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Beaned to Death (Prison Edition)

Following the other posts in the key of F, I'm coming to you from Bean Heaven, aka Blessington Correctional Facility.

I get it, beans are inexpensive in the relative scope of food items you can serve en masse to ~1,884 people daily. They offer a source of non-animal protein, which makes them appropriate for vegetarian and vegan diets when no animal byproduct is added. They are nominally not loaded with saturated fats, and provide some of the recommended dailies for nutritional needs.

But day in, day out plates of pinto beans becomes a bit wearying when there are other options available.

Here are a few things missing from our diets in Beantopia:

  • Mushrooms I have neither seen nor eaten a mushroom in close to three years. Unless you are buying portobello, enoki, or shiitake mushrooms, they can be frequently had quite inexpensively per pound. Mushrooms also serve as a source of non-animal, non-bean protein, fiber, and carry other useful nutrients.

  • Avocados Hello, potassium source! We lack a rounded diet here -- far too little potassium is available in the foods we can access, and the multivitamin that recently returned for $7.86/60 tablets purchase lacks potassium, magnesium, iron, and selenium entirely. A lack of potassium is not healthy for a person, as it leads to muscle spasms and cramps among other health issues.

  • Beets I might be the only person at Blessington that misses the flavors of beets in general, but iron is plentiful in this vegetable. For plant eaters like me, this would be amazing. A salad with shredded beets, non-iceberg lettuce, cabbage, orange bits, grated carrots, and a light vinaigrette would be a step above our average salad of iceberg lettuce with nothing else.

You ask too much.

No. I ask not enough.

I ask for the state to follow its legal obligation in maintaining my good health -- my sole obligation is to remain here as my punishment. Good health means a diet that isn't a continued shortfall of essential nutrients that can only be made up by us purchasing hyper-processed junk foods that were fortified with those missing items.

Example

I have nutritional data from a 170g (~6 oz) pack of Market Square Bakery Iced Oatmeal Cookies here.
There are about 24 cookies in this pack; a serving is 4 cookies (27 grams, slightly less than 1 oz.), about six servings in the pack.

Numbers you want to know per serving:

  • 4.5g Total Fat, of which 1g is saturated.
  • 0g Cholesterol.
  • 80mg Sodium.
  • 20g TOTAL Carbohydrates, of which 1g is Dietary Fiber, 8g is Total Sugars (8g Added Sugars);19g NET Carbohydrates (20 - 1).
  • 1g proteins.
  • 0mcg Vitamin D.
  • 0mg each Calcium, Potassium.
  • 1mg Iron

To eat the whole 170g (6 oz) pack exposes me to 114g Net Carbohydrates (120g Total, minus 6g Dietary Fiber), for 6mg -- that is, 36% of the recommended daily -- of iron.
A 171g (~6 oz) serving of pinto beans, by comparison, offers less than 3 milligrams of iron: my data suggests 2.48mg iron, about 14% of the daily value.

That's a scary thought. I can overload on carbohydrates by eating the full pack of cookies to get the missing iron or skip the carbs for a potential iron deficiency and related health issues.

To wit, most of our junk food available at Gas Station+ pricing has enriched flour to sneak some iron in. Our drink mixes sneak in a little potassium, but that's just about the only place we'll find it.

Furthering the imbalance

Would it surprise you to know that, apart from special occasions, the only fruit we see here regularly are apples (regular or security modified)?
We see oranges typically once every couple of months, with this happening slightly more frequently after Passover.
I nearly forgot pears, plums, peaches, persimmons, pomegranates, and kiwifruit still exist. I've seen a grand total of two Cavendish bananas in the last 32 months. Apricots, the many varietals of grapes and cherries, carambolas, duri-- well... I think it is safe to skip durian in this, but it's safe to say we see none of these.

Just apples.

Granted, we're starting to see a little variety in the apples (not just #4015, Red Delicious), but apple apple apple apple apple Apple APPLE does not equal No Need for the Doctor.

I guess it's true: absence makes the heart grow fonder. I do miss having kiwifruit, cherries, plums, and grapes from our garden, not just for their tastes, but for the nutrition benefits.

What can the people do?

As I and other diabetics choke down another tray chock full of white rice and white bread for empty calories and a massive blood glucose spike, it's time for voices outside to shout down the walls of the institutions that allow such careless behavior. Insist on a proper outside nutritionist's review of the served menu, removing internal bias toward earning a bonus. Ban using the calorie as the sole source of justifying the serving of a menu item: require the menu item to also provide nutritive value such as essential vitamins and minerals.

I would wager this would yield fewer diabetics in prisons, alleviating suffering for a group of people who cannot protect themselves.

Might help some other health issues out, too, like obesity. Hmm...

I'm no nutritionist, but I play one on the Internet.

Until the next time, dear readers. :)