Workers unite… we have nothing to lose but our fat

When I first moved to Mexico, there was a big push to end malnutrition. That a person could be obese and malnourished — thanks to the high price of healthy food and the over-availablity of sugary snack food — was noted by then Sec. of Public Health, Julio Frenk Mora, but with former Coca-cola executive Vicente Fox in Los Pinos, such talk was about as popular as mentioning global warming was under the oil-industry regime of George W. Bush. While Frenck Mora’s public health service did push for healthier eating, there was little he could do to get better food into people’s bellies, and nothing he could do about the Fox Administration’s decision to allow the import of high fructose syrup (in a sugar exporting country!).

Thankfully, despite a massive raise in military spending during the Calderón administration, and having not frittered away the national treasury on overseas wars (we’ve only had one… against Japan and Germany… and managed to cut the military budget while doing so), social spending has always had the priority in the national budget.

While neither the Calderón Administration nor the present one has done much of anything to bring down the price of fruit and vegetables, raising the price of sugary foods…combined with propaganda for better eating habits and exercise … might have some effect on public health.

PBS  News Hour: