TSDOAL2012OV – A Balanced Diet
On the side of the handball arena in the middle of the park, there is a giant advertising slogan for the games on the side: “Run Fast. Train Hard. Eat Healthy”.
Next to this building are the world’s largest McDonald’s, the Coca-Cola building and the Cadbury’s tent.
This Olympics is characterised by juxtaposition, with empty streets in the centre of London contrasted with people crowd surfing through the Olympic Park because there is literally no more room to stand on the ground in there. This also goes for the sponsors, with three of the most unhealthy corporations in the world sponsoring an enormous sporting event. This is to our advantage, however, as in compliance with human rights norms, we have to be fed and watered in between logging bus times.
We receive one meal voucher a day, which we may redeem for some slightly below average canteen food reminiscent of secondary school or a low security prison. There is also no real style to the food, in that they seem to just cook a bunch of things and combine them all together. Today I had a fried egg inside a tortilla. However, should the choice of meat option and vegetarian option (see: meat option with the meat taken out) not tickle our fancy, we are able to redeem our vouchers IN MCDONALDS!
We even have our own queue. The only negative is that I have befriended a dinner lady named Caroline who routinely supplies me with various extras, but if I opt for McDonalds I don’t get to see her and therefore miss out on an extra dollop of sour cream on my pasta.
Drink wise things are slightly better as our vouchers get us a bottle of coca cola or a bottle of water, which makes little sense as they give out free bottles of water absolutely everywhere, and I feel pretty sorry for those absolute beginners who get water with their meal vouchers instead of a nutritious coke.
Cadbury’s are keeping a pretty low profile. All I’ve received so far was an introductory Chomp and their presence seems far less pervading than the others, although we were still warned against bringing in a Mars Bar. Perhaps I’ll bring a bunch of non-sponsored products in and consume them on the same day I wear my own socks, just for a real day of sticking it to the man, but I hear that the airport scanners have a setting where they can see which brand of something you’ve brought in. To bypass this, I can probably fit a Galaxy and a Pepsi in my pockets, but smuggling in a whole Burger King might be more of a challenge.