Day Four: I Know! How Much More Will You Have to Endure?
Posted on | February 12, 2009 | 15 Comments
*Special Note: I will be on Strange Love Live talking about sex on Friday at 10pm. Tune in, would you?*
Today’s challenge is to do your American duty and vote!
I’m going to do a poll here at MelissaLiondotcom. I know.
So, here’s the sitch — Steve and I and Arch went to the hippie organic sanctimonious market aka New Seasons. For my non-Portland readers, let me fill you in. This is the organic, posh expensive market in Portland — the capital of sanctimonious food worship.
I love it there.
Nothing makes me feel more superior than paying a small fortune for California citrus.
And they always have free samples. Very good free samples. Like wine and beer. And cheese and California citrus.
Yesterday they were sampling salad dressing. They were putting it on mixed baby greens and serving it in wee compostable bowls and you’d eat it with a wee compostable spoon.
I took a serving and handed one to Steve. It was very good. Now, I normally don’t buy salad dressing because that’s an excellent place to find really disgusting fat and high fructose corn syrup. I haven’t bought salad dressing in probably five years. But this dressing was pretty good. So I checked out the label and saw palm oil. I know because I taught food politics that palm oil is more fattening than lard.
So I say to Steve, who was behind me, “Steve, this has palm oil. ICK!” And then I check out the nutritional information and the serving size of TWO TABLESPOONS has 26% of ones daily recommended fat. 26%!
So then I put the dressing back and say to Steve, “Oh my god! That has 26% of my daily recommended fat! For two tablespoons!”
And the woman behind the free sample counter says, “Excuse me. Do you have any questions about the dressing.” And I say, “No.” Because my questions were pretty much answered. And she said, “Well I make the dressing.” And I promptly sunk my head into my shoulders and walked away.
Steve said he could see me putting my foot in my mouth from a mile away and chose not to stop it.
I wandered the store after that feeling a mixture of guilt (because I’d been a total douche to a small business owner) and outrage (if you’re going to be all local and sustainable, part of that is being mindful of your customers’ health. Palm oil is disgusting. As is two tablespoons containing one quarter of the fat you should eat in one whole day.)
And now, Internet, use your god given American right and VOTE!
[polldaddy poll=1362510]
Comments
15 Responses to “Day Four: I Know! How Much More Will You Have to Endure?”
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February 12th, 2009 @ 7:14 am
I vote for passive aggressive every time.
That’s just the way I roll.
February 12th, 2009 @ 8:44 am
I see that vote is killing it. But that’s what you’d expect from a bunch of bloggers.
February 12th, 2009 @ 8:53 am
There is palm oil in my almond butter EVEN THOUGH it is Maranatha brand that you buy at Whole Foods and I feel like I have to eat it because it cost nine dollars but I really really just want to throw it out and buy the Kettle brand almond butter which has no palm oil.
What should I do, Melissa Lion?
February 12th, 2009 @ 9:46 am
Crissy: You and me both. How else will people learn?
Apollo: Right.
KK: Return it to the store. You can return food. Take it back and get the kind you want.
February 12th, 2009 @ 10:27 am
i voted “make out with the woman behind the counter” because i am predictably inappropriate.
February 12th, 2009 @ 10:45 am
Um, hi. ORANGUTANS. They’re dying because palm oil harvesting destroys their habitat.
http://www.savetheorangutan.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2006/04/BOSPalm_Oil_Reportfinal.pdf
When I found this out, I immediately ran to my favorite neighborhood donut shop on Alberta and cried out, “Dear God. Do you use palm oil for these donuts because if you do, I’m not going to stop eating them because they are the most delicious donuts IN THE WORLD. But I’ll feel bad.” They used vegetable oil.
So the moral of the story is, eff that lady for walking into New Seasons with her MONKEY DEATH DRESSING and then trying to make you feel bad.
February 12th, 2009 @ 11:09 am
I think the only other thing you could have done would have been to say, “Oh, you make it? Did you know how bad palm oil is for you?” I mean, hey, maybe she is ignorant and you needed to school her. Actually, you probably already did.
February 12th, 2009 @ 11:14 am
Ken: She was very mad at me.
Nat: Thank you! I feel doubly superior.
Bold: You’re right. But I think she knew before because she started getting a little nervous when I started reading the label.
Just to put this in perspective for everyone, I just looked at a tub of regular old ice cream I have in the freezer — 1/2 cup serving. 14% daily fat.
February 12th, 2009 @ 11:47 am
you read labels?
February 12th, 2009 @ 12:44 pm
I would have asked her why palm oil and the asked if she had she tried an alternative.
Then again, I’m known for not knowing when it’s best for me to shut up.
February 12th, 2009 @ 3:35 pm
Yeah, I’m really confused as to why she wouldn’t use olive or canola oil.
I just can’t stop thinking about this.
And I already ate, like, half the almond butter so I guess I killed, like, a million orangutans. Boooo.
February 12th, 2009 @ 4:15 pm
Oh, who cares how much fat is in yummy foods? That’s what gyms are for.
But palm oil is evil and it is neither local nor sustainable. Imagine every paved surface (roads, parking lots, driveways, sidewalks) in the US. It would amount to over 25,000 square miles. That’s how much rain forest and peatland has been destroyed in Indonesia and Malaysia to make way for palm oil plantations. Indonesia is the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world (after the US and China) thanks to palm oil.
She could use California olive or canola oil instead. She should be the guilty one, not you.
February 12th, 2009 @ 6:35 pm
Diesel: It’s part of the superiority plan.
Ceci: That would have been better. I think just putting it plainly would have made me feel better and not skulking around the store.
KK: Well, just do some more yoga, that absolves you.
Stoogie: I didn’t know all of this about palm oil. I just knew the lard thing. I don’t feel guilty anymore. I feel indignant.
February 12th, 2009 @ 8:33 pm
hempseed oil is where it’s at.
February 13th, 2009 @ 3:06 pm
Oh and the passive aggressive bloggers win the vote!!!
YES!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, you should tell her about the Palm oil. Maybe she doesn’t know and maybe she’ll really appreciate your advice?