Ten in Ten Dietlog

November 27, 2009

Food for the poor

Filed under: Eating Beans — Lynn Shwadchuck @ 8:57 pm

I’ve been reading the comments under this idyllic photo/words essay “And the Pursuit of Happiness” in the New York Times by children’s book illustrator Maira Kalman.

This comment really struck me:

254. A few weeks ago, as I waited in the quick checkout line at a grocery store, I noticed a young woman ahead of me in line with her two small children. Their clothes were tattered and they all looked tired. Her basket only contained a bag of dried blackeye peas and slow-cooking regular oats – reasonably healthy choices. When she tried to use her WIC stamps card, WIC wouldn’t cover these purchases (it doesn’t do regular oats, wouldn’t do 10 oz bags of beans only 16 oz bags which this store didn’t carry). So instead, at the cashier’s suggestion, she bought a jar of Jif peanut butter and sugar-flavored instant oatmeal packets.
Until we as a society address these issues, elitist promotion of slow food and high priced organic produce makes me ill.

 

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2 Comments »

  1. What if humans are not meant to eat certain foods? What if humans are still evolved to eat as a hunter gatherer and are not equiped to eat grains?

    Comment by Brad — October 23, 2010 @ 1:06 am | Reply

    • Well, humans are in fact omnivores. Some people can’t eat grains because they have a sensitivity.

      Comment by Lynn Shwadchuck — October 23, 2010 @ 3:29 am | Reply


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