At our house, we don’t serve fast food to our friends. So why should the White House? But these days, all bets are off that you’ll get anything more than a slight upgrade from a McDonald’s Happy Meal when you show up as the guests of honor, like college football players who just won a national title.

Football is a tough sport to play. Regardless of how you feel about the controlled brutality of the game, to attain excellence requires grit, hard work, and perseverance. Even then, there’s no guarantee you’ll “run the table” like the 2018-19 Clemson Tigers football team just did.

I’m sure Clemson’s coach Dabo Swinney had high expectations for his team prior to their first practice this summer. But to finish 15-0, capping one of the greatest seasons in NCAA football history by winning the College Football National Championship when they beat Alabama 44-16, was the stuff of dreams.

So, honoring a team like that would seem to call for something better (and more healthy) than hamburgers from McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s. Oh, I forgot the “many, many French fries,” too. Of course, for a president who has had a longtime affinity for the Golden Arches, as well as Pizza Hut, and KFC fare, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Donald Trump’s actions have long ago moved beyond incredulity.

All the president’s favorite foods. (NY Times video)

I was thinking about this last night during the book event I attended at Longfellow Books, in Portland. The author was my wife’s cousin, P.K. Newby, who has a brand new book out on nutrition.

Longfellow is one of my favorite indie book stores and I’ve been to some of the best ones in the country, like Vroman’s. Longfellow and Co. always treat their authors well and offer patrons an amazing selection of reading choices. In Maine, no one comes close to Longfellow’s diversity of books, magazines, and other publications.

Food & Nutrition, informed by science.

Newby is a scientist, gastronome, and an author, too. She’s spent the past 25 years researching diet-related diseases and studying how (and why) people make the food choices they do. As she hammered home last night, “what we eat matters.”

During Q & A after her talk, I thought about asking her what the president’s choice of “garbage food” as a token of his appreciation to an award-winning college football team symbolized. Knowing her political predilections and how she feels about the president, and out of respect to the other 20 or so people in the store, I refrained.

But it does speak volumes about the man. And of course, he immediately began inflating numbers after serving his guests their soggy fare crated in cardboard and wax paper. Donald Trump is a compulsive liar, just one of a host of psychological and character flaws inherent in who he is. It’s also obvious in looking at him that his diet isn’t a healthy one, even if some hack physician dubbed him “in excellent health.” I’m sure his weight is tilting north of 270 these days (not the 239 that’s listed). If he has “good genes,” they’ve got their work cut out given the unhealthy food he calls “our favorite foods.”

Food isn’t rocket science. But, scientists like Newby help us to cut through the fog of lies and obfuscations that we’re fed by everyone from the president on down about what constitutes healthy food. I’m glad I know where to look and who to believe in choosing to eat the way that I do.