Hot Cheetos are a public health menace

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I had a woman come in for abdominal pain the other day. She accompanied by a husband and 3 small children. I walked into the room after reading the triage note in the computer.

There she was, a woman who had the appearance of someone with unhealthy eating habits. On the gurney was a large, opened bag of hot Cheetos. The family came prepared! The only thing missing was the 20 oz bottle of Pepsi.

Naturally she got a the huge workup, and by all appearances, I'm guessing it was a taxpayer funded one. And while I'm on that subject , why in the world are items like hot Cheetos allowable under the federal food stamp program? Oh, multinational corporation lobbyists of course.

Specializes in ER.
I don't think anybody misunderstood you.

Oh, Ms Interpret?

You must be quite amazing! All knowing, in fact. Wow! Thanks be to God for you...

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What if the cancer is lung cancer in a patient that is a smoker. Is it ok then? Or an alcoholic that developed HCC? Is it ok then? What about the patient that had treatable cancer that chose to go the homeopathic route that is now coming to the hospital to die from progression? Or the patient with HIV from abusing needles? This argument is as ignorant as the assumption that because a patient's family had Cheetos then she must be unhealthy and a waste of taxpayers dollars.

While I would argue as a blanket statement we shouldn't endeavor to make fun of anyone, least of all patients, there is a big difference between a "hold my beer and watch this" injury and simply being in the ED and having the appearance of being "unhealthy" or poor.

How long have you been a nurse? How do you decide which patients are "idiots" that deserve ridicule.

Just like every other poster here I am not immune to my implicit or explicit bias, but I do try to check it at the door when I am charged with the well being of another human. And believe me I understand it's not easy.

Im a nursing student. Not nurse, as Ive noted a few times.

And I was a cop for a long time before that, and a soldier before that.

My ability to laugh at really bad, messed up situations is fully developed, because sometimes humor is the only thing that can keep you sane in an insane situation.

Its called gallows humor or dark humor for a reason, and as I stated its well known among cops, nurses and soldiers.

And since its my mental health and my jokes, I get to decide who I laugh at and why.

However Im also full on tree hugging, progressive liberal who understand the interplay of the socio-economic problems, educational system problems and the problems in our health care system destroying different populations and communities across America.

Anyway when its all said and done, I'll laugh at who and what I want. You can join in or not, as you decide.

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Oh, Ms Interpret?

You must be quite amazing! All knowing, in fact. Wow! Thanks be to God for you...

I am indeed, amazing. Thanks for noticing.

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Specializes in Travel, Home Health, Med-Surg.
Ok, let's examine my points from the opening statement. There are several themes and subject matter I brought up.

1) The amusing irony of a woman with the primary complaint of abdominal pain having a huge bag of Hot Cheetos open sitting on her gurney.

2) It was obvious to me that she and her husband belonged to the no copay segment of the population. The American system of medicine demands very little of these folks allowing them to use the ER as a free clinic. Meanwhile, you and I have huge worries with every encounter with our medical system.

3) Food stamps are used to allow poor people to buy packaged products that are harmful. This is because it helps large companies sell their products to poor people, who are made less healthy by them.

4) What is it about our current culture that requires the husband to stay for several hours with his wife, with 3 children under 7, watching cartoons and eating Hot Cheetos? She wasn't circling the drain or anything. The kids were very nice, by the way, the older 2 got a fun trip to the sticker drawer, but, what is wrong with this picture?

I get the irony. I think that we can simultaneously care about our patients while at the same time be annoyed when we see the abuse of the system on a daily basis. I have seen patients who were on Medicaid refuse to leave when discharged for fill in the blank reason, the MD let's them stay for fear or lawsuit/customer service, they have no money worries because no copays. I was hospitalized and couldn't get out fast enough with a $400/d copay (and it would be even more now). I have seen patients who were in the hospital for amputation r/t DM eating all kinds of junk food brought by family no matter how much ed you give them and healthy food right there (provided by the hospital). I get the irony and the vent!

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Specializes in Tele, Interventional Pain Management, OR.

The onus isn't on people to treat healthcare better...healthcare should treat people better.

And the idea that "how some people say, children in America are starving." No, not every American child is starving, but food insecurity among US children is a legitimate issue. It's absurd in a country with so much food/resource waste, for sure, but it's still an issue.

Long-term economic lessons are well and good, but many people and families need more immediate intervention. I understand the ED nursing staff bears a formidable plight, but at least they get to go home when their shifts are over (and presumably do not have to worry about procuring their next meal).

