Monday, October 3, 2011

Foodies Attack! ∞

In case you missed it, Bittman’s “Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?” appeared in last week’s Times Sunday Review. (In a word: no.)

The conclusion itself isn’t the shocker, because Bittman skews the comparison. As many commenters noted, people who are genuinely poor order off the Dollar Menu and buy soda much cheaper elsewhere. And doing so would eliminate the price gap between the healthy, home cooked meal and the one from McDonald’s.

Granted, Bittman’s meals still compare relatively favorably on a dollar-for-calorie basis, but this sort of temperance of thought has no place at the foodie table. Read for yourself how people responded.

Alice H. Lichtenstein wants to mandate “food-preparation and buying skills be incorporated into the school curriculum.” I can see it now: Sorry Billy, your algebra class has been cancelled so you can learn how to poach an egg. Ironically, this is great news because your future employment as low-wage short order cook is pretty much assured without proficiency in algebra. But I’ve already been here, so let’s move on.

Pamela G. Bailey wants you to know that “children in families that dine together eat more fruits and vegetables and have healthier diets and lower rates of obesity” and so on and so forth. She’s the president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and yet basic logic appears to fail her. What does dining as a family have anything to do with who prepares the food?

Lastly, Carol Nicklaus wants to tell you it costs “roughly three times as much to eat fast food as it does for us to eat at home.” Outrageous! Dining at full-service restaurants including Chili’s and TGI Friday’s costs more than buying the ingredients alone. Who will tell the people?

But what irks me most of all is the “cooking isn’t work” mantra. Cooking requires uninterrupted lengths of time engaged in mundane, repetitive activities. There’s absolutely no fundamental aspect of cooking from food prep to cleaning—other than the eating itself—that could legitimately be described as fun. So don’t let this subset of upper-middle-class liberals convince you otherwise; quite frankly, it seems like they’re still trying convince themselves.