Eric Schlosser is no stranger to food. Not in a Bobby Flay or Giada De Laurentiis kind of way, but in an academic way that knows the impact on the health of the person eating the food.
Schlosser, who authored the classic study Fast Food Nation and had EPs on several films, authoritatively shared his dire predictions on Bill Maher's Friday Real Time as a harbinger of coming doom. I came as a guest with credentials to back it up.
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Schlosser said the next pandemic could start in Texas. That's where avian influenza was recently discovered to have migrated to cows at a large dairy farm, but the federal government is not allowed to test the animals or their workers.
“This is a great example of how the public's health is threatened by private interests,” he said, noting that “the food industry spends more money on lobbying than the defense industry.”
For the past 40 years, a handful of “giant corporations” have essentially taken over our food supply, Schlosser said. “They're hiding behind different brands,” he says. “You think you have a choice, but it's actually an illusion of choice.”
Ultra-processed foods may be responsible for many sins, Schlosser said. Ultra-processed foods are foods that have been processed to be irresistible to human taste. “What harms you is that there are a lot of chemicals that you would never have in your kitchen,” he said of new flavorings, additives and emulsifiers that humans have never ingested before.
“We continue to create problems with technology,” he concluded. As for nutrition, you should get it by consuming 30 different types of plants per week. “It's better to get it from real food than from supplements or additives.”
The panel portion of the program featured New York Times contributor Frank Bruni, author of the new book “The Age of Grievance,'' and Douglas Murray, New York Post columnist and author of “The War of the West.'' appeared in.
There was agreement on a number of topics, including that the students at the encampment seemed to be ignoring what happened in Israel on March 7th.
The committee condemned the use of buzzwords such as oppressor, victim, and colonizer that have become too common. “We were celebrating heroism and accomplishments,” Murray said.
Bruni said he was recently watching some tapes from the late '80s and early '90s and heard the same kind of language, which he described as “waking up with more syllables.”
Bruni concluded by calling for equal coverage of presidential candidates, saying that each candidate's shortcomings need to be considered. “We don't feed (the audience) in a baby bird kind of way,” Bruni said.
“As a journalist, your job is like a dog going to a lamppost,” Murray said similarly. “You're going to piss them off. The media isn't going to give an amen chorus to any political party.”
Maher's “New Rules” editorial focused on what viewers and readers should focus on when consuming media. Read the full editorial above.
“At some point, you have to take a step back,” Maher said after listing his rules. People panicking about the presidential election say that no matter who wins, “Maybe we'll still be alive. Is the sky really falling? Or is it just a door on a Boeing plane?”
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