Latest news with #Steak'nShake
Indianapolis Star
5 days ago
- Health
- Indianapolis Star
We can't make Indiana healthy again until we fix our food supply
Unhealthy food is addictive, cheap and takes up the majority of our grocery stores. To make things worse, the federal and local governments are largely to blame. Indiana, for its part, ranks ninth worst in the nation for obesity and 14th worst in overall public health. Thankfully, state legislators are starting to address this, inspired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to 'Make Indiana Healthy Again.' As a result, the state recently banned certain unhealthy foods from the food stamps program. Indiana also has several agricultural programs meant to develop a healthier overall food supply. The root causes of Indiana's nutritional public health crisis, however, extend much deeper. The Farm Bill of 1973 introduced a policy that set a target price for crops and paid farmers for deficiencies with the actual price. This policy evolved into the Price Loss Coverage Program, which pays farmers if the market price of their crop drops below a reference point set by the government. This program allowed larger agricultural operations to overproduce certain crops while still reaping significant profits. As a result, it incentivized some farmers to take on debt to expand their operations and led others to consolidate. Opinion: Steak 'n Shake's MAGA makeover is a desperate bid to save a dying business By one estimate, total farm debt increased from $52.8 billion in 1970 to $178.7 billion in 1980, according to a study by the University of Illinois. Meanwhile, since 2010, 345,000 acres of farmland and over 3,050 farms have disappeared in Indiana. The supply of corn, soybean and wheat products, which make up the basis of ultraprocessed food, subsequently skyrocketed. Corn production alone more than doubled from 1969 to 2022 in Indiana. Corn syrup became the most common sweetener found in food at the grocery store. 'There is a huge disconnect between an agriculture that is extremely efficient and productive, but is no where close to the best we could do if vibrant rural communities and a healthy population was the goal,' Greg Gunthorp told me. He runs an independent family farm in LaGrange. Whole Farm Revenue Protection, created in 2014, is a better alternative to the PLC program. This government-subsidized insurance program reduces income volatility for farmers without subsidizing the overproduction of certain crops or disproportionately benefitting larger producers. It can cover up to $17 million in revenue and pays out if the farm's overall income is less than its insured amount due to issues like low prices, low yields or natural disasters. Replacing the PLC and similar programs would remove some of the incentives that make ultra-processed, unhealthy foods so common and give smaller farms a better shot at competing with large producers. This would also reduce the need for Indiana's Speciality Crop Block Grant, intended to level the playing field for crops like fruits, vegetables, tree nuts and dried fruits. Many local governments in Indiana have also needlessly made organic, small-scale farming initiatives difficult. One example: Cities and towns surrounding Indianapolis, including Greenwood, Brownsburg, Anderson, Lawrence, Franklin and Danville, ban backyard chickens. Others have arbitrary regulations that are nearly impossible to satisfy. Plainfield, for example, requires homeowners to have two acres of land to keep chickens at a time when farmland prices have reached record highs, while Shelbyville requires coops to be 200 feet away from neighbors. Other cities including Beech Grove, Southport and Carmel arbitrarily limit homeowners to six backyard chickens, regardless of the size of their property. Hicks: Braun's plan for Indiana's small towns will only hasten their decline With farmland values rapidly rising, it is often difficult for people and organizations prioritizing healthy food, sustainability and self-sufficiency to afford acreage outside of their homes and outside of city limits. One piece of state legislation addressed these issues. An early version of Senate Enrolled Act 14 would have given Indiana residents the 'right to grow, raise, produce, harvest, and consume the food that the individual chooses for the individual's own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health, and well-being." In effect, it would have superced local regulations that make small-scale farming impossible, while allowing localities to maintain evidence-based regulations to preserve public health. In its final form, however, the legislation only protected the right of homeowners to grow a vegetable garden. Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, whose role involves supporting innovation in agriculture, told me his office tried to rally support for House Bill 1562, which would have banned local governments from enacting stricter regulations on small farm and home-based vendors than the federal government. 'I don't think anyone is arguing for no regulation, no common sense regulatory authority,' Beckwith said. 