Cafferty doesn't like fact that surgeon general pick is paid adviser to Burger King

[gauguin57]

Cafferty: Surgeon general pick a paid adviser to Burger King
Posted: August 13th, 2009 05:00 PM ET

From CNN's Jack Cafferty


President Obama has nominated a paid consultant for Burger King to be the nation's top doctor.
In the midst of perhaps the most contentious national debate since the Vietnam War, President Obama has nominated a paid consultant for Burger King to be the nation's top doctor.

Can you spell tone-deaf?

Dr. Regina Benjamin has been paid 10-thousand dollars since last year to serve on a scientific advisory board for the company that brings us the Whopper and the B-K Triple Stacker. According to the Washington Times, Burger King says the doctor was on the company's nutritional advisory panel… which is meant to "promote balanced diets and active lifestyle choices."

The Department of Health and Human Services says Benjamin was advocating for food that was lower in salt and recommending that nutritional information appear on packaging. They add that she will resign from Burger King once she's confirmed by the Senate as surgeon general and will "continue to promote healthy eating and exercise." You want fries with that?

But, many aren't buying it and see a conflict of interest. After all, Burger King is still a fast food joint. And, in a nation where one-third of adults are obese, fast food restaurants aren't helping any.
......

[customerserviceguy]

1. Well, there are two possibilities now, aren't there?

Possibility number one is that fast food places actually hire qualified nutrition experts to give them suggestions on what to do, and possibility number two is that they totally ignore nutrition experts, calling them "food Nazis" in the process.

Either way, the fast food businesses keep marching on. Which choice is the better one?

[depakid]

2. If that's true- no one else should like it, either

In fact- if that's true, then she shouldn't be confirmed.

I'll wait to hear the facts from a credible source, though.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

6. So forget all of her humanitarian work since she once urged Burger King to lower their salt content?

That hardly seems fair.

[Uzybone]

7. very dumb post

she advises them on what they need to do to make their crap healthier. For that she shouldn't be confirmed? Geez.

[depakid]

9. If she's involved in pushing junk food- then she shouldn't be confirmed

Actually, she should withdraw her name from consideration.

That said, we haven't seen the facts from a credible source- so this is hypothetical.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. Pushing junk food?

What, you think she's the one in the King outfit?

[depakid]

11. Might be an interesting spin- but no

There are all too many people in the health professions who get unsavory payments from various unhealthy industries.

And sometimes- they're at the pinnacles of their professions and are opinion leaders.

See, e.g. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/health/22radio.html?ref=business

(there are many others with lower profiles who seem to find this sort of thing acceptable).

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. Are you sure you're not just upset because you work in a McDonalds?

This is the epitome of phony, non-issue media bullshit.

[Occam Bandage]

23. How does her telling BK to put less salt in their food mean she's "pushing junk food?"

Are you afraid she'll tell Americans in general to put less salt in their food?

[burning rain]

3. Eh, doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

Corporations like to associate themselves with humanitarians or progressives so as to bolster their image while leaving everything of consequence the same. Style over substance. Like McDonald's buying "Newman's Own" dressings. It's easy to get most liberal activists off your back -- just slide one some money, put one on your board -- and leave eveything else unchanged. Such are the ways of the world.

[Canuckistanian]

4. I don't see a conflict of interest here

If she quits the advisory panel and doesn't own stock in Burger King.... I don't see the problem.

Darth Cheney holding on to Halliburton stock options WAS A REAL conflict of interest and no one said boo.

Besides, she was advocating for healthier food at Burger King, wasn't she? I consider that a net benefit.

[phleshdef]

5. So she was paid by a fast food company to reign in the unhealthiness of their food and thats bad?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Jack Cafferty is paid by the same people who bring us Lou Dobbs.

Jack Cafferty can go fuck himself sideways.

[firedupdem]

14. +1 ....

All she's done and this is what they get pissed about. Fuck em all

[Honeycombe8]

12. I think she was a VERY bad choice. He really missed the mark on that one.

Something about Dem. Presidents in picking the Surgeon General. They have a hard time picking someone good.

She is morbidly obese, first off. Might as well have chosen a chain smoker. The health effects are the same. And now we find out she's an advisor to Burger King...fast food being one of the reasons we have an obesity problem in our country. Maybe she gets free BK burgers and fries? They're reallllly good, don't get me wrong. But they kill. Literally.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

13. So the example she has set via her humanitarian work is overshadowed by her weight?

She runs a non profit medical clinic, has received the Nelson Mandela Humanitarian award and named Woman of the Year by People. But she's overweight so she's ineligible? You don't know why she's overweight or what her diet is, or what she her exercise habits are...you just count her out because of how she looks because you ASSUME that she's some kind of unhealthy slob.

That's utterly ridiculous.

[Honeycombe8]

18. Not entirely. But you hire someone who has CONQUERED her addiction...

if you want a role model and aid and leader in an addiction field. Not someone who has NOT conquered her addiction yet.

I have a number of morbidly obese people in my family. I struggle with weight myself. This is something I know a little something about.

You don't get to be morbidly obese by leading a healthy lifestyle. Period. She is probably sedentary (not an exerciser) and has food addiction issues. That's not someone I would look to to lead the country to be healthier than they are now.

She's not the solution. She's part of the problem. I sympathize with her problem. But the problem exists, and that should have excluded her from that appointment. What if she were a chain smoker? Or addicted to cocaine? Would that be okay? No. It's no wonder there's an obesity problem in the country, when people keep implying that somehow obesity isn't the big problem that cocaine and smoking are.

Obesity is one of the reasons our HEALTH CARE system is overloaded. Do you know that a large % of adults in our country now have Type 2 diabetes? (If our surgeon general doesn't have diabetes...she will. She is sedentary and obese - the leading cause of Type 2 diabetes.)

This doesn't make her a bad person, or totally negate her good works. But it excludes her from being a LEADER IN THE HEALTH FIELD. Hello. Wake up, America. Morbid obesity is NOT okay. It's a serious issue, and the person who has it has a serious problem and needs help.

[SpartanDem]

17. This just stupid

this woman had dedicated her life to providing medicare care to the poor, but she since she's fat we shouldn't hire her?

[Honeycombe8]

19. She's not just fat. She's morbidly obese. This means she has food addiction issues...

and leads a sedentary lifestyle.

This doesn't make her a bad person. But it DOES exclude her from being a LEADER IN THE HEALTH FIELD FOR THE COUNTRY. Or it should have.

I would look to someone who USED TO BE MORBIDLY OBESE, but I sure wouldn't take any advice from someone who STILL has that problem.

Morbid obesity is a huge problem in the country (no pun intended), and is one of the leading causes of the health care crises we're in. A high % of adults, and a rapidly growing # of children, have Type 2 diabetes (requiring a lifetime of medication, and often leading to blindness and amputations). The leading cause of Type 2 diabetes: sedentary lifestyle and being obese.

She's not "just fat." I weight 20 lbs too much. That's fat. What our surgeon general has is a medical problem that will lead to her having diabetes, if she doesn't already have it. It's not "just fat." It's a serious issue, more serious to our country than cocaine or smoking.

Maybe the problem got so bad because people tend to wave the problem away as not being that bad. After all, so many people ARE morbidly obese, aren't they...people think. But it's not okay. And it's not just a slight weight problem. Morbid obesity is a serious medical issue caused by a person's unhealthy lifestyle and addictions.

She's not fit to be our surgeon general. She could be many other things, but not that. Our surgeon general is supposed to be a role model, among other things.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

20. Morbidly obese?

A sedentary life?

The woman's nominated for surgeon general. She's done more with her life already than you could ever hope to accomplish.

[Occam Bandage]

22. Thank you, Dr. Frist. nt

[RoadRage]

15. SO BK wants to get healthier.. and this is a bad thing?

Sorry.. I see this as a company who see's the writing on the wall - and is realizing that the way to the future is healthier choices. So, they hire someone with knowledge about that.. and ask for her advice in cleaining up the nutritional content of their menu.

I'm not a huge fan of BK, but when I do have to run through a drive-thru with the kids and there isn't a Subway nearby.. i like the hamburger, apples & milk option.

Is it perfect? No.. but it beats the jr. whopper with mayo, medium fries & 3 cokes I see some other kids scarfing down.

[Occam Bandage]

21. So BK hired her to help them offer healthier choices. Big deal.

Jack Cafferty, on the other hand, is on the same channel that gave Glenn Beck his first TV show, and still gives Birther-in-Chief Lou Dobbs a nightly podium.

[Vinca]

24. Personally, I'm more concerned our elected representatives

are in the pockets of big insurance and big pharma. Obese people might get help with their problem if they could see a doctor. (Not being Twiggy is a major reason to be cherry picked out.) It's not always stuffing your face with burgers and fries that makes you fat. Sometimes it is, of course, but the eating is one way depressed people self medicate. There's a self-loathing cycle that often starts and things go from bad to worse once the behavior turns addictive. It's a complex problem that requires medical intervention.

[Vidar]

25. Howard Dean should be Surgeon General, but Obama prefers to

fill his cabinet with corporate shills.