". I would like all of those idiots from Texas (i.e.: Ultra conservatives, Bushiphiles, (The macho cowboys who hold to Sainthood a Connecticut carpet bagger who was a fairy cheer leader in college) Radical Republican obstructionists.) to tell me why the Gulf Coast cities of Texas are crying for more federal money for hurricane clean-up ? Why don't all those Texas millionaires donate the money for the clean-up. After all they made record profits quarter after quarter under Bush/Cheney. And to all of them who rail against the "Stimulus.. How many of you who received the stimulus checks last year returned them, un cashed to the U.S.Treasury in protest ? I didn't think so. I, for one feel Texas should be allowed to secede from the Union and return to The Republic of Texas.. See how long it would survive, It would be a Republic with an average IQ of about 67.. And that's probably generous. Now all you idiots can vote thumbs down to someone who told the truth..
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3-15-2010 @8:33PM HENRI' FRAUD said... CORRECT,MOSTLY MINORITIES,WHICH IS NOW A MISNOMER 2010 HAS BEEN THE FIRST TIME IN US HISTORY THAT NON WHITE BIRTHS WERE THE MAJORITY.ALSO NON WHITES ARE THE MAJORITY UNDER AGE 18 GOOD LUCK YOU YOUNG WHITE KIDS I HOPE THE BLACKS LIKE YOU THE WAY YOU HAVE BEEN BRAINWASHED INTO EMULATING THEM
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3-15-2010 @9:30PM Dana said... Hey, I eat Mac & Cheese every night before I go to bed. I also eat McDonalds and what ever I want. I am a skinny 98 lbs. I guess I am lucky:-) I am also 60 years old:-)
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3-16-2010 @4:38PM al said... Henri: You're makung the same mistake I've seen in here quite a bit lately-- "African Americans" are black people, and they are NOT increasing in numbers compared to Caucasions". Latinos, far east Asians and middle easterners are increasing big time but let me ask you this: SO WHAT? Ever stand in line with some guy with a nice tan and find out he's hispanic? Does that mean your blue-eyed blonde-haired daughter couldn't bring him home to meet you? Of course the country was settled by mostly white people that were mostly Christians, but the world changes and last I looked the US was part of it. Stop thinking we "white" people are superior, because it just shows ignorance.
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3-17-2010 @9:21AM newsy1 said... I applaud the doctors but bureaucrats will also side with big business, I believe it is the greed. Sad but true. http://newsy1.wordpress.com
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4-02-2010 @8:36AM Greg said... I just think it's funny how there are 5 entire pages of comments attacking the government and doctors and mac and cheese and moms and minorities and just about any other group you can think of over food choices and regulation, and yet not a single person has felt the need to point out that Kraft's promotion is essentially advocating the use of dangerous explosive devices to level large infrastructures to young children. I mean, I know everybody's all up in arms about the whole "[obesity/free choice/ the-suppression-thereof] issue and [the government's/current trends'/bad parents'/corrupt doctors'] role in it," but I don't think we really have to worry about any of that if we've got a bunch of pyromaniacal tweens running around blowing things up all the time.
Just sayin'
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