A fun fact about Michelle Obama’s chummy fries police
In her latest flexing of federal “Let’s Move” muscle, First Lady Michelle Obama has strong-armed several major restaurant chains into re-designing their menus to her exacting healthy standards.
Michelle Obama said Thursday that a pledge by the Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants and their sister chains to serve healthier meals is a “breakthrough moment” for the industry.
Darden Restaurants Inc. is pledging to cut calories and sodium in its meals by 10 percent by 2016, and 20 percent over a decade. Among promised changes for children: no more french fries. A fruit or vegetable side will become standard with kids’ meals. One percent milk also will be served, including free refills, unless an alternative drink is ordered.
“With this new commitment, Darden is doing what no restaurant company has done before,” said the first lady, who joined executives of Orlando, Fla.-based Darden for the announcement at an Olive Garden restaurant in Hyattsville, Md., just outside Washington.
…The kids’ menu changes have begun and are to be in place by July at Darden’s 1,900 restaurants in 49 states. Its other brands are LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52. The Capital Grille and Seasons 52 do not have children’s menus. The children’s menu will also include at least one 600-calorie or less option with reduced fat and sodium.
“We want to ensure that those who dine with us find the choices that they desire,” said Clarence Otis Jr., Darden’s chief executive officer.
In a normal, free-market environment, of course, business executives take their cue from customers — not from the East Wing.
But this is no normal, free-market environment.
And, I might add, Darden Restaurants is no normal restaurant chain.
At a time when most food service providers are struggling under the weight of increased taxes, health care mandates, and regulations, Darden Restaurants just happens to be one of the few and fortunate businesses to obtain one of those coveted Obamacare waivers.
Remember? I do. Flashback November 2010:
In early October, the Obama administration announced it had granted waivers not only to McDonald’s, but also to several other firms and labor unions.
Now comes word that Torquemada HHS Secretay Kathleen Sebelius has approved a whopping 111 waivers for businesses of all sizes, along with more unions and other providers of health insurance. The escapees include employers of many low-wage and part-time workers whose health insurance plans would otherwise be dropped, including Darden Restaurants — the parent company of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster and other chains, which employ some 34,000 people.
Among the waivers recently granted were for employers like Darden Restaurants, which operates the Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants, for 34,000 of its workers. Federal officials have granted 111 waivers to employers, insurers and union plans, who are responsible for covering about 1.2 million people.
Darden said the waiver would allow it to offer employees access to affordable coverage as the health care law is started.
Quid pro quo: It’s what’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
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I saw the headline on Drudge. These people have no sense of Irony.
I showed that to my co-workers earlier. When they saw the 20% recduction in calories and sodium they joked that the Alfredo sauce will be made out of powedered milk and powdered cheese. I wonder how these restaurants will react when their customers leave along with the flavor of the food?
Is the act of retching moving muscle? If so, I’m covered. I guess I can scratch Olive Garden off my list.
Next time I go to Red Lobster, I’ll order the squid pro quo.
I ate at Seasons 52 once, their entrees are billed as all being under 500 calories, which is true, which is why I came home and ate some spaghetti after my meal there. Once was enough. This girl needs food that sticks to her ribs.
What if my kid wants fries? Not to mention the garlic mashed potatoes for me. Guess I’ll find a different place to eat when I make my monthly shopping trip to Rapid City. Maybe one of those new California Whoppers from Burger King with a large order of rings.
Red Robin and its good hearty menus has never buckled down to the food police, even with Nanny Bloomberg across the river. We need a “cave in” list of firms which have buckled to PC and the Obamas. I want to patronize brass guts.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
Let me respond to this post in a manner I witnessed a reporter for a local liberal newspaper question a Tea Party member:
“So you’re against a healthy diet?”
Maybe the background music at the Olive Garden will change from
“Funiculì, Funiculà” to “Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles.”
Let me respond to this post:
Are you against free choice?
Let her eat grass.
You’ll be scrod if you do.
FIFH
A new gigantic logo in place of the seal in front of the Whitehouse, Banana Republic.
From the AP story:
Instead of being able to opt your children out of having french fries, you’ll have to opt them in. Check for the Merck label on those apple slice packages.
I picture restaurants full of sad children with carrot sticks on their plates sitting across from parents who have french fries on theirs. That should go over well.
“Why do you get all the good stuff, mommy?”
