First World Problems
NEWS FLASH! Jim Horne, who runs the www.xwordinfo.com site on which many of you find our acrostics (and so much more) has informed us that, after many years of work, he has made it possible to solve the acrostics on tablets. Well done, Jim!
As for this week’s puzzle, our daughter, Becca, who beta tests our acrostics, had a lot to say about our choice of quotation at the heart of this week’s acrostic and, more generally, about the theme of food and “diet culture.” She pointed out that far too many people in the world still suffer “the famine end” of the feast-or-famine equation and that, even in a prosperous country such as the United States, a shocking number of people – roughly 5.4 percent of us, it turns out – experience very low food security on a regular basis.
She also noted that the diet industry plays upon – and generates – insecurities over our personal appearance and eating habits, driving sales of books like The South Beach Diet, the source of this week’s quotation. In attempts to achieve weight loss, people resort to regimens that have, at best, a mixed track record of producing long-term health benefits. A recent report also indicates that more than 12 percent of Americans – roughly 1 in 8 of us – are taking GLP-1 drugs, many of these for the sole purpose of losing weight. So many people started taking Ozempic for weight loss, in fact, that those who needed it to control diabetes were, for a time, at risk of being unable to find any.
Finally, Becca pointed out that the diet culture promoted by mass media – and by those who market diet books – can also lead to eating disorders, which disproportionately affect women, particularly young women. Eight percent of 15-year-old girls diet at a “severe level,” and their risk of developing an eating disorder is 18 times greater than the risks faced by their peers who do not diet.
We acknowledged the validity of those arguments while also pointing out that, in a country in which some 40 percent of the population suffers from obesity, people should have the option to try a variety of weight-loss approaches, including those offered by books such as The South Beach Diet.
We are curious to know what those of you who read and respond to our blog may have to say on the subject. The floor is open, as they say.
While this is not our first acrostic on the theme of food, we found plenty of new clues and answers that relate to the subject. After some debate, we decided to include “body mass” and “index” in the puzzle, despite concerns about the value of “body mass index” as a measure of healthfulness. Still, the phrase is ubiquitous – and fits nicely into the structure of this acrostic.
While the temptation to engage in excess eating does plague many of us, the consumption of food can also bring us comfort and joy, even occasional transformation, as this clip from the climactic scene in Ratatouille reveals:
First, I want to thank Jim for the iPadification of the NYT Acrostic, which I used for the first time today (on my “Medicare birthday,” no less! Great gift!)
As a [Clue B], I enjoyed this puzzle and theme. I found it easier than average, though still challenging. (Perhaps that was due to not scribbling and transcribing.) Love learning new vocab, OTIOSE being this week’s EEPHUS.
To your daughter’s points, food insecurity in the US is ironically coupled to the obesity epidemic. Almost 20% of households with children experienced food insecurity last year – all while SNAP and school lunch program funding were constantly threatened. Often people with food insecurity are simultaneously obese, because whatever food they can find is of poor quality, overloaded with added sugar, fat, and salt. Food deserts are a real thing. Somehow as a country we need to find a happy medium between Trader Joe’s and bodegas.
Maybe F. could have been a “Woman’s tall, brimless hat” for a change of pace and a challenging clue. Just an observation in a nicely done Acrostic.
The abandonment of science as a national approach to the discovery of knowledge is postponing a full understanding of weight gain and loss, and the healthiest approaches to nutrition. So “homo sapiens americanus” is stuck in a time warp between a feast of good information and this famine of blind ignorance. Thankfully we have entertaining acrostics with real solutions to keep us busy in the meantime.
This acrostic was personally very timely for me, as I am on day four of a diet, although not a fad diet (just reducing consumption of sweets and eliminating all between meals snacks). I don’t think I’ve ever solved an acrostic by getting more words in the grid with few letters than this one. After my first pass through the clues I was able to visualize “Since the dawn of Homo sapiens” and “experience.” Things proceeded smoothly after that.
Bonus point for the Wallace and Gromit reference.
Thanks to Becca for her entirely warranted observations and to David and Jane for a puzzle I’ll refrain from calling delicious! And not just because it has ECOLI in it…
I enjoyed the acrostic but “Ratio of a person’s weight to height” is not “body mass.” It is not even the “body mass index,” which is the ratio of a person’s weight to the square of their height. Body mass is just, well, the mass of the body, and has nothing to do with height.
Hi Ira,
Thanks for that observation. The Collins English Dictionary has “body mass” as an entry, and defines it as “the ratio of a person’s weight to their height: Calculate your body mass by dividing your weight by your height.”
It may not seem intuitive, but that’s what it says.
Glad you enjoyed the acrostic.
D&J
With only BODY MASS and HEE HEW, I also grasped the first line of the quote, although I thought it could be “… dawn of (time)”. But a bit later, ECTOMORPH set that right. In my life, I could easily be overweight and have been on the cusp a couple of times. What saved me mostly was a passion for ballet class which instilled discipline in many ways. A good friend has been on a successful diet by lowering his portions. I have found it beneficial to vastly reduce snacking, drinking more water and staying busy. This is a great topic and I agree with all the comments regarding obesity and the malnourished. Great puzzle. Been reading some mysteries set in Canada where they all wear TOQUEs.
Late to the party, but I also enjoyed this one a lot.
I join the thanks to Jim for making the puzzle available other than on the printed page or laptop. I now can do it on an iPhone. Perhaps the “warning label” (which currently reads that the “acrostic solver doesn’t work well on phones. Try it on your PC, Mac, or tablet”) should be changed, so as not to scare off iPhone users.
Considering that starvation is being used as a weapon of war in South Sudan and Gaza, I found the acrostic to be in very poor taste to say the least.