#800 X-Hungry

I was watching a news program that featured a story on malnutrition. A nutritionist had come up with a concoction that brought kids back from the brink of death. It was hailed as a scientific breakthrough that was responsible for miraculous recoveries.
I’m thinking you can’t use the terms scientific breakthrough and miraculous recovery in the same sentence. A miracle is, by definition, outside the bounds of science.
Jesus wasn’t on a jet-ski in the Sea of Galilee.
In any event, the story unfolded about this scientific nutrition breakthrough. It’s basically an easy-to-store paste available in tubs or foil pouches. It requires no refrigeration and no water to reconstitute.
Both essential requirements in areas where water is scarce and Frigidaires scarcer.
It’s also fairly simple to manufacture, being a mixture of peanut butter, vitamins, powdered milk and sugar.
But what got me was the name. Plumpy’nut. I’m sorry, when I come up with a miracle scientific breakthrough I’m thinking I’m not going to name it like it was a cartoon character.
Plumpy’nut sounds like one of the Hamburglars, or possibly some nutsy overweight comic relief sidekick to a cartoon hero. “Quit your joking and shut your piehole, Plumpy’nut, we’ve got work to do.”
Sure, it plumps skinny kids up. And sure, it’s derived from peanuts, but I almost turned the TV channel because hearing the term Plumpy’nut emerge countless times from the serious new commentator’s lips was so disconcerting.
Imagine Walter Cronkite or Ted Koppel saying Plumpy’nut. Malnutrition is a serious subject. Anderson Cooper was a serious journalist reporting on it. “Plumpy’nut” didn’t fit.
He did ask one revealing question of a doctor in the small African country where the piece was filmed. “What about peanut allergies?”
“Not a problem,” the physician replied. “There are no peanut allergies in the underdeveloped world. And for the most part no allergies generally.”
I’ve heard this before. Apparently fighting off malaria, sleeping sickness and infections caused by malnutrition gives your body more important things to do than react to cat dander.
Plumpy’nut would probably come with a warning label here.
America, ya gotta love it.