“Do not question my authority. Just be quiet and eat your peas.”
You know when kids would sneak into liquor stores to hope they could get away with buying a case of beer? Soon they’ll have to sneak into restaurants and hope they’ll be able to get away with buying off the adult menu.
This is not healthy. Kids needs fats for their bodies to grow properly. Kids should be drinking whole milk not reduced or fat free milk.
Self-edit: Do not question Mo’s authority.
The Morlocks will be pissed if this is all that the Eloi are going to fatten up on.
On September 15th, 2011 at 6:48 pm, Azygos said:
“You poisoned my kid! She’s lactose intolerant! Lawsuit! Lawsuit!”
“We’re terribly sorry. Our policy of serving soy milk begins next month.”
Yeah….lecturing their customers on how to feed their kids.
“Oh…you want fries ? Let me get the manager”
I think of Denis Leary in Demolition Man. ” You see, according to
CocteauObama’s plan, I’m the enemy, ’cause I like to think; I like to read. I’m into freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I’m the kind of guy who likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder, “Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecued ribs with the side order of gravy fries?” I WANT high cholesterol. I wanna eat bacon and butter and BUCKETS of cheese, okay? I want to smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section. I want to run through the streets naked with green Jell-o all over my body reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly might feel the need to, okay, pal? I’ve SEEN the future. Do you know what it is? It’s a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake, singing “I’m an Oscar Meyer Wiener”.Well, Michelle Obama does look like a cow when I think about it…
They’re on the same schedule as Congress. Where’s the super committee to decide on dessert?
I believe the sister chain is Olive Gardasil, where every female aged 11-13 has a surprise in store. Sssh, don’t tell mommy.
If you drive up in a Chevy Volt, you eat free.
I believe Darden is just hedging its bet, just like Obozo does. Notice they will not actually enact these Mo’ pleasers until after Obozo is out of office (providing he does not declare martial law and establish the dictatorship by then).
I doubt seriously there is a written contract here…especially if the start losing business over the changes.
The good news – they took the creepy “King” out of their ads. The bad news – MichelleO forced them to. “He ain’t no King, my Barry is the King, and Barry, he ain’t got no Whopper…”
NYC primary school kids already can’t get or show it if they bring it in, chocolate milk or fries.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
Sorry – did that last sound racist? I meant to make fun of MichellO but not in a racist way…
At least you all now know my birthday plans for tonight.
does it look like a giant bannana sticker?
If these businesses decide they want to go along with doing what mo wants and their food sucks, the public will not go to their place. People eat where the food is good. If I ever(not gonna happen) went to NYC, I would bring my salt shaker with me. NO one tells me what I can eat as long as I have money to pay for said food!
L
They have Soros but we have the guy who did this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZPwDRZ6pTM
Attaaaaack Waaaaatch is a joke
@#21 Demolition Man, great flick! Sandra Bullock’s character even says
I don’t care how often they recycle this piece of film, it breaks me up every single time. Thanks for the new version GEL.
..from the waste basket like George Costanza.
We don’t have too many choices of restaurants where I live and I have two fewer now. I refuse to support Olive Garden and Red Lobster anymore. It is a principled choice for me. I’ll just say “no.”
Is this part of the job creatin’?
The scene at the Paratus home:
Kids we’re going out to eat. Make up your mind what you want to eat before we get there. You always say I can’t make up my mind. You stare at the menu and it takes you 3 forever.
Is it going to be the peas and carrots or the carrots and peas?
Don’t say you can’t decide on what drink you want. Decide now. The water or the water.
That’s the price of the Obamacare waiver… They OWN you.
You see, what the Regime grants, it can also un-grant.
This is why we are supposed to be under the rule of LAW, not men.
well I plan on avoiding any and all of the Darden Restaurants food pits from now on. The First Potatoe Butt can just keep her opinions to herself!!!
Here you go
If MO is what a person looks like after eating these healthy foods, I think I will look elsewhere.
RE: forcing milk onto these menus
Good point by Azygos–kids do need WHOLE milk, as you said–fats for their bodies to grow properly (some health-nutso parents in my family don’t understand that).
Another good point by CO2 Producer–some kids are lactose intolerant.
Oh wait, could these be reasons why we fought for the freedom of choice in this country?
