Fattening them up in Gitmo

Filed in archive Food for Thought , News on October 6, 2006

I don't want to enter the realm of politics on this blog but with this news report on the prisoners in Guantanamo, I can't help but air a few comments.

The situation: Detainees in Guantanamo are reported to have unhealthily gained a lot of pounds since being taken into custody. One prisoner has doubled his weight now reaching 410 lbs.

From the Associated Press through Yahoo News:

Meals totaling a whopping 4,200 calories per day are brought to their cells, well above the 2,000 to 3,000 calories recommended for weight maintenance by U.S. government dietary guidelines. And some inmates are eating everything on the menu.

A drastic change in lifestyle, i.e. running and hiding then sedentary, leads to weight gain. It doesn't help that they're not allowed to exercise at will:

Human rights groups attribute the weight gain to lack of exercise. They cite accounts of released detainees who complained they were allowed to exercise fewer than three times a week outside their small cells.

But Durand said detainees are simply served a wide variety of food and are expected to choose what appeals to them.

"The detainees are advised that they are offered more food than necessary, to provide choice and variety, and that consuming all the food they are offered will result in weight gain," he said.

Why do I think the situation is either deliberate or no thought was put into meal planning? It doesn't take professionals to know the following:

• With nothing to do, people tend to mindlessly eat. Ever had children home all day? Most mothers know the food budget balloons during school vacations.


• Tension, a lot of times, compels people to eat.


• Serve a buffet, people automatically sample each dish served.

Hmmm... there's more than meets the eye here. Perhaps they can't be executed legally. Food might be a more effective means.