Some are Hungry
Last weekend the Los Angeles Times ran a story about the overwhelming number of people lining up for free food at food banks. It was the type of story that newspapers seem to specialize in -- a story that confirms a hunch you have -- the media equivalent of comfort food.
It's a Thanksgiving tradition for TV and print media to feature stories on food banks. But times are rough, you might be thinking, I wonder how food banks are handling the Thanksgiving rush? The answer? They're overwhelmed the Los Angeles Times reports last weekend. as you rightly expected.
No surprise. But two photos accompanying the LA Times print edition caught my eye. Those in line were ample people. No sunken cheeks, no starving, pleading eyes. These wasn't the prototypical collection of hungry people, all bones and rags and outstretched hands with empty porridge bowls -- a sight seen in depression era or developing country photos that makes you wonder about the state of the world. Instead the LA Times photographer snapped groups of predominantly chubby, fat or obese people with shopping carts -- which made us wonder about the state of the world. Not to say overweight people can't be poor or malnourished, and not to say the photo didn't editorialize. But it stll gave us pause.
Some Feast
We may be a poorer nation today, but we're not on-average underfed. For the luckier Americans not standing in the food bank line there's Thanksgiving dinner and lots of choices. Which vegetables, what stuffing, how will you prepare the turkey? Will it be free range? Organic?
Smart Money featured an article recently, "Organic Thanksgiving: What You'll Really Pay", about how much you would spend on groceries if you served an all organic Thanksgiving dinner. You'll know exactly where they're going with this by looking at the link URL: ".../spending/rip-offs...". "Hold on to your wallet", they write.
You'd better hold on to your stomach too. The magazine shopped for organic and non-organic Thanksgiving food in Manhattan, to serve "eight people". Here's excerpts from their list: A 20 pound turkey, 5 pounds of yams, stuffing, 8 cups of chicken broth, a bag of cranberries, arugula, and an orange, large amounts of flour and sugar, three pears, 2 cans of pumpkin pie filling, croutons, a bottle of salad dressing, not to mention 3 bottles of wine. In addition this burdened group of 8 people will eat lots of dairy:
"3 quarts of vanilla ice cream (12 US cups), 1 gallon of milk, 2 pints of heavy whipping cream, 1 can of evaporated milk, 8 sticks of butter [1 per person], and a dozen eggs."
Oh, and 5 cups of broccoli.
The group of 8 will be all set to don they're stretchy pants and go on the dole next month.
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Acronym Required wrote on obesity previously in these posts and others:
"Childhood Obesity, The American Way"
"News of Lightweight Study: "Obese Should Walk Slowly"
Why So Fat? It's System Wide", "Obesity, Worlds Collide" and others, as well as on organic food at
"Organics Disdain in the Media -- Surface Tension"
