[lbo-talk] The Revolution Will Be Edible: Occupy Wall Street; the Arab Spring, No Bread, No Peace

[shag carpet bomb]

At 12:34 AM 1/26/2012, Chuck Grimes wrote:
>``A year prior to the onset of the recession, researchers out of the 
>University of Washington found that it costs $3.52 a day to eat 2000 
>calories of junk food as opposed to $36.32 for more nutritious foods... .''
>
>-------------
>
>This is pretty stunning. It explains in one sentence why obesity and 
>poverty go hand in hand and result in the curious fact that Mississippi is 
>both the poorest state in the Union and the most obese state in the Union.
>
>The other curious fact, for which I have no data, is that when I was poor, 
>I spent much of my day preparing food. I found the cheapest food took the 
>most time to prepare. The way to save was to spend most of Sunday making 
>food for the week. It involved making spanish rice, black beans, salsa, 
>and pressure cooking a whole chicken. Once the chicken was done, I 
>stripped it down to bones, skin, and a back, wrapped those in cheese cloth 
>and re-cooked them into a soup stock. The soup stock was the basis for a 
>dark red chili sauce. The rest of the stock can be re-heated with dried 
>noodles for, you know chicken noodle soup.
>
>The basic dinner was two enchaladas, rice and beans, using pre-fab corn 
>tortillas. and Monterey Jack. Once the basic fixings are in the refig in 
>air tight containers, dinner is ready in a few minutes in the microwave. 
>Chopped cliantro and cumin helps keep the chicken from going bad. Using 
>pork fat helps the flavor of the rice and beans. I used beacon ends.
>
>The cheapest breakfast I found consisted of a three egg omelete, with Jack 
>cheese, onions, mushrooms, served with coffee. It is remarkably filling.
>
>Lunch is a problem. I used to make quesadillas with a lentil soup.

Yeah. Sundays used to be a massive cook-a-thon of this sort - and a lot 
more casserole type dishes and variations of pasta salad.

there was an issue of Newsweek I read in a waiting room recently, something 
about myths about nutrition. I was trying to find it recently because our 
company, self-insured, is on a big kick to keep health care costs down, 
having us sign up for health screenings, exercise programs, nutrition, etc. 
A guy I work with was complaining because the guidelines they use seem to 
be working off a lot of nutrition mythology.

Anyway, in this article (which I can't find!) the author said that there's 
some research to suggest that our body regulates hunger based on nutrition. 
If you eat a lot of non-nutritious junk and don't get the right micro- and 
macro-nutrients, you'll feel hungry in spite of having plenty of calories.

But what the fuck would you be eating that would cost $36/day?