Yum…all this talk about fries, shakes, ribs, huge steaks…I’m headed over to Outback. Maybe I’ll call and tell the WH Switchboard to tell Mooshie so she can report me to the Attack Squad.
It’s all promotion and PR. Ummm, lets see, by 2016 F(at)L(ady)OTUS will be back shaking down hospitals and slums in Chicago and this food cop nonsense will be history. (God willing, 4 years sooner of course)
Meanwhile, for now Darden gets front page ink with FLOTUS being all civically responsible and kid loving n’stuff. IT’S ALL FREE PR, and that is all it is.
“We want to ensure that those who dine with us find the choices that they desire,” said Darden’s chief executive officer. And that is exactly what they’ll do when nobody orders the Ms Potato Butt menu – dump it.
From behind she looks like someone’s housekeeper. Wardrobe by Hugh Jass Designs
Either way, you’d get a pass from me.
evidently Barry doesn’t listen to Hips Aplenty as we always see him going down on cheeseburgers and fries with Plugs.
The only thing my 5 year old grand daughter eats when we go out is chicken fingers and french fries…alot more fries than chicken. She is as skinny as a stick. This wide load has children who are 3x the size and she’s got the nerve to dictate what My family should eat? Are there no mirrors in the White House?
I’ve never been a big ‘boycott’ type, however this clown and his administration has changed me. I will not purchase products that have climbed in bed with this administration. GM, Chryslet, all of them…
Oops, no more OG soup and salad for me. That is a shame, I really liked their Zuppa Toscana. It’s just as well, I pig out on the lovely bread sticks, and I am suppose to be gluten free.
Just for the record, our kids get fat free milk. They get all the fat they need from ice cream, cheese and various other sources. The 12 year old gets three hours of tennis, three times a week, along with other school activities, and those fat-genes are still showing up.
I might have to cut him off Heineken.
There are, but vampires have no reflection.
Well there is always ZIO’S
I’ve done work for the owner and I’m fairly sure he wouldn’t go for any of this nonsense.
I can’t recall a First Lady who has managed to build such an amazing reputation in just three years. In some respects, she is even more driven by progressive mania than her husband, yet covets “the good life” that she believes she so richly deserves “for the little people” back on the South Side.
Next website up from M. Obama: Snaackwaaatch.com
I have been saying this for some time. The only way obozo stayes in office is: he either steal the election or we don’t have one.
I won’t be happy until they frog march him out in handcuffs.
Muchelle can hand carry him Happy Meals. “No fries with that, please.”
I for one plan to behave… behave like the Obama’s by eating what I feel like eating.
Every time I see the Obamas, they are cramming high fat, high calorie, delicious food into their marxist maws.
Wonder how Obama’s marxist maws would go over on attack watch?
Should I be ready for the thought police?
When little Johnny gets a little older, goes away to college and discovers fried foods and milk that doesn’t taste like water, he’s going to go on an absolute bender.
When leftists defend abortion, they say “it is my body I can do what I want with it”
They’re awfully silent now when it comes to french fries.
More salad means Michelle can claim they created some green jobs.
Only thing is it’s getting harder to find a company that hasn’t jumped the hoop. So many have caved that it’s better to have a list of those that HAVEN’T to make the right choices. I won’t reward cave-ins with my patronage. I’m telling my youngest granddaughter I’ll buy all the chocolate milk she wants for school lunch in its carton, not hidden in a thermos and to tell the teachers to see me if they don’t like her setting a bad diet example to the rest of her class.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
So I have this friend who recently retired from the AF Reserve and comes up for lunch every UTA weekend. She always – and I mean always - wants either Olive Garden or Red Lobster. She’s also a conservative and despises big booty Michelle Obama and her Jay Leno jawline. From now on, we’ll be taking our money elsewhere.
Hey Olive Garden? Red Lobster? See ya!!!
I’m reporting you to Attack Watch!
As usual, there’s more than what meets the eye with the nO’bamacare waiver and this ‘breakthrough moment’ with the mooch. I bet it goes deeper than that.
I think the majority of people know that chain restaurants in general use high levels of fat & sodium and don’t offer ‘healthy’ menu options. That’s how they compensate for lower quality food–by adding loads of salt. I won’t boycott Darden brands. Actually, the Obama depression has me boycotting everything.
That’s it!
I’m opening a chain of restaurants called “Trans Fats Я Us”.
Who’s in?
