Just because you can doesn't mean you should

I'm taking a side step away from talking about what's in our kitchen, to what's outside.

Today KFC is releasing its "double down KFC sandich" with the following specs: The sandwich consists of two pieces of fried chicken fillets that serve as "bread" to sandwich two slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese, two slices of bacon and a special sauce. It contains 540 calories, 32 grams of fat, and 1,380-1420 milligrams of sodium (92-95% of your daily recommended sodium intake). The blogosphere has been abuzz with reviews mostly from those who are curious about this gimmicky creation and those who are appalled that it actually exists.

While I'm pretty grossed out by it too, in all fairness, in spite of all the hullabaloo, the specs aren't that much worse than what's in other fast food fare on the market. For example, the Big Mac is also 540 calories, with 29 g of fat and 1040 mg of sodium.

What really is generating all the negativity is that in essence, KFC is saying a big F-U! to the first lady's attempts to fight childhood obesity and the newly passed health care bill. "So, you want Americans to eat better and have healthy habits? Well, we'll make a sandwich that is going to be so sensational that it'll publicize itself." Basically, it's a sandwich that Big Agriculture and Tea partiers can rally behind.

Nevertheless, how to get people to eat better is not an easy thing to tackle. On one hand, I don't like how it seems that our food choices are often controlled by a combination of marketing, food prices, brand labeling, etc and the fact that there are hundreds of commercials for sugary, fatty, food products, yet none for the humble tomato. On the other hand, I don't think banning bake sales in schools (cough cough New York) or having a sugar tax will actually change people's eating habits. It seems pointless to allow bad choices to exist and thrive and then punish people for choosing them. What else are you supposed to do if you don't have access to fresh produce and every major street corner is dominated by a brightly-lit fast food joint? Side story: I remember in high school, a friend of mine counted how many McDonald's were on Beach Blvd, a 10 mile long major street. There were no fewer than 10! That's at least one every mile. It's easy to see how they can boast "Billions and Billions served."

You cannot demand people to make better choices without making those choices better. Here's an old article about the messy behemoth that shows the infuriatingly contradictory relationship between the food and healthcare industries: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/opinion/10pollan.html

Any thoughts you'd like to contribute to our dinner table?