For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 03, 2024

John didn’t choose this diet Elly, YOU did!

Well said, Moira.

Listen to her, Elly—you just might learn something.

Drop your attempt, Elly, and serve them a decent meal.

Make a compromise to eat vegetarian one night a week. Then watch while they all find other places to eat that night! And Moira was right. In some places if you go to a restaurant you ask what they have, there is no menu. You eat what’s available, there is little choice.

Mitochondria might agree with that.

I just read that many people in Gaza are going a whole day without having anything to eat.

I think she was referring to how some people only have a limited diet because of their economic conditions. I knew me growing up there were a lot of bean and potato dinners because I grew up in limited economic conditions in the DDR.

The other problem is big bug eyes…

https://www.gocomics.Com/garfield/2024/02/03

Moira is right. There are a lot of people around the world who would weep with joy for such a meal!

We eat vegan sometimes and vegetarian most times. That said, if there is a little bit of chicken in a can of soup, say, we don’t beat ourselves up. Also, we travel a lot and allow ourselves to splurge on local fare. I mean, how can you travel to Germany and not have a sausage? LOL But seriously, if your diet is predominately vegetarian, I believe it’s healthier overall.

P.s. — Once you get used to not eating beef, you’ll find you won’t crave it, nor even enjoy it that much. This also happened to me with cheese, which had been my downfall. I no longer crave it.

Most of the world doesn’t have all of these choices. They often have nothing.

Be grateful!

Moira is absolutely correct!

Count your blessings.

I wonder if this is the same lunch as yesterday where the smell of meat drove Elly the vegetarian crazy.

Or if this is the second day that she and Moira went out for lunch?

After all the color theme has changed. Yesterday Elly wore a dark green winter coat while today the coat is pastel light green, and Moira’s coat yesterday was navy blue and today it’s purple or lavender.

Must be nice though that ladies have different coats to wear every day just to go to their work place.

Who’s to stop a person from eating anything they want, when they want (reasonably, that is) in moderation? Unless someone is living with a fanatic.

I’d love to see John walk in about now! That’d end their vegetarian kick!

Looks like Elly is drinking on her lunch hmmmm

Moira has it right. Close to half of the world’s population subsist on less than nutritious food.

I never would have considered having wine with a beef chimichanga. And if I did, I think I would choose a red wine, not white.

Robot Moira in the final panel delivers the corporate-approved line about poverty and personal guilt. Good job, robot Moira!!

Moira makes a very good point.

Ellie, you must keep in mind that cow flatulence is one of the leading causes of global warming. In an effort to combat global warming, I am eating all the beef that I can. But I’m ONLY ONE MAN!

Moira’s got a point. Some folks don’t have any choices on what to eat off a menu. They can only eat what food is available if their lucky to find it.

So does this mean you will finally stop your sanctimonious haranguing, Elly?

I did some studying on the Holodomor, which is now considered “the weaponization of food”. Stalin used food production both as a way to control the people of the Soviet Union and as a way to fool the rest of the world into boasting of the USSR’s “great economy”. Of particular target was Ukraine, which has often been called the breadbasket of Europe. In the 1930s, starvation was widespread in a place that was known as a food exporter! Ukraine was not on board with the Soviet system. Stalin showed them no mercy; letting them starve until the “figured it out”.

A government that decides whether you eat (or work, or get healthcare, et cetera) is also one that decides that you should not eat.

So, would you drink white wine with a beef chimichanga?

I never feel guilty over what I eat. Just … fat.

I am grateful for every meal, no matter what it is.

So Elly is saying that she also didn’t like the menu she was forcing on the rest of the family? Hmm.

Well, if she’s gonna “cheat”, she should at least not condemn them when they do.

Civilization began with the invention of TV dinners

Junk food is a more serious problem than many realize. Not only it is a strain on universal healthcare, but it is also an addiction:

*The relapse rate for unhealthy eating is 90%. The relapse rate for heroin is lower than that.

*In Canada during World War II, sugar was rationed. One was entitled to two pounds per month if you could find any at all, which was rare. Gangsters put their bootlegging, narcotics and gunrunning rackets on hold to focus on sugar smuggling.

*Every hour in North America 120,000,000 animals are eaten.

