Peanuts and Obesity

Not only am I earning peanuts (read: low wages) at my job, I am eating them too.

Lunch on my first day of the Foodstamp Challenge:

My lunch with a friend at Subway was canceled, so I stuck with my peanut stash for sustanance.   And when I say stash, I truly mean that I keep baggies of peanuts and wheat thins in my desk drawer for my snacks.  I feel like one of the older ladies from church when I was growing up, they always had a drawer in their house with some hidden stash of goodies.

So now my snacks have become my meals, which I think is also a relevant concept for those trying to buy food cheaply.  Some people may see a disconnect between obesity and hunger, but I believe (and bet you can find many more reports on) they are linked.  Compare the price of a gallon of milk and a liter of soda.  If you were strapped for cash and had thirsty children, what would you do?  Some people would consider pop, junk food and fast food special treats, but to others it becomes a regular diet.

With this challenge, we are limited to one dollar per meal.  Where would you go to get a meal for one dollar?

How many of you thought of the McDonald's Dollar Menu as your solution?  When I worked at the Boys and Girls Club in Hamilton, parents (strapped for cash and time) would send their children with McDonald's takeout for lunch.  While I grew up with my mother packing chipchop ham sandwiches, carrots, a Little Debbie snack, and a thermos of chocolate milk, some kids' bodies have to deal with processing McDonalds, pop, and other foods that can be very filling but very unhealthy.  Hence hunger + no money = obesity.  Kind of strange, but it looks like the reality of the situation.

I am making the decision to truncate this train of thought on hunger.  It's cruel to record and analyze food in society when I am hungry.