'I think it's just sometimes, we know in government … regulations just grow upon each other.' Hicks: America's debt crisis will force red states to pay their own way for once The bill passed the House of Representatives but did not receive a hearing in the Senate Committee on Agriculture. A spokesperson for State Sen. Jean Leising, R-Oldenburg, said she did not give it a hearing due to 'food safety concerns expressed by many in the agricultural industry.' One has to wonder if those same agricultural industry lobbyists are as concerned about food safety when it comes to the negative health impact of ultra-processed foods and unsustainable farming practices. If these arbitrary local regulations on small farms and home-based vendors were removed, the availability of locally sourced, healthier, organic food would likely increase. State programs focused on increasing the accessibility of healthy, locally sourced food, including the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Grant and the Farm to School program, would also likely become more efficient. Opinion: In Indiana, tax cuts always win while successful programs lose Clearly, there is a growing interest in locally sourced, healthier food, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. 18.3 million people started gardening and there was a 5% increase in backyard chicken owners around that time. Local governments need to recognize this and get out of the way. Nationally, the Make America Healthy Again movement has focused on small changes, like convincing Coca-Cola to use cane sugar and banning some artificial dyes. It has largely avoided making substantive changes to the root causes that incentivized unhealthy food to take over our grocery stores and our diets in the first place. One root cause is long-term changes in our food supply, which have helped make Indiana one of the unhealthiest states in one of the unhealthiest developed nations in the world. If we really want to make Indiana healthy again, we need to fundamentally change the agricultural policies that kicked off those changes.
Indianapolis Star
10-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Indianapolis Star
I throw sex toys at WNBA games for my meme coin. Women won't date me. Help?
I'm a dude who spends his days investing in cryptocurrency and his nights throwing sex toys onto the court at WNBA games, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why I'm so lonely. It certainly isn't my fault. Nothing is my fault. I'm a crypto guy who makes misogynistic jokes about things on the internet and then sometimes carries rubber sex toys into WNBA arenas and throws them onto the court, disrupting the game and risking player injury in order to draw attention to my clever meme coin group, Green Dildo Coin. Why wouldn't everyone want to hang out with me, like, literally all the time? It has to be the male loneliness epidemic. I have some strong opinions on that ‒ and how it's all the fault of women who refuse to go on dates with me so I can explain to them the hilarity of my meme coin. Briggs: Steak 'n Shake's MAGA makeover is a desperate bid to save a dying business Sometimes I'll be around women and I'll bring up my meme coin, and I can tell they don't really understand what a meme coin is and don't get how funny it is that we're calling it Green Dildo Coin and then throwing green sex toys at WNBA games to draw attention to a thing that doesn't technically exist. So I say to them, 'Hey, if you don't understand what a meme coin is, I'd be happy to spend several hours explaining it to you over a coffee date where I talk the entire time, use the word 'actually' a perfectly cool amount and ask you nothing about yourself. And then you can have sex with me.' But they always either say no or walk away laughing, and that makes me want to return to my online meme coin group and talk to them about how the women who created the male loneliness epidemic have made it hard for me to connect with women. I know my hobby of throwing colorful sex toys onto the court at WNBA games is edgy and cool. The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., shared a meme that showed the president himself standing on the White House roof tossing a green sex toy onto a WNBA court full of players below. How can anyone call it 'not funny' or 'dangerous' or 'sexist' if the president's son thinks it's hilarious and is normalizing sex-toy tossing at women's sporting events? Maybe Donald Trump Jr. would want to hang out with me and talk about meme coins. I'm so lonely. I read how Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said of the penis-shaped things people like me keep throwing onto the court: 'The sexualization of women is what's used to hold women down, and this is no different. These people that are doing this should be held accountable. We're not the butt of the joke, they're the problem.' Opinion: Happy Gilmore appeals to both MAGA and woke fans — and that's his genius Coach Reeve is clearly contributing to the male loneliness epidemic by claiming that I, a crypto bro who throws sex toys on the court at WNBA games, am 'the problem' and should be 'held accountable' for the thing I keep doing. Since when do men who invest in cryptocurrency and create hilarious meme coins get held accountable for their actions? That seems sexist, and I blame that attitude for my present state of loneliness, dissatisfaction and deep insecurity. To date, I have asked 69 women (high-five, fellow crypto bros!) who I had previously made sexualized comments about online under an anonymous account if they would like to go on a date with me to throw sex toys at a WNBA game and learn more about my meme coin. Not a single one has been interested in getting to know how fascinating and clever I am. What am I supposed to do, reflect on whether I'm the problem, and consider treating other people with respect and showing an interest in their feelings and points of view? C'mon. I'm a crypto dude who throws sex toys at WNBA games. I don't have time for that kind of nonsense. No, my loneliness is definitely the fault of women who are mad I keep throwing sex toys during a women's sporting event that I publicly claim to respect while anonymously demeaning it online. At least I have Green Dildo Coin. I'm sure eventually everyone will see how awesome I am.
