The American economy is in the toilet right now. Millions of jobs have been lost this year, Trump’s tariffs have crippled trade, destroyed small businesses and increased inflation. Grocery prices are sky-high. I’ve seen online that a lot of people have decided to opt out of a lot of Christmas stuff this year – fewer gifts, no lavish holiday parties, doing Christmas on a limited budget overall. With the high cost of food, people are already making different choices this year. But trust the Trump administration to promote eating less during the holidays. We’ve gone from “America, the land of plenty” to “it’s wrong to eat more than one Christmas cookie.”

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is offering “strategies” for federal employees to have a healthy holiday season. Oz has been emailing a weekly bulletin, “From the Administrator’s Desk,” to employees and recently offered tips about the holiday season’s snacks in a “Crushing Cubicle Cravings” email, WIRED reported on Monday, Dec. 8.

“We all love a fun cookie swap and potluck this time of year. With several teams across CMS hosting holiday gatherings this month, I am sharing some strategies to help you make healthier choices—while still indulging in festive treats,” Oz wrote, according to the outlet.

He advised the 6,000 employees to “set your intentions,” and “decide in advance how many treats” to have, and “try to stick to that number.”

“You don’t have to try every cookie on the cookie table,” he wrote. The former daytime talk show host, 65, also told agency employees to “practice portion control” and “be mindful.” His tips included getting smaller plates and taking “small portions.”

He also advised people to eat more slowly, by placing their forks “down between bites, and pay attention to [their] body’s cues.” He added that no one should “double fist,” and to keep one hand free in order to “[shake] hands with colleagues and friends during this festive period,” according to WIRED.

Oz apparently offered the tips because he “knows it’s not easy balancing a healthy lifestyle and a demanding job,” CMS spokesperson Christopher Krepich said in a statement to WIRED. Krepich added Oz was offered “encouragement to help the hardworking CMS team stay healthy while they work hard to ensure millions of Americans access quality health care.”

President Donald Trump selected Oz to oversee federal health insurance programs as Administrator of CMS. The federal agency provides health coverage to over 160 million Americans via Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Health Insurance Market. Oz reports to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

[From People]

Granted, if these recommendations were coming from someone other than a Trump administration official, they would sound somewhat reasonable. There’s nothing really controversial in and of itself from saying “you don’t have to gorge yourself at Christmas parties, be conscious of how much you’re consuming at holiday gatherings.” Because it’s coming from Oz, that’s what makes it feel like a government official is mandating “put down the cookie, fatty.” As Wired also points out, Dr. Oz has been credibly accused of shilling fad weight-loss programs AND he also promoted those horse drugs to treat covid. Anyway, this holiday season really feels like a Dickensian nightmare. I’m half-expecting Jeffrey Epstein’s ghost to wander the halls of the West Wing like Jacob Marley.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.