*Potatoes are the most eaten vegetable in Canada and the United States. 95% of those potatoes are consumed in the form of French fries and potato chips.

*McDonald’s distributes more toys in Canada and the United States than does Toys R’ Us.

*In the United States, when state legislatures propose eliminating junk food and sugar in prisons and implementing balanced diets for inmates, such bills are almost always defeated. The few times they have passed it has resulted in riots. Riots?!?! Can you imagine that? Throw a man in prison and you take away his employment, his liquor, his sex life, his fashion sense, his sports & leisure, his politics and his right to travel. No riots (or comparatively few) over those deprivations. But take away his sweets, his pork puffs and his fried chicken…WATCH OUT!!

Sugar was rationed in the US during WWII as well. Don’t remember the amount as I was only about 4.

Chimichangas have trimmings?

That’s a pretty fancy Taco Bell

Anyone else notice that Moira looks like a big April?

There was a case where a girl died from eating chili at a restaurant near where I grew up. An autopsy revealed she was killed by a peanut reaction. Her family was perplexed by this as she knew had peanut allergens and wondered how this could be if chili did it. It turns out peanut butter was used to thicken the chili.

Is it just me or does Moira look like an adult April??

True. Be glad you don’t live in the outback, eating slugs and bugs and spiders.

The better food tastes the worse it is for you, and vice-versa. That’s just the way it is. I suspect it’s a part of the Curse that Moses somehow forgot to include in the Genesis story.

A bit ago they published an article on the “obesity crisis”. Way down in the article you found out that for the first time in recorded history we had more people who were fat then people who were starving. I found that a major accomplishment by the human race. Being over weight is not good for your health but starving kills you.

It’s interesting that a comic character makes a comment about how lucky some of us are to have a wide variety of food choices and some people respond by getting angry.

Sad.

Let’s give Ellie a break. As a conventional housewife, she is expected to be in charge of designing, cooking, and serving nutritious and tasty meals. She’s not going to please all of the people all of the time, but surely she has the right to experiment and try things. Now she’s in the process of getting (pardon the expression) feedback, and she finds herself in the very position John was lately in — giving in to a craving for something she wasn’t supposed to crave. She’s learning something. Let’s let the story play out, and not jump to calling her a shrew or a dictator when she’s only trying thoughtfully to wield the little power most women are allowed to have.

This whole thing, and the comments section, is ridiculous. I have been vegetarian for nearly 20 years, and while I try to eat as healthy as I can, there are oh so many things that are vegetarian and delicious. Mashed potatoes. Mac and cheese. Eggs, potatoes and toast. Spanish rice, if made right, is utterly scrumptious. Leftover Spanish rice with refried beans in a pan-fried cheesy burrito is deeeelicious. Donuts. Cake. Pie. Butter-smothered veggies of all sorts. PIZZA. Spaghetti, just sauce and noodles with some cheese. The other day I made a toasted cheese and leftover spaghetti sandwich on Italian bread with smoky provolone (oh my!). An awesome Pittsburgh-style salad with hot fries and melted cheese on top with a bunch of ranch. Cookies. The good ’ole PB&J, with a hunk of cheese, some tortillas and a tall glass of milk. Cereal. Pudding. Buttered noodles with oregano. Ramen. Ramen. Ramen. Various types of soups. Toasted cheese and tomato soup with added tomatoes and milk. The list goes on and on and on and on and on . . .

I am 5’9½" and weigh 235 lbs. and am quite healthy.

Very tired of just how much meat eaters complain. I hear it so much more from them than vegetarians. And the constant gloating about how flesh is so delicious. And every comment section here, when vegetables or anything related is mentioned in strips, or a pig is innocently in a frame, meat eaters are doing most of the complaining and making snide comments. Can you hear yourselves, at all?

The willful ignorance of the near-entire meat industry is another matter . . .

If this comic was set today, Trudeau could declare a “state of emergency” and say that all junk food is outlawed in order to “save single payer”.

John would be unable to eat on the sly as his bank account would be frozen. All it takes is a flimsy accusation that he was in league with the Freedom Convoy.

Last panel, Moira looks like Jeff Dunham’s PEANUT puppet

Your idea you pushed on John. Yes I know its a comic