Fat inmate sues over weight loss | NEWS.com.au

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23608746-23109,00.html

By staff writers

April 28, 2008 09:11am

AN obese inmate awaiting trial for murder is suing authorities after he lost more than 45kg because of the prison food.

Broderick Lloyd Laswell has filed a federal lawsuit which says Benton County Jail in Arkansas doesn't give its inmates enough food after complaining he was down to 140kg after eight months inside.

He is accused, along with another man, of fatally beating and stabbing a man then setting his home on fire.

According to the suit, Mr Laswell weighed 187kg when he was jailed in September, the Associated Press reported.

"On several occasions I have started to do some exercising and my vision went blurry and I felt like I was going to pass out," Mr Laswell said in his lawsuit.

"About an hour after each meal my stomach starts to hurt and growl. I feel hungry again."

He said he should not be losing weight because he did little exercise.

"If we are in a small pod all day (and) do next to nothing for physical exercise, we should not lose weight," the suit said.

"The only reason we lost weight in here is because we are literally being starved to death."

The meals, provided through Aramark Correctional Institution Services averaged 3000 calories a day, jail spokesman Hunter Petray told The Morning News of northwest Arkansas yesterday.

A typical Western diet consists of 2000 to 3000 calories a day.

When bananas ruled the (American) world

Very interesting article about the not so sweet history of the banana and it's relation to North and South america.

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2008/04/19/bananas/

"April 19, 2008 | On a trip to Honduras, journalist Dan Koeppel caught the banana bug. Researching an article for Popular Science about attempts to breed a disease-resistant banana, the American journalist wandered the grounds of the old Chiquita compound, amid the fading colonial mansions and golf course, where he stumbled upon the cheery yellow fruit's unsavory past."

...

"When local leaders threatened taxes or complained about the company's abysmal labor practices, such as paying workers exclusively in company scrip to be spent only at the company store, United Fruit threatened to leave the country, taking its business next door. Mere bribes to local officials were strictly junior varsity in this jungle."