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Specializes in Tele, Interventional Pain Management, OR.

**Replying to Beats BSN**

The onus isn't on people to treat healthcare better...healthcare should treat people better.

And the idea that "how some people say, children in America are starving." No, not every American child is starving, but food insecurity among US children is a legitimate issue. It's absurd in a country with so much food/resource waste, for sure, but it's still an issue. The US is a wealthy country, but that wealth is NOT evenly distributed.

Long-term economic lessons are well and good, but many people and families need more immediate intervention.

I understand the ED nursing staff bears a formidable plight, but at least they get to go home when their shifts are over (and presumably do not have to worry about procuring their next meal).

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Specializes in Travel, Home Health, Med-Surg.
**Replying to Beats BSN**

The onus isn't on people to treat healthcare better...healthcare should treat people better.

And the idea that "how some people say, children in America are starving." No, not every American child is starving, but food insecurity among US children is a legitimate issue. It's absurd in a country with so much food/resource waste, for sure, but it's still an issue. The US is a wealthy country, but that wealth is NOT evenly distributed.

Long-term economic lessons are well and good, but many people and families need more immediate intervention.

I understand the ED nursing staff bears a formidable plight, but at least they get to go home when their shifts are over (and presumably do not have to worry about procuring their next meal).

I don't see a problem with putting the onus on patients for "treating healthcare better" if that means not abusing the system or using it inappropriately (I have seen people claim no money for gauze to treat there wound upon DC so hospital gives them a bag full, next thing you know here comes spouse with big bag of fast food). This would cut down on waste and provide more resources to be used elsewhere. People who have copays and high deductibles do this all the time out of necessity so I don't see why people on public aid cannot do the same thing.

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Specializes in UR/PA, Hematology/Oncology, Med Surg, Psych.
FYI: When a 5th grader eats several bags of flaming hot cheetos and drinks several bottles of water to cool the flaming hotness, the ensuing vomit will be hot pink and will stain the school nurse's floor:nurse:

Add Takis to the list too

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.
Because that's what it's about, for me, pure and simple. End of story. And we need to realize that poverty, stress, and lack of time will lead to these choices which leads to ill health. This is so glaringly obvious to me.

Health education, wellness and preventative medicine are sorely lacking and there is very little funding for it; perhaps a shift to capitation would help as PCPs would be more interested and invested in prevention and less focused on pure volume. And poverty is an even bigger issue. Billboards won't change the fact that a poor parent can feed five kids for $5 at McDonalds because $5 doesn't get you very far at Whole Foods.

I am not a fan of big government involvement but when it comes to health of our country I wish there was more involvement: put a tax on unhealthy food that goes directly towards paying for preventative care. The fast food industry alone last year generated 198 billion in revenue so a 1% tax would contribute almost 2 billion dollars to the cause and would only raise the price of that hamburger by a penny.

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Well, big govt sure got involved in smoking, so I'll give that to them! Of course ad campaigns do not mean more people can afford healthier food, but a lot of people have no idea of the health consequences of highly processed food, and without a doubt it would help. It's just Step One in a long-term plan.

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Specializes in Cardiology, School Nursing, General.

In all honestly, us in the SN section of these forums have tried YEARS to get rid of the Hot Cheetos/ Takis issue but it won't stop! As much as we ban, educate or even lecture our students, they still eat that food.

Now granted, I'm from Texas and I'm Hispanic, I do eat chile on my foods, but not ALL my foods and not ALL the time. We are known to love spicy food, but the problem is moderation. I have students who gobble a HUGE bag of Takis for Lunch with a Soda Every day, and that's their Lunch. Then later to have them complain of stomach issues and vomit red.

Until they have an ER situation where they learn they might have or already have a hole in their esophagus or stomach, they'll stop. Trust me on this, I seen it. Had one student who would be the gobblers of Takis each day and one day had issues and went to the ER, found out she's developing a ulcer and a small hole on her esophagus and she quit cold turkey.

I had an aunt who would eat spicy food all the time, with the red and green chiles in all her food. Found out she has stomach cancer and hole in esophagus and now is not able to eat any spicy food at all.

I explain this to my students and others, but until this happens to them, nothing will be fixed.

My own children I don't let them eat Takis, only sometimes. It's like a treat for them at school and rarely from the store. I explained why and showed pictures and they are scared to eat too much of them. .

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