USA Today
09-08-2025
- Health
- USA Today
Sorry, but RFK Jr.'s beloved beef tallow fries won't save Steak 'n Shake
RFK Jr.'s ascent to a position of health authority is a culmination of America's doing-my-own-research era. Steak 'n Shake is happy to glom onto it. Steak 'n Shake has jumped on the Make America Healthy Again bandwagon in a desperate last-ditch effort to resuscitate its finances. The chain's gratuitous pandering to red-state America will go down as a sad final act for a storied restaurant chain. Indianapolis-based Steak 'n Shake is not only adopting MAHA-approved ingredients – beef tallow for the fries and cane sugar for the soda – but also coordinating with the Trump administration and expanding MAGA universe to create the most right-coded infomercials this side of MyPillow and gleaming gold coins. 'We RFK'd our fries,' Daniel Edwards, Steak 'n Shake's chief operations officer, boasted to Fox News in February. That's, of course, a reference to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., America's top health official, who opposes vaccines but says "Hell, yeah!" to Americans mainlining soda and fries. RFK Jr. appeared on "Hannity" to eat Steak 'n Shake's shoestring fries, an explicit endorsement of fast food as a path to better health. RFK Jr.'s ascent to a position of health authority is a culmination of America's doing-my-own-research era. Steak 'n Shake is happy to glom onto it in a play to find a market for its waning products. Opinion: RFK Jr. defunds mRNA vaccine research. His anti-vax policies will kill people. Better ingredients, same junk food I should note there are merits to both beef tallow and cane sugar. Many skilled chefs prefer to cook with beef tallow because it cooks better at high temperatures and generally tastes better. Cane sugar likewise fares better in taste tests, and it is less processed than alternatives, including high-fructose corn syrup. Opinion: Is Coke with cane sugar really healthier? MAHA's claims are missing the point. Here's the thing: Fries are fries and sugar is sugar. If you overeat at Steak 'n Shake, you can expect similar health outcomes to overeating at any other fast-food joint. Steak 'n Shake is not becoming a health-food restaurant. It's introducing these products as a business decision. And for good reason. Steak 'n Shake has closed 200 restaurants since 2018. Parent company Biglari Holdings Inc. disclosed an interesting nugget in its first-quarter earnings report: Customer traffic continued to fall at Steak 'n Shake, but same-store sales increased by 3.9%. Therein lies the financial power of MAGA. The MAGA premium By tapping into politics, Steak 'n Shake is extracting more money out of fewer customers who feel like they are doing their part in the culture war by RFK'ing their diets. Steak 'n Shake's food costs went up this year because of the switch to beef tallow, according to the earnings report. Customers are paying a premium to dine from a menu that fits their political orientation. There's a risk that appealing to MAGA will alienate other customers. But most Steak 'n Shake locations fall in Trump-friendly states (although it does have dozens of locations in blue-state Illinois). Steak 'n Shake's well-publicized pivot to MAGA likely is improving the chain's short-term outlook. The long term is another matter. Short-term gain, long-term pain President Donald Trump will leave office, media coverage will dissipate and the novelty of "Make Frying Oil Tallow Again" merch and consuming 2,000-calorie meals to own the libs will fade. When that happens, Steak 'n Shake will fall right back to where it was before: a brand lacking identity and lost in the shuffle of competitors with more premium products. My guess is that Steak 'n Shake's cynical alignment with America's anti-vaxx crusader will afford the chain two to three years of relative stability before it runs out of steam. After that, Steak 'n Shake's descent toward obsolescence will resume and store closings will accelerate. I'm not cheering for Steak 'n Shake's demise. I have fond memories of meals and late-night study sessions. I was under no illusions about the products. I was there for the greasy food, caffeine and sugar high. Now, Steak 'n Shake is selling its customers a lie. That rarely ends well for any business. James Briggs is the opinion editor at the Indianapolis Star, where this column originally appeared. Contact him at or follow him on X and Bluesky: @JamesEBriggs
