Horking down the Dodger dog
I love it when I see two items in the newspapers that stand alone OK but when you read them together make no sense.
Recently I saw a story about all you can eat sections at Dodger Stadium. The idea is that for a set price, usually not much more than you would pay for a ticket and a few snacks you get to gorge yourself on a never ending amount of junk food at the game. As many hot dogs, nachos peanuts popcorn and soda as you can stand. With hot dogs selling elsewhere in the stadium for almost 5 bucks it doesn’t take too many trips to the snack counter to make it worth your while.
The Los Angeles Dodgers aren’t out in left field with this idea. Our local Yankees at PNC field have a similar deal. A quick look at the web site for the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees under the ticket section shows you this deal: At every game you attend in this 7-game ticket plan, you’ll get all of the fresh-grilled hot dogs, hamburgers and grilled chicken sandwiches, and as much soda and water you want. There’s even an express line dedicated to our Champions Plan buyers. This means no waiting in concession lines.
The Dodgers point out that it’s not about gluttony. Marty Greenspun the Dodgers executive Vice President said “This is really about offering a new fan amenity. It’s all up to individual choices.â€
One fan noted that his individual choice was for seven so called Dodger Dogs. That’s around 1800 calories and a whopping 500 grams of fat and that’s without the buns or the fixings. Add in a few helpings of nachos, peanuts and sugary sodas and you could feed a family for a week on what is consumed by one baseball fan in an afternoon.
Now, here’s the headline of the second article. Study: Binge Eating is No 1 food disorder in USA. The article states that Binge Eating Disorder is estimated at around 6% of the population and is probably under-reported due to people’s shame.
Unless my math is way off that’s around 12 million people who would love to have an all you can eat lifetime. A binge eater by definition is a person who can’t stop once they get started even though they feel uncomfortably full. Sound like our seven Dodger Dog friend to you?
So on one hand we have America’s favorite pastime urging you to chow down and on the other hand millions of our fellow citizens are in the grip of a fatal obsession with overeating.
Is this a great country or what?
