A couple weeks ago, I was teaching a medical record unit that focused on malnutrition. We had a case study that had the patient both obese and anemic. Another had obesity and another nutritional deficiency. My students had a hard time with these case studies. How can you be obese and malnourished at the same time?
It defies logic. How can you be both obese and undernourished? It happens to the homeless in Boston. 1 out of 3 are obese. It's probable that the homeless can scrounge up a dollar to get meat and carbs off a dollar menu, but fruits and veggies remain out of reach. Another issue is that food has fewer nutrients in it than you think. My students asked why the United States doesn't do more to teach us about nutrition. Whatever you think of the food pyramid or the current dinner plate, the U.S. does try to educate us about nutrition. We aren't listening. Corporations that make this useless fast food aren't listening either. And, that guy who thinks better fast food is the answer? He's deluded.
Taking the "food stamp challenge" or the minimum wage challenge are a fad that gets great PR. Not everyone is a fan of it. The food stamp challenge earned two Pinocchios for limiting the food budget to only SNAP funds. Yes, the S in SNAP stands for "Supplemental", but if you don't have the money to "supplement" your food allowance, you don't eat the last week of the month. Kessler is hardly alone in his ignorance about poverty in America. The House choosing to defund SNAP but not the NSA clarifies what our House members' value. Hint: it's not the tired, poor huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
The complexity of the fast food, obesity, malnutrition, time poverty, high stress lifestyle matrix is often lost on both the elite and the average man in the street.
One day ....
Some time ago a homeless man approached me at a gas station (on my way to work). He wasn't skinny, he looked a little chunky. I had no cash on me (that was my lunch time mission), but I did have my packed lunch. The homeless man was disappointed at my lack of cash but his eyes lit up when I offered him my lunch comprised of a salad, salmon, fresh fruit and a fadish, "nutrtional" drink. I also gave him a protein snack bar for later. He told me he hadn't eaten any vegetables other than a leaf of lettuce and a slice of tomato in 2 weeks and that was because he bought a banana at a 7-11. He happily went off to eat my lunch and I knew that at least for that day; the man was going to get his RDA (now called DRIs) for vitamins A, B Complex, C, D, and Omega 3's (not that I knew if he cared about that).
The man on the other side of the pump who had blown the homeless man off, watched our exchange and was amazed the homeless man was very happy to receive veggies and fruit and said I was crazy to give him food - especially the salmon. Yeah, well, I couldn't resist, I quoted Matthew at him.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed meThat quote irked him. I followed up with acknowledging that it was possible the homeless guy did make bad choices; but meh, I could easily replace my lunch. The portly man with the truck said the homeless man wasn't skinny enough to be malnourished. I asked the man if he knew where the nearest full service grocery store was and he named the one about 5 miles away. Then I asked him how the homeless guy was going to get there or where he could get fruits and vegetables near where we were standing at a reasonable price. He told me that fruits and vegetables are over rated. I could see that I was going to get no where with him, so I changed the subject. I asked him if he owned the business his truck was advertising. He did. I asked if he used low level laborers on his jobs. He did. I asked him to go over to the homeless guy at the picnic table and give him an interview find out why he's homeless and if he'd be a good risk to employ. He didn't. He left. He was in a hurry to join the huddled masses on I-95, talking on his Bluetooth with the HoneyBun he bought at the gas station's convenience store in his hand.