We should be ashamed that we have let the Krispy Kreme Challenge become part of our institutional identity. This farce has masqueraded as seductive service for 12 years and ought to be abandoned as soon as possible.
The Krispy Kreme challenge prides itself on raising money for the North Carolina Children’s Hospital. This mutually beneficial relationship is tainted with hypocrisy. As every citizen should know, obesity is an epidemic. According to the CDC, 17 percent of all 2- to 19-year-olds in the United States are obese, essentially 1 in 6. This fact should terrify you, as children in particular will have to bear this weight for the rest of their lives.
The health effects of childhood obesity are dreadful. Besides the usual suspects of hypertension, heart disease, high cholesterol and chronic inflammation, obesity in children can lead to mental illness and precocious puberty. Due to the obesity epidemic, Type 2 diabetes has taken Type 1’s title of “juvenile.”
The body, as well as the wallet, suffers. Direct medical costs amount to $14.4 billion per year, according to the journal, Health Affairs. As the children age into adults, the consequences amplify costing the economy billions of dollars in treatment, job absences and lower productivity.
Obesity is entirely preventable. However, Krispy Kreme makes a profit by serving up grease and sugar, which amplify rather than solve this alarming social problem. The Krispy Kreme Challenge provides the company with marketing by putting them front and center on the title of the event, its promotional material and recently a wing of the North Carolina Children’s Hospital.
Inadvertently, all of this free publicity props up the junk food industry which undermines the mission for a healthier population. While the money donated to the hospital takes us a step forward, the symbolic irony moves us two steps back.
In addition to affronting public health, the Krispy Kreme Challenge affronts the Wolfpack’s moral identity. Gluttony is a sin, not just against God, but against human decency. The Krispy Kreme Challenge goes beyond conventional gluttony by moving from eating for the sake of pleasure to eating for the sake of eating. Competitive eating challenges confound athleticism and food in an obscene manner. Smashing multiple doughnuts together, dipping them in water, then cramming them down the gullet is the precise type of cultural debasement that would happen in our land of excess in this foul year of our lord, 2016. Food is meant to be eaten with moderation and reverence and not consumed with haste.
Beyond the act of gluttony itself, its consequences are also disgusting. The physical exertion of running five miles and consuming 2,300 calories, 130 grams of fat and 120 grams of sugar results in a devious cocktail of nausea that only the inane or the insane drink. When this cocktail is shaken up from the agitation of running, the only logical consequence is vomit. With 8,000 runners, the event lines the track with a putrid trail of stomach acid, last night’s carbo-loading pasta and a nice mound of barely digested dough. We proclaim the lucky fools who manage to keep the madness in their stomach as brave.
Yet, we, as members of a civilized society, pride ourselves in this. This absurdity is our tradition; it is who we are. Frankly though, I’m not surprised in the least.
