WASHINGTON — Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of the South Lawn on Friday to plant a vegetable garden, the first at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets — the president does not like them — but arugula will make the cut.
This is the first vegetable garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden during World War II. Though there are 18 acres to play with, no White House resident since has had the urge to dig into the dirt and, with a little hard work, enjoy the delight of harvesting peas and tomatoes off the vine.
Why are the Obamas the first in more than 60 years to put in a vegetable garden?
Three years after candidate George Bush told us he wanted to be remembered as the "environmental President," he has done little to earn that distinction -- unless one regards his catch-and-release policy on bonefishing as a major environmental initiative.
We know the excuses by heart: A Treasury that is broke, an economy too fragile to bear the weight of new environmental regulations and a skeptical chief of staff, John Sununu, who remains unperturbed by the threat of acid rain, ozone loss and the greenhouse effect.
Still, I'm inclined to take the President at his word when he voices his concern for the planet. So I want to offer him a suggestion -- a simple, constructive step that would save the Treasury money, impose no new burdens on the economy and that even Mr. Sununu might endorse.
Foods go in and out of fashion. Sugar, a dietary pariah not too long ago, is making a comeback as a natural food – in large part as a backlash against high-fructose corn syrup, which has been subject to widespread criticism as a cause of rising obesity because it’s inexpensive and ubiquitous.
But in fact, many nutrition and obesity experts say sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are equally bad in excess, and the new view of sugar is largely marketing-driven.
What are some common misconceptions about what and how we eat?
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