Healthy eating – not just going on a diet, or seeking the newest weight loss trend, but actually remaking one's diet so that it's more plant and whole grain-centred – shows every sign of a reputation shift, away from being associated with dirty hippies and towards being mainstream, sexy even. "Less meat, more vegetables" is a mantra spreading across the country, much to the delight of vegetarians who want to see more than one option for them on any given menu.
The New York Times food writer Mark Bittman promotes a "vegan until 6" plan, and Treehugger.com founder Graham Hill promotes a "weekday vegetarian" plan to accomplish the same goal. TV chef and restaurateur Mario Batali is getting in on it, introducing Meatless Mondays to his 14 restaurants. Even Sesame Street's Elmo has joined the crusade to reduce meat consumption by helping promote vegetarian meals as part of the Michelle Obama's initiative to promote better health and nutrition for children. Vegetables are the new meat, a trend that should be good by any rational measure: better for the environment, better for health, better for reducing long-term costs.
Of course, from the non-rational, rightwing, culture warrior perspective, the trend is just a cavalcade of hot buttons: environmentalism, healthcare, the Obamas. With that many signposts of hate, it's no surprise that there's been a kneejerk resentment response. But this is one case where the automatic response of culture warriors is likely to backfire, because almost no one wants to hear a rigorous defence of eating poorly in a nation that's obsessed with their own failings in the eating better department.
Sarah Palin, as is her habit, broke out from the pack in the race to see who could demonstrate the most indignation at the suggestion that it might not be such a bad thing for Americans to eat better, pretending that Michelle Obama is somehow out to destroy the concept of dessert. Palin also did the talkshow circuit, likening the existence of support for healthy eating and exercise to a tyrannical show of force. Of course, Palin clearly thinks that she's too good for the poor diet and lack of exercise she's equating with "liberty" for everyone else, but drifting past such contradictions is just the entrance requirement for a good culture warrior.
Palin is far from the only conservative who can't resist the healthy eating bait. Dahlia Lithwick at Slate recorded conservatives from Ken Cuccinelli to George Will gravely insisting that government mandates to eat your vegetables will be upon us any day now, even though everyone knows that getting your fibre is a fate worse than death. Rush Limbaugh claimed efforts to improve the quality of food served in school somehow amounted to controlling the food served at home. The fantasy that a slippery slope to tyranny starts with a voluntary vegetarian lunch serves another purpose besides just raising the paranoia levels. After all, the beef industry isn't too happy with this new trend towards healthier eating.
This may be a case of culture warrior overreach, however. As the Washington Post reported, many conservative Republicans – including Mike Huckabee, Haley Barbour and Rick Santorum – have defended Michelle Obama and her attempts to improve childhood nutrition and prevent obesity. These politicians have the ability to step back for a minute and realise that there really are issues, few as they may be, that cannot be shoved into neat partisan categories ripe for culture-war skirmishing. And one of those issues is the expanding waistlines of Americans, and the subsequent health outcomes from diabetes and heart disease.
Few things unite the country like our collective interest in learning to eat better – and chastising ourselves for failing. Republicans and Democrats may watch different TV shows, but during the commercials, you get the exact same ads hawking diet products. We may drive different cars, but we all make New Year's resolutions to exercise more. We may buy different political magazines, but we have to reach past the same ten tabloids with diet tips on the front to do it. The only thing that unites Americans as much as concerns about diet might be our collective sense there's something off about John Mayer.
Regardless of your political affiliation, no one likes having a thin running fanatic like Sarah Palin glibly tell you to sit on your butt stuffing your face with calorie-heavy, nutrition-light products in order to irritate the First Lady. Most people will realise that the result of such a habit will likely not be that Michelle Obama gets upset, but that they will – when their jeans won't zip up. It's true that rightwingers do like their jokes about "rabbit food", but beyond that, most people just won't be able to work up the enthusiasm for a "eat worse to irritate liberals" campaign. They're just too busy beating themselves up for eating that slice of chocolate cake, after they swore to themselves they wouldn't.
