McD'oh

No, I'm not a vegetarian, nor anti-business, nor even anti-McDonald's, at least not in principle. But I find it sadly ironic that shortly after all the recent studies confirming frequent red-meat-eaters are "30 to 40 percent more likely" to develop colorectal cancer, McDonald's most recent CEO Charlie Bell died yesterday -- at age 44 -- of colorectal cancer.

Though today's news stories and obituaries are careful to avoid mentioning any possible connection, most describe Bell as "a charismatic leader who said he ate a McDonald's product most days." And, lest we forget, Bell had worked for McDonalds for nearly 30 years, which I thought must be a typo given his young age but, nope: he started as a young teenager and worked his way up. McDonald's is quite literally the only company he's ever worked for. I wonder how many Big Macs that equals.

Bell replaced Jim Cantalupo as President, who died of a heart attack last April at age 60 (heart attacks, of course, being another famous side effect of increased red meat consumption.)

Jim Skinner, who took over this past November as Bell's health started to fail, has also worked at McDonald's for 33 years. If I were him, I'd start eating at Subway.

I don't mean to be callous or crass or unsympathetic. A young man who everyone liked has passed away, and I'm of course sad for his family and friends. But even though I'm generally wary of additional government regulations telling people what they can and can't put into their bodies, it does seem pretty ridiculous to tax and regulate cigarettes and alcohol while leaving processed foods cheap, unregulated and wildly accessible to everyone with 99 cents in their pocket. Hell, I'm not a supporter of pot, but I'm quite certain that marijuana is far less harmful to the body (at least from a raw health perspective) than these fatty, processed foods, and is still illegal on health grounds.

Then again, I suppose marijuana use leads to an increase in desiring those fatty, processed foods, so maybe it's a wash.

Couldn't we add a tax to any food with a certain percentage of saturated fat or caloric count, and use that money for a national health fund to combat obesity? The taxes would encourage fast food empires to come up with healthier alternatives (in order to win the pricing wars) and discourage people from eating 2-3 servings of processed meats every day (if chicken was cheaper, for example). Yes, I know this has been suggested for years, and is generally rejected by those of us with Republican leanings. But it seems to me the pro-taxers are right on this one -- everyone benefits, including the consumer. Not to mention the spectacular impact it could make on our rising and future health care crisis.

I am reminded of a portion from one of my favorite articles of all time, Dinesh D'Souza's Ten Great Things About America:

[An] acquaintance of mine from Bombay [has] been unsuccessfully trying to move to the United States. I asked him, "Why are you so eager to come to America?" He replied, "I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat."

The reason a disproportionate number of our nation's obese are poor and lower-middle-class is because high-fat fast foods are mass-produced and cheaper than low-fat foods. But it's not like a tax on high-fat foods are going to eliminate the value meals and cheap items -- they'll just become different items, by definition healthier ones that wouldn't have to be taxed. I'm not quibbling with D'Souza's point, for of course what he's really saying is that even our poor are "well fed". Wouldn't it be ever more impressive, then, if we worked a little harder to be well fed and healthy.