Junk food foolery

First lady Michelle Obama thinks Americans are too in love with sugary, buttery, creamy, salty foods. So she’s turning up the heat on restaurants, suggesting they work harder to “reprogram” the country’s taste buds. Obama told the National Restaurant Association recently Americans have been conditioned to like French fries with hamburgers, for example, which could be changed if eateries served, say, apple slices with their quarter-pounders. She’d like to see whole wheat pasta instead of white and smaller serving sizes. As suggestions — exhortations, even — Mrs. O is doing a public service. But things will get more interesting if the Big Government types start talking about regulation. Then watch out. Who knows, maybe the day approaches when Twinkie Police will crisscross the land, searching bag lunches and kicking down pantry doors. The first lady’s not there yet (the L.A. Times reports she likes fries). But draconian measures sprout from somewhere, and official frustration with a public that likes shakes, fried chicken and Ho-Ho’s could become fertile soil for sterner measures than a lecture from the first lady.

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