That’s because french fries don’t feel pain no matter what trimester.
Fat is essential for a healthy diet. I went on a fat-free diet once, and, to put it as delicately as possible, your can’t poop without lubrication. Sorry, but that’s a fact. Back to fat.
Now, about salt. Another example of politicians, and apparently politican’s wives being out of the loop. The latest is that salt isn’t bad for you. If you wait a week, something else will turn up that they need to ban. Those things come and go, and Michelle O had better keep up.
One good thing…they are overstepping their “bounds” on EVERYTHING!! The fit is hitting the shan and most people in AMERICA are starting to ignore any edicts coming out of the WH.
Fixed it.
when I read this I nearly shad my pants.
calm down everyone–prez poopy pants and ‘she from Kashyyyk’ simply do not want their kids to be burdened with a fat roll.
Sorry, but there is something fishy about these posts. I’m reporting all of you.
I reporting all of you to the Sturgeon General!
Happy, you’re faster than I am.
I didn’t copy you on porpoise.
Read “Undaunted Courage” by Stephen Ambrose sometime. The Lewis and Clark Expedition almost died eating lowfat deer and antelope. They were eating 6-7 punds of meat a day and still starving. No fat.
They ultimately traded with the indians for bear and buffalo meat until the found their own.
Shad up with the fish puns or I’ll kick your bass!
Some puns are heavy, but these fish ones break the scales.
I’m ok with them, but that’s because it’s the net. In public I just clam up.
I once tried to overcome that by putting them to song, but it sounded terrible as my guitar was off key, and I didn’t have a tuna for it.
I’ll stop, for now. As the french films say:
Fin.
Heh, I saw that in Marlin Rouge.
You’re so coi, you really are the gill fo my dreams.
It’s too back about the steakhouse, too. My son (who must be part crocodile because of his love for meat) can eat a 24-ouncer while I’m eating half of an 8-ounce steak. Will have to find another place, darn it.
It appears that some people fell for the punny posts hook, line and stinker.
fo = of (slap!)
oh to hake with all this! Now you’re just making puns for the halibut.
You’re just being too Roughy on yourself.
How can the wife of even a fraudulent president have so much power…could it be…she’s the bride of…Satan?
These fish jokes are beginning to flounder.
Simple solution> FLOTUS in charge of testing all fries before sale.
*Poof, there gone*
Stop being so crabby!
Fish puns got you down? You need a big Ray of sunshine.
There’s one to lure more people in.
It’s ok, don’t Look Down, everyone gets hooked. At least there’s no Barbs.
Just throwin’ out a hook to see what’s biting…maybe bitemeILMC will take the bait…heh.
Well….unless the food is TOTALLY cooked with GREEN ENERGY ONLY…absolutely NO carbon footprint….perhaps solar and wind on the roof….I refuse to eat at those “healthy restaurants”.
Eating Healthy while poluting the earth and killing off polar bears is just worse that being fat.
I suppose that the restaurants and MOOCHELLE believe that the obese kids living in POVERTY actually eat OFTEN at Red Lobster and Olive Garden….must be an unusual marketing and financial projection plan for these restaurants.
So….I guess the concept of “Freedom Fries” just no longer works huh?
Retirees on SS have to decide between the fat free MightyDog or the crunchy kibble and bits…..
the only Let’s Move command requires combining high fiber with depends.
I hate to keep carping on the subject, but the continued fish lines coming down the pike–which I smelt from a mile away–are reelly getting crappie. Sorry, I’ll step off my perch before I plumb the depths of everyone’s patience.
For some reason, I’m suddenly in the mood for a Friday fish fry tonight at some local non-waivered pub. French fries are still standard at most of them, as far as I know. I doubt I’d have a glass of milk with my meal, even though it’ll probably be available. The families with their soda-swilling kids fresh out of school’d probably laugh me right out the door—or at least stare at me with their wide, unblinking eyes, their mouths gaping and bobbing in silent disbelief. I can’t handle that kind of pressure.
CO2–that reminds me…was anyone else told when they were young that you never drank milk when eating fish? Am I just showing my age again, or am I showing what a strange background I had in my family?
Never heard that one, spaceycakes. After a minute and fifty-three seconds of research, it looks as though some still believe the myth. So no, it doesn’t show your age, but it does show that your family might be Jewish and/or Muslim—ya weirdo!