It occurred to me today that three years ago I put together a YouTube video about label laws. Since a huge chunk of our readership came on board in the past year and probably missed it, here it is again:
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This is amusing, because the day before you posted about McDonald’s putting calorie counts on their menus, I did too – and embedded this very video. Although, I must admit I was looking to see if you’d posted the bit of Fat Head where you interviewed people about whether or not they thought a meal at McDonald’s was a low calorie meal…I thought it was very apropos.
Yeah, that would’ve worked too. I didn’t show it in Fat Head, but I asked people on the street to guess the calorie count. Most guessed too high.
I watched your movie on Hulu. The cartoon of the insulin batting back the enzymes that the muscles were sending to the fat cells changed my life. I finally GOT IT> Thank you for selling on here. I am sorry that you were cheated out of your money. I would happily buy this. Thank you so much for making it.
Sincerely,
Lynn
Thank you.
This is amusing, because the day before you posted about McDonald’s putting calorie counts on their menus, I did too – and embedded this very video. Although, I must admit I was looking to see if you’d posted the bit of Fat Head where you interviewed people about whether or not they thought a meal at McDonald’s was a low calorie meal…I thought it was very apropos.
Yeah, that would’ve worked too. I didn’t show it in Fat Head, but I asked people on the street to guess the calorie count. Most guessed too high.
I watched your movie on Hulu. The cartoon of the insulin batting back the enzymes that the muscles were sending to the fat cells changed my life. I finally GOT IT> Thank you for selling on here. I am sorry that you were cheated out of your money. I would happily buy this. Thank you so much for making it.
Sincerely,
Lynn
Thank you.
Seems to me that the biggest problem with the labelling idea is that most people have no idea what is healthy and what is unhealthy. It’s as if that pack of cigarettes had a big label on it saying “This will make you healthy and prolong your life (US Government Information)”.
In the interview Dr Oliver said something along the lines of, “Most people know what’s good for them to eat”. Well, maybe they did back before the government started its nutritional health campaigns! But now most people have it exactly backwards. (By the way, I should think fried chicken and cheeseburger is pretty healthy as long as you leave the bun and scrape off the sugar-laden sauce).
“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy”.
H. L. Mencken
I agree that people are confused about what’s good for them. However, people recognize sugary foods, starchy foods, fatty foods, etc., so whatever they’re trying to avoid (if they’re avoiding anything), they don’t need calorie count menu boards to help them do it.
Oh BRAVO! I’d never seen that. I assume it was cut from Fat Head (the best movie EVER!) for time and plot?
Yes, I constructed it mostly from footage I shot but didn’t use in Fat Head.
Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! I’m going into the kitchen to have a pork chop for breakfast and I’m going to put a dollop of garlic/basil butter on it. I’ve been educated up to my eyeballs by the experts in my government about how I’m killing myself, Tom. But somehow I feel so free now that I just can’t help myself.
Thanks for the reminder!
My pleasure.
Great video!
My wife saw an article about NY banning the large sodas, and said. “So if you go to a movie, you can’t get an extra large drink. But, you could get 5 boxes of the theater size candy and the tub-o popcorn with free refills with extra “butter” on it? What in the he11 are they thinking? What is the difference?”
People will just order an extra drink. These attempts to legislate people into behaving as the government believes they should rarely work.
Seems to me that the biggest problem with the labelling idea is that most people have no idea what is healthy and what is unhealthy. It’s as if that pack of cigarettes had a big label on it saying “This will make you healthy and prolong your life (US Government Information)”.
In the interview Dr Oliver said something along the lines of, “Most people know what’s good for them to eat”. Well, maybe they did back before the government started its nutritional health campaigns! But now most people have it exactly backwards. (By the way, I should think fried chicken and cheeseburger is pretty healthy as long as you leave the bun and scrape off the sugar-laden sauce).
“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy”.
H. L. Mencken
I agree that people are confused about what’s good for them. However, people recognize sugary foods, starchy foods, fatty foods, etc., so whatever they’re trying to avoid (if they’re avoiding anything), they don’t need calorie count menu boards to help them do it.
I mostly agree… however how do you feel about labeling GMO products?
I’m not in favor of mandatory labeling.
Oh BRAVO! I’d never seen that. I assume it was cut from Fat Head (the best movie EVER!) for time and plot?
Yes, I constructed it mostly from footage I shot but didn’t use in Fat Head.
Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! I’m going into the kitchen to have a pork chop for breakfast and I’m going to put a dollop of garlic/basil butter on it. I’ve been educated up to my eyeballs by the experts in my government about how I’m killing myself, Tom. But somehow I feel so free now that I just can’t help myself.
