4
Opinion
• Friday, April 8, 2011
Despite Dallas affluence, community neighbors lack adequate food supply
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EDITORIAL
Dallas restaurant openly encourages dangerous, unhealthy eating habits COMMENTARY
As if Dallas didn’t already have a bad rap for the size of its citizens, the Heart Attack Grill will soon make sure our city stays on “Men’s Health” Annual List of Fattest Cities. Opening May 13 downtown, this new grill will give you and your arteries something to talk about. Options on the menu include a Quadruple Bypass Burger and Flatliner Fries deep-fried in pure lard. Don’t forget to wash everything down with a nice Rachel McCartha cold Butterfat Milkshake, which is advertised to contain the world’s highest butterfat content. Seeing these descriptions on a menu alarms anyone with an elementary education. I find the employee doctor and nurse uniforms and restaurant motto “Taste Worth Dying For,” most disturbing. This unethical company has created quite a buzz with its goals and policies. According to its website, www.heartattackgrill.com, if you weigh over 350 pounds, you eat for free. When Dallas Morning News reporter Melissa Repko interviewed owner Jon Basso, he claimed “he’s fighting obesity with ‘shock value.’” Basso’s 600-pound spokesman, Blair River, died earlier this month at the young age of 29. Basso responded by saying, “You knew he wasn’t going to hit 80.” This surreal scenario will soon become a little too real for our city. I strongly believe that an establishment such as this should not be allowed to have its doors open for business. When deciding to open a restaurant, an owner should assume responsibility for the food being served on their tables. Ethics go against all policies Basso has implemented at the grill. What confuses me the most is lack of government intervention. On the Dallas Food Protection and Education Division website you will find that their restaurant inspection division “aims to promote healthy people and healthy communities through education and regulation of food service establishments.” If this mission statement was actually implemented, the Heart Attack Grill would not stand a chance of getting permit to operate its business. Thinking about the other side of the situation, many believe it should be the responsibility of the individual person to choose what food he puts into his body. Yes, this is a valid point, but allowing restaurants with such an immoral message to open its doors in our city only encourages obesity. Basso loves the attention he receives from opening a restaurant with such a racy message. Currently, Basso has been in contact with TV networks to shoot a reality show about his business. Most networks have declined his offer because of the message the show sends. I think a restaurant owner that cares more about fame and fortune and less about the quality of the food should not have a permit to operate his business in our city. With Dallas’ current problem of obesity, I believe we need to stand together and choose to not to dine at the Heart Attack Grille. If the restaurant receives no business, it will be forced to close its doors. Of course, everyone indulges from time- to-time and eats food with high-calorie and fat content, and I think we should. But to open a restaurant that encourages its customers to get to a weight that can lead to death should not be considered ethical. Rachel McCartha is a sophomore communications studies and advertising double major. She can be reached for comments or questions at rmccartha@smu.edu.
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The Daily Campus
STAFF
What’s for lunch? What did you have for breakfast? What are your plans for dinner? All of these questions stem Drew Konow from one of the most basic human questions, namely, how will I nourish my body and sustain my life. For most of us, answering these questions and finding proper nourishment comes with relative ease and simplicity. For many, however, answering those three fundamental questions with a nutritious or substantive response is a serious challenge. No, I do not refer to people starving in an underdeveloped country. Rather, I’m talking about people right here in Dallas county who live day-today without access to the proper nutritive foods. As SMU students, when we’re deciding how to nourish our bodies, we are graced with a number of options. Well-equipped grocery stores, health food stores, and healthy dining options abound. We literally live in an suburban oasis of health-conscious,
nutritious abundance. If you picked a paper up on campus, you could easily walk to at least three grocery stores and find a cornucopia of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, grains and breads. Our food community is one of exceptional abundance. This is simply not the case for many of our Dallasite neighbors. Abundance, nutrition and healthy options do not permeate Dallas entirely. Residents in South and West Dallas especially face a lack of nutritious options. Between the two communities there is only one grocery store. Health food stores and, indeed, any healthy dining options do not exist. These Dallasites, our neighbors, do not have access to the proper nutritive resources. The only options they’re given are unhealthy, quick fixes. These neighborhoods abound with fast food chains, convenience stores and unhealthy restaurants. Yet, they still must answer that same basic question of how to sustain their lives. The answers they arrive at are along the lines of “Cheetos for breakfast,” “McDonalds for lunch” and “no dinner.” Of course, some community members do seek out healthy options. Yet, this often requires traveling longer distances, spending more time on purchasing foods and spending more
money on foods. Unlike the oasis of food choices available in our community, these Dallasites live in what’s called a “food desert” (no, not dessert). Technically, this is defined as a place with no grocery store or supermarket within a one mile radius. Almost all of West and South Dallas is considered to be in a food desert. For most, having access to healthy food options is an essential component to quality of life. How can one sustain and nourish one’s body if there are no resources with which to do so? How can you adhere to the food pyramid and eat off the dollar menu? How can you receive essential vitamins and nutrients or control your cholesterol while dining in a convenient store? These are some of the challenges faced by those living in food deserts. Indeed, this reality severely contrasts most of our experiences of access to food. It also seems to be another chapter in the lengthy history of resource segregation in Dallas. On the level of a community, it also presents serious challenges to creating and developing both unity and empowerment. How can you take pride in your community when lack of food access condemns children to childhood obesity, adults to premature death and
all groups to overall lack of health? Why would you trust or participate in government if the most basic of needs, namely nutrition, is not even met in your community? Undoubtedly, lack of food access affects more than just one’s nutrition. Its effects spill over into all elements of life. Perhaps most importantly, however, are the questions of ethics and morality that surround this issue. Is unequal access to food just? Are the haves responsible to advocate for the havenots? Who decides who deserves access to food? If you are interested in exploring these and many other questions around food deserts and the food ethics, please join the Maguire Center’s Ethics Design Team for the Food Ethics Symposium. The event will be on April 14 and will include a Symposium presenting undergraduate research from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Hughes-Trigg Atriums. There will also be a banquet from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Hughes-Trigg Ballroom West. Drew Konow is a senior religious studies, foreign languages and literatures major. He can be reached for comments or questions at dkonow@smu.edu.
