5 February 2006Robin McKie
So who ate all the snacks? Even by their gargantuan standards of over-indulgence, couch potato Americans are preparing to outdo themselves during today's Super Bowl, the sporting highlight of the country's year. They will guzzle their way through truckloads of crisps, peanuts, pretzels, popcorn, nachos, pizza, olives, biscuits, cheese and anything else they can find in the fridge. Britons may drink themselves silly during big games - Americans stuff themselves stupid.
According to research by the US Calorie Control Council, gridiron fans will today eat 11 million pounds of crisps, 8m lbs of tortilla chips, 4m lbs of pretzels and 2.5m lbs of nuts. The average armchair quarterback will consume 1,200 calories, and 50 grams of fat, in a three-hour scoffing binge. The average Eritrean struggles to eat that in a day.
For the whole nation, the consumption is staggering. A total of 156 billion calories will be absorbed by the 130 million people watching the Pittburgh Steelers take on the Seattle Seahawks at Ford Field in Detroit. You could satisfy east Africa's 11 million hungry for about a week with that.
Needless to say, such intakes have a devastating effect on the health of Americans. This is a people born with silver shovels in their mouths, claim the cynics, who argue that authorities will soon have to install speed bumps at all-you-eat-buffets, hand out estimates rather than menus in restaurants, and grease door frames so that people can squeeze through.
Hence the Calorie Control Council has issued special Super Bowl advice for this first time. Try low-fat crisps, it has recommended. Axe the fatty dips with pretzels and have salsa instead. The council is even urging fans to try a pre-tournament workout: running round a stadium track for an hour and a quarter would nicely balance that 1,200 calorie intake. Right.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,5391947-119093,00.html
