Mayor Bloomberg has crusaded against salt, fat and sugar, yet the city seems to have no qualms about feeding artery-clogging grub to desperate victims of Hurricane Sandy.
Self-heating packets of MREs (military meals ready to eat) — stuffed with more salt and fat than a Big Mac and more sugar than a 21-ounce Coke — are among the foodstuff being doled out to the unsuspecting.
“I was told that folks shouldn’t eat these for more than two days straight,” said a concerned city source distributing the items in Brooklyn.
The $7 MREs were handed out last week at the city-run Restoration Center in Coney Island, where many residents still lack power and heat.
Made by the Indiana-based Ameriqual Group and distributed via the city’s Office of Emergency Management, they include such entrees as home-style chicken with noodles and vegetables in sauce: 1,180 calories, 45 grams of fat (17 grams saturated), 1,330 milligrams of sodium and 64 grams of sugar. (A Big Mac packs 550 calories, 29 grams of fat and 970 milligrams of sodium.)
Dietitian Bonnie Taub-Dix called the situation a “perfect storm for not feeling well” and said she’s already seeing patients with “the Sandy five” — five extra pounds put on since the superstorm.
Bloomberg spokeswoman Samantha Levine noted that the gut-busting food was not meant to be a long-term solution.