BYU respecting rules or religious obligation? Suspension of basketball player elicits debate By Nicole Jacobsen Contributing Writer
On March 4, Brandon Davies, a sophomore student at Brigham Young University, was suspended from the school’s basketball team not for selling a jersey or championship ring in exchange for a tattoo, not for accepting a new car from school boosters, and definitely not for driving drunk. Instead, Davies was suspended for violating the school’s honor code and having premarital sex with his girlfriend of several years. BYU, a private school affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, requires students to “live a chaste and virtuous life.” Simply put, unless Davies put a ring on it, he’s not allowed to engage in any form of sexual activity while enrolled at the university. Really? In most locker rooms Davies would be high-fived and congratulated by his teammates but at BYU he’s been painted with a scarlet letter. He was suspended from the team for the remainder of the season as the No. 8 Cougars prepared to take on TCU Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference Championships. While several other universities violate not only school honor codes but also NCAA rules on an almostdaily basis, the actions taken against
Davies are extreme. The Cougars’ honor code also states students are to “abstain from alcoholic beverages, tobacco, tea, coffee and substance abuse; and attend church regularly.” Dropping any profanity is also strictly forbidden and grounds for removal, but I highly doubt that Davies would be suspended if “damn” escaped his lips after a missed shot. I commend the university for sticking to university principles, and other schools around the country could (and should) take note when it comes to punishing offenders, but not when it comes to dictating how an athlete’s personal life should be lived. However, BYU did slip up in allowing Davies to sit on the bench with his team for the final game of the season; however his name is no longer listed on the team’s official roster. If that’s not a contradiction, I don’t know what is. The issue raises the question that if BYU, a school that has only recently emerged as a strong sports school, were to suddenly fall under investigation for a more serious rule infringement, would the university stand behind the honor code as diligently as it has in the case with Davies? Or would it feign innocence until proven guilty as so many other schools across the country do? When Ohio State failed to suspend five players from the Sugar Bowl for selling team paraphernalia in exchange
for tattoos, Buckeye Nation rallied behind the NCAA turning a blind eye to the violations. At USC, Reggie Bush was forced to turn in his Heisman Trophy after it was discovered that he was receiving money under the table from boosters. At the time, the school and head coach “failed to notice” what was really going on and only acknowledged what had happened after Bush and the coach had moved on. But how did BYU even find out about Davies’ actions? I find it very unlikely that Davies turned himself in, although he did admit to his actions when confronted by head coach Dave Rose. Did a teammate snitch? Did the girlfriend get mad and turn her back on him? In other instances that involve athletes getting caught, but not necessarily getting punished, where does the university and NCAA need to draw the line in what is truly offensive compared to just an honor code violation? In the case of Ohio State, USC and Cam Newton at Auburn, these players’ actions truly harmed the reputation of the respective programs, but whom did Davies hurt by engaging in an activity that is sure to still occur on such a religious campus? If BYU officials are going to suspend Davies for having sex with his girlfriend, they might as well surrender the rest of the season, as I’m sure more than one player has taken a sip of caffeine or
uttered a profanity in the span of the six-month season. Since Davies’ suspension, the team has managed to cling to a Top 10 ranking but do not tout the powerhouse offensive performances they were known for early in the season. Now, not only is Davies paying the price for his actions but the team, student body and Cougar community are also suffering as the team fell from being the No. 3 team in the country to No. 8 heading into the conference tournament. Prior to his suspension, Davies averaged 11 points and six rebounds per game as the team’s third-best scorer and leader on the boards. While it is still unclear if Davies will be allowed to remain at BYU (and this late in the game, if nothing has been said, it’s safe to say he’s staying), the coach is confident he will return to next year’s starting lineup. Again, good job BYU on standing by your beliefs but let’s see you fulfill the same promise to punish a player when it’s the football team’s starting quarterback carrying the team to a bowl game. Nicole Jacobsen is a senior journalism and advertising double major. She can be reached for comment or questions at njacobse@smu.edu.