Rudy Ruiz Wants To Put An End To Obesity, Little Fatinos
5 October 2009, 4:26 PM. By Alex Alvarez
Rudy Ruiz, a Brownsville, Texas native with a lustrous and enviable head of hair, is the founder of Red, Brown and Blue, a self-described ”online multicultural sociopolitical commentary and news site.” Among the many issues with which Ruiz is concerned is combatting obesity in America, particularly in children. And we know this issue is particularly relevant to Latino children because every month there’s an article about how fat and cancer-ridden and pregnant and bad at test-taking our children are.
Like any doting dad, he uses a recent trip to the cinema with his family - to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (aw!) - to let us know how much healthier his babies are than all those other mocosos in the theater:
Experts at Johns Hopkins call the trend “a public health crisis,” projecting that by 2015, 75 percent of Americans will be overweight or obese. Shockingly, the Center for Children’s Health Innovation reports that by the time kids enter kindergarten, over 26 percent are already overweight or obese.
As I surveyed the theater, those stats ceased to surprise. While my children drank water and nibbled on a negotiated ration of candy, their peers lurked beyond enormous buckets of popcorn and towering cups of soda balanced precariously on their laps.
Ruiz believes the key to implementing healthier eating habits in young children lies not only in making healthy foods cheaper and more accessible, but in making unhealthy food more expensive and difficult to obtain. Here are some of his ideas:
- Shift government subventions from corn production to the cultivation and distribution of fruits and vegetables and to organic farming. [Ed. note: We don't think this is likely to happen any time soon. Everything is made from corn. Jesus, we're probably like 87% corn ourselves at this point. Rent King Corn for more on this, if you're at all interested.]
- Place taxes on fast food, soft drinks and packaged, processed foods.
- Regulate entertainment marketed to young people so that, as Ruiz notes, movies about proper nutrition and healthy food habits, like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, won’t have promotional tie-ins with the likes of Burger King.
We’re not sure how well his ideas will eventually pan out and, on the surface, we wonder whether poorer families will end up losing out because they’ll have less variety of foods, fast food and processed or otherwise, that they can afford. That was the core of the issue we had with Peta’s campaign to promote a vegetarian diet to incoming Mexican immigrants - it smacked not only of xenophobia, but also of classism and a lack of understanding how difficult it is to afford fresh produce or foods that haven’t been processed and refined. We’re not accusing Ruiz of either of these - we think he’s absolutely both pro-Latino and a great thinker. Just so there’s no confusion. Economic differences are simply always the elephant in the room when talk turns to the price and availability of different foods.
Plus… We like to eat fast food. And we’d like not being penalized for the times we choose to consume soda or fast food in moderation. Sometimes it’s more convenient, sometimes it’s closer, sometimes we’re just in the mood for it.
We’re not sure what the answer to combatting obesity in America, particularly among Latinos, is - Ruiz may very well be right on the money. And that’s just it: It comes to an issue of what’s profitable, both for the government, big businesses, farmers, fast food chains and, lastly, the consumer. It’s a matter of who is willing to cut back or spend more, and where.
What do you think of Ruiz’s proposed ideas?
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His ideas are good, but I don’t see how they can come to fruition. Thanks for putting this issue in the spotlight, though.
gavin newsom is talking about charging a tax on soda here in san francisco. i think it’s a great idea. soda is not necessarily a tax on the poor since many places & people of all economic levels do enjoy soda. however, i do understand that taxing something that doesn’t affect just the poor doesn’t mean that it’ll be all organic juices as a replacement for that particular population.
i have yet to see food, inc., but from talking about it with one of my friends, it does seem to address and show the food industry as the behemoth monster it is. because really…it is completely mind-blowingly counterintuitive for produce items to be more expensive than items (food-like substances) that has been processed.
if we tax cigarettes & alcohol because they are/may be harmful to us, and we know that fast food, soda, whatever are also harmful to us, it does stand as logical as it being possible to tax those things as well. it doesn’t seem possible only because the food industry hasn’t been “attacked” as the cigarette companies have. welcome to the new corporate beat down. at least i hope.
We tax alcohol? Where and since when?
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/245.html
Funny thing is that these ideas have floated on multiple arenas without much success — politicians and school boards make unsuccessful attempts at regulating lunch meals and vending machines at schools while continuing to cut physical ed. classes for more time to prep students for standardized tests… and we in the medical field continue to see overweight/obese patients who face a significantly increased risk throughout their medical care… if only celebrities would pay more attention to this than to issues like “vaccines cause autism” then perhaps more progress would be made.
on a lighter note, I can’t wait to see that movie…
i loved that book as a kid as it was so whismical and totally got my imagination spinning for me to perhaps say the rather nonsensical stuff i’ve been known to spew forth in my private life, BUT as my generation has become fatties and bred fattier fatties, maybe it was rather a timely comment on our current gross over-consumption (mainly food & material items).
let’s take jonathan swift’s advice and eat all the fat kids. they probably taste better.
You are so right. he dose have great hair. Having been raised on a steady diet of frijoles and carnitas, I can see some of his points. I remember when there was only one fat kid in school, and he was ridiculed endlessly. Now that is the norm, big fat lazy kids and it’s getting worse. Mom’s cut back on the carnitas and mix in some veggies and fruit, you will only be helping your kids
A couple of years ago I decided to go on diet. I cut out all meats and processed foods! I ate vegetables and a lot of fruit. I continued to drink my sweet tea and I also ate sweets whenever I wanted to. I lost 18 pounds within 2 months, and my goal was 20. Unfortunately, the fresh fruit and vegetables were so expensive that I realized I could not continue with this diet. I had lost my job and was on a very tight budget. Therefore, I had to start eating the cheaper processed food and meat. I gained the weight back. I am now 15 pounds overweight. I love fruit and veggies and would eat them all the time if I could afford them, but this is just not possible right now. My point is… that meat (full of hormones that is fed and injected into animals) and other processed food is bad for humans, but people who are on a strict budget simply cannot afford to buy healthy food. If taxes are placed on unhealthy foods it should included not only sodas and sweets, but also meats and any other processed foods. Then what will happen to the poor? They will starve! Instead of ridiculing everyone for eating unhealthy, something should be done to make healthy foods more affordable to the low income and middle class people. As far as insurance companies go and what obesity cost them…. I do not care. Insurance companies are extremely profitable, so I do not feel sorry for them at all…. They make more money than they should. If you don’t believe this… do your research.