Obama’s USDA is urging Americans to grill fruit this July Fourth instead of the traditional hamburgers, hotdogs, and other assorted meats. It is estimated that Americans consume about 150 million hotdogs, 700 million pounds of chicken, and 190 million pounds of red meat and pork on the Fourth of July; your government would like to change that.
From The Washington Examiner:
Forget hamburgers and hotdogs — the U.S. Department of Agriculture is pushing people to grill up pineapple slices, peaches, nectarines and other fruit for their big July 4th feast.. . . If pineapples aren’t your thing, you can try other fruit.”For something sweet, toss halved peaches or nectarines on the grill and sprinkle with cinnamon,” USDA suggested.If you don’t want to mess with big, sloppy pieces of fruit, you can cut them into smaller pieces. “Try grilled fruit kabobs!” USDA ventured.USDA hosted a “Twitter party” this week to talk about creative, healthy ways to use their grills. “Have you tried grilled romaine, avocado, or pineapple?” USDA asked.Another tweet suggested grilled watermelon slices. “The natural sugars caramelize [to] give them great flavor!” tweeted nutrition expert Elizabeth Somer.
Good grief. At least it’s just the USDA pushing produce and not the White House, but is it just me or does this sort of thing make you want to toss some extra burgers on the grill?
I much preferred when the USDA was worried about how Americans actually spend their Independence Day holiday and posted videos on basic food safety. From two years ago:
Granted, stating that it’s my “patriotic duty” to post questions about food safety to the USDA is a bit over-the-top, but otherwise, this seems a much more reasonable and realistic approach to grilling advice than telling us we should be grilling watermelon, pineapple, and lettuce.
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