Balance of Food

Next time dinner is running a little late, you're not hungry anymore. You have "very low food security." From the same people that told you ketchup is a vegetable, the term "hunger" is being Orwellianed. Each year, the Agriculture Department issues a report that measures access to food. Lead author Mark Nord has said "hungry" is "not a scientifically accurate term for the specific phenomenon being measured in the food security survey." Of course, asking people who are hungry, oh, I mean, suffer from very low food security might produce a different answer. The USDA said that 12 percent of Americans -- 35 million people -- could not put food on the table at least part of last year. It's fair to say that U.S. government numbers tend to undercount rather than overcount. That's a lot of people. Then you have to factor that this is food, period. Often, the poor tend to eat poorly (pardon the pun) with high amounts of white flour and high-fructose corn syrup, not because of their taste but their cheapness. The cost of eating better is higher than many can afford. This, in turn, raises health care costs for diseases such as diabetes.