Thanks for the reminder!
My pleasure.
Great video!
My wife saw an article about NY banning the large sodas, and said. “So if you go to a movie, you can’t get an extra large drink. But, you could get 5 boxes of the theater size candy and the tub-o popcorn with free refills with extra “butter” on it? What in the he11 are they thinking? What is the difference?”
People will just order an extra drink. These attempts to legislate people into behaving as the government believes they should rarely work.
The first time I saw your Spurlock impression I just about fell out of my chair, I was laughing so hard.
And then I promptly forgot where I had seen it. Thanks for reposting.
It’s time, though, for you to reprise your role. It deserves a little more air time.
On an entirely different note, one of my favorite books as a kid, Jurassic Park, has as a theme the idea that nature always finds a way to get around human intervention. It would seem that humans also will always find a way to get around government intervention. It’s sad to see our nation heading toward nutritional gulags, though, as overzealous lawmakers and lobbyists clamp down ever harder on what should be left to the forces of nature. (Of course this includes ditching certain farm policies that encourage the overproduction of corn and the flooding of foods with copious quantities of cheap “corn sugar”.)
Absolutely. Don’t forbid it, but don’t subsidize it either. As it is, we’re paying in both directions. Government taxes us to subsidize foods that contribute to obesity, then taxes us again to pay the salaries of government officials who are (supposedly) fighting obesity.
I mostly agree… however how do you feel about labeling GMO products?
I’m not in favor of mandatory labeling.
Funny how these “health” agencies look down on people. People are smarter than they like to give them credit for. They know they cannot force people to not eat certain kinds of foods, so they label. Too bad labeling does not produce any measurable effect whatsoever. I wonder how much it costs to insert those labels, hmm…
Jacob Sullum hit the nail on the head in the video I posted. The nanny-staters operate on the belief that people are stupid and need their help, whether they want that help or not.
The first time I saw your Spurlock impression I just about fell out of my chair, I was laughing so hard.
And then I promptly forgot where I had seen it. Thanks for reposting.
It’s time, though, for you to reprise your role. It deserves a little more air time.
On an entirely different note, one of my favorite books as a kid, Jurassic Park, has as a theme the idea that nature always finds a way to get around human intervention. It would seem that humans also will always find a way to get around government intervention. It’s sad to see our nation heading toward nutritional gulags, though, as overzealous lawmakers and lobbyists clamp down ever harder on what should be left to the forces of nature. (Of course this includes ditching certain farm policies that encourage the overproduction of corn and the flooding of foods with copious quantities of cheap “corn sugar”.)
Absolutely. Don’t forbid it, but don’t subsidize it either. As it is, we’re paying in both directions. Government taxes us to subsidize foods that contribute to obesity, then taxes us again to pay the salaries of government officials who are (supposedly) fighting obesity.
Funny how these “health” agencies look down on people. People are smarter than they like to give them credit for. They know they cannot force people to not eat certain kinds of foods, so they label. Too bad labeling does not produce any measurable effect whatsoever. I wonder how much it costs to insert those labels, hmm…
Jacob Sullum hit the nail on the head in the video I posted. The nanny-staters operate on the belief that people are stupid and need their help, whether they want that help or not.
Weird as it may sound, I find myself fascinated by the likes of CSPI, Meme Roth, and all the other passionate, self-appointed food police, both private and governmental. I’m tempted to denounce them with extreme vitriol as being evil. But it seems to me they really do care about making a difference and helping others. Unfortunately, good intentions really don’t matter. When you force bad advice on people with good intentions, guess what, you’re still forcing bad advice. And even if the advice was good, what right does anyone have to interfere with someone else’s personal choices, if those choices have not legitimately caused harm to others (with the obvious exception of a parent/guardian raising a child)? Jacob Sullum’s description of the nanny mentality was brilliant…their reaction to being called out for depriving others of freedom of choice is “Well, those people don’t REALLY understand what’s good for them” and thus the implication is that the end justifies the means. Gradually but positively, this is how ordinary societies turn into police states. Do any of us really think that pre-Nazi Germany was any different?
Sure, the nanny-statists always think they’re taking away our freedoms for our own good. That’s why Sullum titled one of his books “For Your Own Good.”
