Pink Alert

Last night I had dinner with some old friends at Dos Caminos. When I went to sign my credit card bill, I saw something that really disturbed and annoyed me. Under the total and above the tip was a line that read "Breast Cancer Awareness Donation", along with space for me to write in a dollar amount.

There are numerous things wrong with finding this on one's bill. First of all, who would receive my donation? The Breast Cancer Awareness Fund? I googled this "fund" and didn't find an exact match. Please let me know if anyone has better luck. Secondly, after enjoying a nice dinner with friends do I really need to be hit up for a guilt trip donation? Thirdly, if the Breast Cancer Awareness Fund really wants to help the American population, shouldn't they offer some cancer prevention tips or highlight a healthy vegan dish on the restaurant menu?

Last week on a plane, the flight attendant made an announcement that passengers could make a $5 donation to a breast cancer group (can't recall exact name) and in return they'd receive a Minute Maid Pink Lemonade. I googled Minute Maid and received much better results. The ingredients in pink lemonade include:

MINUTE MAID COOLERS PINK LEMONADE CONTAINS PURE FILTERED WATER, SWEETENERS (HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SUGAR), LEMON JUICE FROM CONCENTRATE, LESS THAN 2% OF: NATURAL FLAVORS, CALCIUM CITRATE (CALCIUM SOURCE), VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID), VEGETABLE JUICE (FOR COLOR).




With less than two percent of natural flavors, the drink hardly constitutes as lemonade. Instead, it seems more like a way to guarantee that people ingest over-processed and over-sweetened beverages, which leads to sickness which leads to more people getting breast cancer which leads to more people knowing people who get breast cancer which leads to more people making a "donation" which leads to more sales for Minute Maid. 


We all hear how cancer is big business. Let me how many times each day or each week the cancer machine infiltrates your life and tries to get you to spend money.