Who Doesn't Want Advice? (Good Grief)
September 10, 2006
The Slenderized Governor, With Advice to Share
By SHAILA DEWAN
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Sept. 8 — Mike Huckabee has been the governor of Arkansas for a decade, but he is most famous for what he has done in the last three years: lose more than 100 pounds and encourage other Arkansans to follow his example.
As he contemplates a bid for the Republican nomination for president in 2008, the slenderized governor has inspired a host of imitators, including Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia, who shed 33 pounds, and Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, who promised in June to go on a diet. These and other Southern politicians say they are trying to set an example for their constituents, who exhibit the highest rates of obesity in the country.
But for those who would join the health crusade, Mr. Huckabee’s tale includes a cautionary thread. In the South, the fight against obesity is essentially a culture war. And while the campaign may have raised Mr. Huckabee’s national profile, not everyone here appreciates a governor whose policies include weighing schoolchildren and sending home report cards on their body mass index.
Mr. Huckabee, a teetotaler who now rises before dawn to jog five miles, has been accused of nagging the populace, banning birthday cakes in schools (not true, he says) and trampling the personal freedoms of smokers with an indoor smoking ban. While he says he uses the carrot, not the stick, to encourage better health, his virtue alone has a way of making people like Pearletha David, the owner of David Family Kitchen, a soul food restaurant here, feel henpecked. “I think it’s fine for him,” Ms. David said, putting her hands on her hips. “But he ain’t got to make the whole state lose weight.”
After the governor’s nutritional guidelines for school lunches took effect, one girl wrote a letter to him demanding “real food” like nachos and pizza. A columnist for The Baxter Bulletin imagined a future of diners picking at their “sautéed soybeans with flavor-free dressing” and discussing the criminalization of cheese curls.
Despite the efforts, the state’s obesity rate among adults has actually increased since last year, according to the Trust for America’s Health.
Mr. Huckabee counters that changing dietary habits is a long-term, generational project, and says that in three years of recording children’s body mass index and reporting it to parents, the number of children at risk of obesity has decreased — by half of 1 percent.
Mr. Huckabee knows what he is up against, namely all-you-can-eat buffets, cheese grits and a local ice cream flavor called Woo Pig Chewy. One of his own family dogs is named Sonic, after the fast-food chain whose cherry limeades are favored by his wife, Janet.
“It’s not just your culture,” he said, speaking in his office in the Capitol building. “It’s your comfort.”
Read it all here.
Miss Pearletha is right. Keep it to yourself, Governor. Would someone please pass the Woo Pig Chewy? - DOB
The Slenderized Governor, With Advice to Share
By SHAILA DEWAN
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Sept. 8 — Mike Huckabee has been the governor of Arkansas for a decade, but he is most famous for what he has done in the last three years: lose more than 100 pounds and encourage other Arkansans to follow his example.
As he contemplates a bid for the Republican nomination for president in 2008, the slenderized governor has inspired a host of imitators, including Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia, who shed 33 pounds, and Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, who promised in June to go on a diet. These and other Southern politicians say they are trying to set an example for their constituents, who exhibit the highest rates of obesity in the country.
But for those who would join the health crusade, Mr. Huckabee’s tale includes a cautionary thread. In the South, the fight against obesity is essentially a culture war. And while the campaign may have raised Mr. Huckabee’s national profile, not everyone here appreciates a governor whose policies include weighing schoolchildren and sending home report cards on their body mass index.Mr. Huckabee, a teetotaler who now rises before dawn to jog five miles, has been accused of nagging the populace, banning birthday cakes in schools (not true, he says) and trampling the personal freedoms of smokers with an indoor smoking ban. While he says he uses the carrot, not the stick, to encourage better health, his virtue alone has a way of making people like Pearletha David, the owner of David Family Kitchen, a soul food restaurant here, feel henpecked. “I think it’s fine for him,” Ms. David said, putting her hands on her hips. “But he ain’t got to make the whole state lose weight.”
After the governor’s nutritional guidelines for school lunches took effect, one girl wrote a letter to him demanding “real food” like nachos and pizza. A columnist for The Baxter Bulletin imagined a future of diners picking at their “sautéed soybeans with flavor-free dressing” and discussing the criminalization of cheese curls.
Despite the efforts, the state’s obesity rate among adults has actually increased since last year, according to the Trust for America’s Health.
Mr. Huckabee counters that changing dietary habits is a long-term, generational project, and says that in three years of recording children’s body mass index and reporting it to parents, the number of children at risk of obesity has decreased — by half of 1 percent.
Mr. Huckabee knows what he is up against, namely all-you-can-eat buffets, cheese grits and a local ice cream flavor called Woo Pig Chewy. One of his own family dogs is named Sonic, after the fast-food chain whose cherry limeades are favored by his wife, Janet.
“It’s not just your culture,” he said, speaking in his office in the Capitol building. “It’s your comfort.”
Read it all here.
Miss Pearletha is right. Keep it to yourself, Governor. Would someone please pass the Woo Pig Chewy? - DOB
posted by David Browder at 9/09/2006 09:17:00 PM
5 Comments:
One of the few peccadilloes of the beloved PZ when he was here was his ability to make sure his spasmodic weight losses were noticed. Might Ms. David have said, “But he ain’t got to make the whole cathedral lose weight”?
Also, did I show you my “I beat anorexia” T-shirt when you were here? They are now pretty common, but for a while I wore it everywhere it might do some good. The chicken-legged MB tennis-dress clatch would get visibly clenched jaws and beady eyes when they saw it.
I didn't mean to try to pass as anonymous in the comment above, cause the Lord's done writ my name in the Book of Life.
We all knew it was you, Walter!
I was thinking of you at Dreamland just two days ago! We got the sugar-free banana pudding and the fat-free ribs! :)
talitha
Sounds like a healthy meal. Up here they have fried mashed potatoes (no kidding).
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