Weird as it may sound, I find myself fascinated by the likes of CSPI, Meme Roth, and all the other passionate, self-appointed food police, both private and governmental. I’m tempted to denounce them with extreme vitriol as being evil. But it seems to me they really do care about making a difference and helping others. Unfortunately, good intentions really don’t matter. When you force bad advice on people with good intentions, guess what, you’re still forcing bad advice. And even if the advice was good, what right does anyone have to interfere with someone else’s personal choices, if those choices have not legitimately caused harm to others (with the obvious exception of a parent/guardian raising a child)? Jacob Sullum’s description of the nanny mentality was brilliant…their reaction to being called out for depriving others of freedom of choice is “Well, those people don’t REALLY understand what’s good for them” and thus the implication is that the end justifies the means. Gradually but positively, this is how ordinary societies turn into police states. Do any of us really think that pre-Nazi Germany was any different?
Sure, the nanny-statists always think they’re taking away our freedoms for our own good. That’s why Sullum titled one of his books “For Your Own Good.”
What I find odd in discussions like this, is that one side says “this is what the other side says”. Since you produced a video, couldn’t you find some audio/video that you could use of them saying it? or are they careful not to say it in public? Or are you not allowed to use the audio/video due to copyright laws?
I think its a lot more effective to hear it come from the other side.
It’s expensive to buy news footage — trust me, I know. So unless I’m making a film I intend to sell, I rely on news accounts or press releases.
While I liked your poke at Kelly Brownell, in part because I had the same initial reaction (why would you listen to a guy that looked like him), I am reminded of a YouTube video (sorry, no link) where the high-carb and vegans were all skinny, while the low-carb were more plump. After watching the video, I decided to keep with my low-carb opinion and reject the video’s supposition that a person’s size was a good indicator of the healthiness of their diet.
So, were you just having some unscientific fun with Kelly? 😉
I think I saw the video you mentioned. Talk about cherry-picking. I noticed the creator of that video didn’t bother to include Robb Wolf, Mark Sisson, Jeff Volek, etc., as examples of low-carbers, or to mention that the low-carbers shown were people who are still overweight, yes, but have in many cases lost 100 pounds or more.
The reason I picked on Kelly Brownell is that he supports calorie-count laws as a supposed cure for obesity. But this is one of the most informed people on the planet about the calories in food, and yet he went from being normal weight earlier in his career to being obese now in spite of that knowledge. It’s highly illogical of him to suggest that other people will lose weight if they just know the calorie counts, even though he didn’t.
What I find odd in discussions like this, is that one side says “this is what the other side says”. Since you produced a video, couldn’t you find some audio/video that you could use of them saying it? or are they careful not to say it in public? Or are you not allowed to use the audio/video due to copyright laws?
I think its a lot more effective to hear it come from the other side.
It’s expensive to buy news footage — trust me, I know. So unless I’m making a film I intend to sell, I rely on news accounts or press releases.
While I liked your poke at Kelly Brownell, in part because I had the same initial reaction (why would you listen to a guy that looked like him), I am reminded of a YouTube video (sorry, no link) where the high-carb and vegans were all skinny, while the low-carb were more plump. After watching the video, I decided to keep with my low-carb opinion and reject the video’s supposition that a person’s size was a good indicator of the healthiness of their diet.
So, were you just having some unscientific fun with Kelly? 😉
I think I saw the video you mentioned. Talk about cherry-picking. I noticed the creator of that video didn’t bother to include Robb Wolf, Mark Sisson, Jeff Volek, etc., as examples of low-carbers, or to mention that the low-carbers shown were people who are still overweight, yes, but have in many cases lost 100 pounds or more.
The reason I picked on Kelly Brownell is that he supports calorie-count laws as a supposed cure for obesity. But this is one of the most informed people on the planet about the calories in food, and yet he went from being normal weight earlier in his career to being obese now in spite of that knowledge. It’s highly illogical of him to suggest that other people will lose weight if they just know the calorie counts, even though he didn’t.
Yeah, the video was extreme cherry-picking. Thanks for providing more background on Kelly.
Wrt labeling, do you think that when Trans Fat labeling becoming mandatory, this action led to food industry removing much of the Trans Fat from its food (once the conventional wisdom switched to being anti-trans fat)?
If California passes Prop 37 (GMO labeling), it seems like there may be a pretty big impact. What do you think about GMO labeling?
I think public awareness of trans fats is what made the difference. I’m not in favor of governments mandating GMO labeling.
Yeah, the video was extreme cherry-picking. Thanks for providing more background on Kelly.
Wrt labeling, do you think that when Trans Fat labeling becoming mandatory, this action led to food industry removing much of the Trans Fat from its food (once the conventional wisdom switched to being anti-trans fat)?
If California passes Prop 37 (GMO labeling), it seems like there may be a pretty big impact. What do you think about GMO labeling?
I think public awareness of trans fats is what made the difference. I’m not in favor of governments mandating GMO labeling.