USA Today
09-08-2025
- Health
- USA Today
Steak 'n Shake's MAGA makeover is a desperate bid to save a dying business
Customers are paying a premium to dine from a menu that fits their political orientation. It's a cynical play that won't end well. Steak 'n Shake has jumped on the Make America Healthy Again bandwagon in a desperate last-ditch effort to resuscitate its finances. The chain's gratuitous pandering to red-state America will go down as a sad final act for a storied restaurant chain. Indianapolis-based Steak 'n Shake is not only adopting MAHA-approved ingredients — beef tallow for the fries and cane sugar for the soda — but also coordinating with the Trump administration and expanded MAGA universe to create the most right-coded infomercials this side of MyPillow and gleaming gold coins. 'We RFK'd the fries,' Daniel Edwards, Steak 'n Shake's chief operations officer, boasted to Fox News in February. That's, of course, a reference to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., America's top health official, who opposes vaccines but says, "Hell, yeah!" to Americans mainlining soda and fries. RFK Jr. appeared on "Hannity" to eat Steak 'n Shake's shoestring fries, an explicit endorsement of fast food as a path to better health. Opinion: Make Indiana Healthy Again is about cost-cutting, not wellness RFK Jr.'s ascent to a position of health authority is a culmination of America's doing-my-own-research era. Steak 'n Shake is happy to glom onto it in a play to find a market for its waning products. Better ingredients, same junk food I should note there are merits to both beef tallow and cane sugar. Many skilled chefs prefer to cook with beef tallow because it cooks better at high temperatures and generally tastes better. Cane sugar likewise fares better in taste tests and it is less processed than alternatives including high-fructose corn syrup. But here's the thing. Fries are fries and sugar is sugar. If you overeat at Steak 'n Shake, you can expect similar health outcomes to overeating at any other fast-food joint. Steak 'n Shake is not becoming a health-food restaurant. It's introducing these products as a business decision. And for good reason. Steak 'n Shake has closed 200 restaurants since 2018. Parent company Biglari Holdings Inc. disclosed an interesting nugget in its first-quarter earnings report: Customer traffic continued to fall at Steak 'n Shake, but same-store sales increased by 3.9%. Therein lies the financial power of MAGA. The MAGA premium By tapping into politics, Steak 'n Shake is extracting more money out of fewer customers who feel like they are doing their part in the culture war by RFKing their diets. Steak 'n Shake's food costs went up this year because of the switch to beef tallow, according to the earnings report. Customers are paying a premium to dine from a menu that fits their political orientation. There's a risk that appealing to MAGA will alienate other customers. But most Steak 'n Shake locations fall in Trump-friendly states (although it does have dozens of locations in blue-state Illinois). Steak 'n Shake's well-publicized pivot to MAGA likely is improving the chain's short-term outlook. The long term is another matter. Short-term gain, long-term pain President Trump will leave office, media coverage will dissipate and the novelty of "Make Frying Oil Tallow Again" merch and consuming 2,000-calorie meals to own the libs will fade. When that happens, Steak 'n Shake will fall right back to where it was before: a brand lacking identity and lost in the shuffle of competitors with more premium products. Opinion: Trump-backed cane sugar Coke tastes different, but health benefits are a myth My guess is that Steak 'n Shake's cynical alignment with America's anti-vaxx crusader will afford the chain two to three years of relative stability before it runs out of steam. After that, Steak 'n Shake's descent toward obsolescence will resume and store closings will accelerate. I'm not cheering for Steak 'n Shake's demise. I have fond memories of meals and late-night study sessions. I was under no illusions about the products. I was there for the greasy food, caffeine and sugar high. Now, Steak 'n Shake is selling its customers on a lie. That rarely ends well for any business. Contact James Briggs at 317-444-4732 or Follow him on X and Bluesky at @JamesEBriggs.
