In the news
Worried about Honduran cantaloupes? Chill out.
Honduran president defends melons by eating one
He’s no Julia Child, but Honduran President Manuel Zelaya showed Tuesday he can attack a cantaloupe and U.S. government claims in a single motion.
Zelaya lifted a cantaloupe from the box, placed it in front of him, then grabbed a knife and a fork.
“Permit me to make a demonstration,” he said, then cut open the fruit, sliced off a chunk, put it in his mouth and chewed vigorously.
“I eat this fruit without any fear,” he said with his mouth full. “It’s a delicious fruit. Nothing happens to me!”
Though the symptoms of salmonella infection — nausea, vomiting, fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps — typically do not occur for several hours after eating tainted food, the point was made.
In other food news, we have Paul Graham, who is a venture capitalist and something of a professional bomb-thrower in the programming world. Graham is not usually known for his food writing, but I couldn’t let this slip by without comment.
You Weren’t Meant to Have a Boss
“Normal” food is terribly bad for you. The only people who eat what humans were actually designed to eat are a few Birkenstock-wearing weirdos in Berkeley.
If “normal” food is so bad for us, why is it so common? There are two main reasons. One is that it has more immediate appeal. You may feel lousy an hour after eating that pizza, but eating the first couple bites feels great.
My question to Graham: what kind of defective pizza are you eating?
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Comment by jennywenny
He is kind of right though. Its been made really easy to eat badly, and you have to go out of your way to eat the stuff your body really needs. I feel like people look at me a bit wierdly with my big plates of salad and lots of veggies where its really the way we all should be eating most of the time.
Posted on March 26, 2008 at 10:07 am
Comment by Lore
Dude, part of the reason it’s so common is because it’s cheap. And there are many, many people in the U.S. who can’t afford to eat fresh, organic, well-balanced meals.
(And by “dude” I meant Graham, not you, Mamster. :-/ )
Posted on March 26, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Comment by mamster
I feel great an hour after I eat good pizza and terrible immediately after I eat bad pizza.
Posted on March 27, 2008 at 6:45 am
Comment by shauna
Oh, that’s easy. If he feels bad an hour after eating pizza, he has celiac and doesn’t know it. That’s why he’s so grumpy.
Posted on March 27, 2008 at 7:07 am
Comment by mamster
That could explain a lot of his essays, Shauna.
Posted on March 27, 2008 at 7:08 am
Comment by Katelyn
I wish I didn’t know what he was talking about with the “feeling bad post-pizza” comment. I LOVE pizza, but I always feel bloated, achey and grumpy a couple hours after I eat it. (Sometimes it’s worth it, though.)
Posted on March 30, 2008 at 7:40 am
Comment by mamster
Katelyn, Shauna. Shauna, Katelyn.
Posted on March 30, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Comment by Cinthia
I remember when some newspaper made negative remarks about Costa Rican bananas. Our economy still hasn’t gotten over it. I wish people would think about what they are saying or at least research it a bit before putting it out there. It’s like those emails you get that say your deodorant will give you armpit cancer and your lipstick will give you lip cancer… and so you walk around smelly and make-upless for a week before you actually google the information and find out it was a stupid hoax. Oh life.
Posted on April 2, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Comment by mamster
Cinthia, I was just linking to a hilarious article. But the facts in this case are: one Honduran cantaloupe company was almost definitely shipping contaminated melons. This doesn’t mean all cantaloupes or all produce from Honduras is bad.
Posted on April 4, 2008 at 3:31 am
Comment by Cinthia
I was just stream-of-conscious-ing or associating things randomly… or something… like you said, it doesn’t mean all melons are bad… just SOME.
I really need to not comment late. BAD cinthia!
Posted on April 12, 2008 at 4:40 am