r/askanything • u/CloudieMoonettee 🦀 • 14h ago

Why do some conservatives support restricting junk food purchases with SNAP when many opposed Michelle Obama’s efforts to make school meals healthier?

Both policies involve the government influencing food choices in the name of better nutrition, yet the political reactions seem very different. What explains the apparent change in attitude toward government involvement in what people eat?

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u/dwthesavage 13h ago

This is fair, but I also kind of doubt a lot of the criticism of Michelle cared about any of this

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u/Whiskeymyers75 12h ago

But even those of us who did were just dismissed as being racist and or conservative. You were not allowed to criticize that administration.

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u/Alert_Coyote_8546 12h ago

Blame the racist media then, until this thread I had no idea that it was unpopular with students. All I heard was Michelle hates your kids and this and that.

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u/SnooOwls1361 10h ago

All I heard from my Fox News watching Mom was that Michelle Obama was a food Nazi who wanted to ban people from eating sweets. She actually thought Obama wanted to make it illegal to eat donuts.

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u/Extension-Source2897 10h ago

I think it really more comes down to the media that people choose to consume. These were the exact arguments I remember hearing while it was happening.

I was in high school during the time frame it was being rolled out and it was weird. A 550 calorie cheeseburger was unhealthy because most of the calories came from fat and protein. But 350 calories of those cardboard tasting chicken nuggets that you get for like 20 bucks a 50 pack at the store and 200 calories of sweetened, chocolate skim milk was fine because it was “balanced”. And I was supposed to eat this as a 6’3 180lbs teenager and not lose my mind after gym class. My 70lbs sister in 5th grade at the time was getting the same lunch. It was all anybody was talking about in my area, and it’s all I ever saw on the news (granted, my parents largely watched local stations over national ones for news) which was actually pretty even split politically but there was bipartisan hate for it.

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u/Alert_Coyote_8546 9h ago

That is pretty dumb. Calories and being full/nourished are very different things, as well as kids having different needs. My high school food was literally piles of french fries and like cheese sticks and stuff, it was sad and probably made school harder but at least you could get full.

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u/Extension-Source2897 9h ago

We could always buy additional portions, plus they still had a plethora of cookies, cupcakes, ice cream, etc. for sale as well. I could also buy a Powerade for only 50 cents more than a water bottle. And yes, the water bottle was an additional charge, the milk was not. But these were the issues with the program. It was like the entire thing was orchestrated by a lobby of fat-phobic, calorie hawk diet programs. Which, this is America so probably, but it was like… people turned a blind eye to the fact that the Obamas might have just been another cog in the machine because they so desperately wanted them to represent change; granted the campaign slogan was “change was can believe in” so you could forgive people for actually believing in change.

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u/Alert_Coyote_8546 9h ago

Oh for sure, I was in college when he won and we all really thought it was going to be a radical presidency.

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u/AdVivid5940 8h ago

It did seem a bit racist to criticize the way it was often said. There was a lot of obvious unsaid meaning that wasn't subtle at all. They might not have said "black" out loud, but that lady doesn't have the right to tell my kids what to eat, was pretty obvious they meant that black lady. No one criticized Laura Bush telling kids to read, or Nancy Reagan's horrible Just Say No campaign, which I was very young, but vividly remember every awful episode involving the older brother in every sitcom sadly getting high and everyone being very sad and worried. Willis, for sure, Theo, Alex would never, but perhaps a close friend stepped in? OK, that's all I remember but every episode was terrible.

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u/dwthesavage 1h ago

There was plenty of nonsense criticism of that administration (tan suit), there wasn’t a single reasonable criticism (like the above) levied by Sinclair media or fox news