Axios
07-08-2025
- Health
- Axios
Food companies make promises while MAHA looks for more
Coca-Cola, Steak 'n Shake, Mars and other food companies earned valuable exposure for pledging to remove certain ingredients and align themselves with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s bid to clean up what America eats. But some of Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" base question if the companies deserve a celebration. Why it matters: The commitments aren't enforceable. And nutritionists and influencers say they largely don't address the primary drivers of chronic diseases that Kennedy has made his cause. State of play: Companies including General Mills, PepsiCo, Conagra, Nestle, Hershey and Kraft Heinz have said they'll remove artificial dyes from their products within the next two years. Coca-Cola pledged to roll out a product that uses cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. Starbucks is looking to remove canola oil from products on its menu. Steak 'n Shake was among the earliest to get on board, agreeing to cook its fries in beef tallow instead of seed oils. "Secretary Kennedy has consistently emphasized that the Department's top priority is ensuring the health and transparency that American families deserve," a Health and Human Services spokesperson said in an email to Axios. "Recent food industry commitments to remove artificial dyes, seed oils, and high fructose corn syrup are a positive step." Some MAHA faithful question whether the resulting fanfare amounts to a free pass, akin to a dubious healthy food claim. "They are not big MAHA wins," said Rob Houton, founder of the MAHA Coalition, an advocacy group that builds support for the MAHA agenda. "Those companies want to trumpet that, right? [It's] very clever of them to say, 'Oh, we're in agreement.' But what they are trumpeting as a big deal is not transformative." "The analogy I would make is it's like you have a dilapidated house, the foundation is crumbling and you think that you can correct everything by just putting a new coat of paint on it all," said Arden Anderson, a physician, agriculture consultant and MAHA supporter. As for the two-year window some companies have to make good on their commitments, "what I want to see is that they are doing it," said Ana-Maria Temple, a holistic pediatrician and an influencer aligned with MAHA. Between the lines: Some activists say the most substantive changes would be in regulating agriculture — a touchy proposition for an administration eager not to alienate farm interests. MAHA discontent is building around the House Interior spending bill, which includes language that would offer liability protections for the makers of pesticides. There's also frustration with agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, which removed regulations against pesticides and "forever chemicals." "We are extremely disappointed with some of the actions taken by this administration to protect the polluters and the pesticide companies," Zen Honeycutt, the founder of Moms Across America, told Vox. What to watch: Kennedy is set to release a blueprint within days for how the administration intends to address issues raised in a MAHA Commission report that was released in May. Supporters say it will be a test of the administration's willingness to impose new standards on food ingredients, as well as transparency requirements about what's in their products. "Under the MAHA agenda, HHS supports real accountability and science-based standards to ensure that any promised changes are both transparent and truly meaningful for consumers," the HHS spokesperson said in the emailed statement. The bottom line: These moves are creating awareness and pressure that the food industry has never had to respond to before, and that's important, Temple said. "Is it the final answer? Of course not," Temple said of the commitments the administration has extracted from industry. "More people are going to be asking questions. That's a huge win." "The small changes that have been made ... you might think, 'Well, that's not making that big of a difference,'" said Hilda Labrada Gore, a health coach, podcast host and MAHA supporter. "But it's a start."
