Conservatives and the Atkins Diet

Articles

Scott Jones

Conservatives and the Atkins Diet
June 4, 2003

Ok, I give up. What is going on with Conservatives and the Atkins diet? Recently I have had the pleasure of encountering several of my more conservative friends extolling the virtues of the High Protein/low carbohydrate Atkins Diet plan.

“Oh we can eat lots of red meat, no carbs, absolutely no carbs and of course we can only drink tonic water, no booze…well, we can have a little gin, a capful or so, but that’s all”

I have noticed that as the evening progresses, there seem to be more and more capfuls added to the tonic water, but that is another thing altogether.

Certainly, all of the people that I have mentioned, could stand to lose a few pounds and I applaud them for taking the step of finding a diet that will help them reduce their weight, but why do they all choose the Atkins Diet is what I wonder? Is there something inherently conservative in the diet that appeals to these people over the other low fat diet plans that exist?

On the surface, I could see how a diet that actually encourages the consumption of good quality red meat, would be appealing to these people who are used to shopping in the higher end of the meat department. You see, in my circles, those who have embraced the Conservative ideology tend to also be those who rarely worry about paying the PG&E bill on time. Seems a picture is emerging here.

One group that has a historical problem of consuming too much of the finer foods and indulging their appetites without concern is given the directive to continue eating those finer things, but cut out a few of those extemporaneous indulgences like bread and potatoes so that you can live longer and thus continue to enjoy the fruits (OK, Fruits are not really allowed on Atkins…but you get the idea) of your success for a longer amount of time. Now isn’t there a tax cut that kind of works that way?

Oh you know the one where everybody supposedly gets less money yanked from their paycheck every month, but curiously, those who have the largest paychecks get a smaller percentage yanked? Now I have heard the complaints coming from those desperate individuals who have to suffer under pulling in those large paychecks that they already are paying a disproportionately high percentage of the taxes already, and that the tax relief is only fair. My god, haven’t they suffered enough? (Think about those baleful little capfuls of gin they are allowed to drink)

And, of course, when you look at the numbers, someone earning $500,000 or more a year ends up paying upwards of $100,000 a year in taxes, it does appear to be truly staggering and impressive. Impressive, that is, until you realize that $100,000 a year is roughly three times the national average salary for a family of three, and that even after the taxes are taken out, Mr. and Mrs 500k still take home 12 times that nice average family of three.

Meanwhile, our average family is rarely shopping in the Sirloin end of the meat counter. More likely they are stretching the Hamburger Helper just as far as they can because there is still a week to go until payday and well, the current paycheck has run out.

That’s not to say that obesity doesn’t effect the poor, nor does it say that paying $100,000 a year to the government doesn’t sting a lot, but what my Atkins friends don’t quite seem to grasp is that I can’t really muster up a lot of sympathy for someone claiming to be suffering under a diet that relegates them to eating fine cuts of meat, while I continue to struggle to stretch every last ounce of scrawny chicken that I can.

Fortunately, a lot of these friends have purchased huge SUV’s to cart around their over- fed behinds while they scurry off to the store so that they can purchase even more copious amounts of fine meat and Atkins Quick QuisineTM Deluxe Fudge Brownie Mix . So there really does seem to be a whole lifestyle matrix thing going on here, what with the initial enthusiastic indulgence and conspicuous consumption, and then the equally ardent adoption of a diet plan that encourages this indulgence while at the same time promising weight loss. (The SUV’s however, which are still HUGE. Again, haven’t these people suffered enough?)

The Atkins philosophy does seem to correlate nicely with the current administration’s attitude toward fiscal spending, namely, let us continue to indulge ourselves on copious amounts of high protein defense spending while cutting out such empty calorie laden faire such as Education, Elder Care and Social Services.

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Email Scott Jones: scott.jones@medem.com

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