An earlier post, Liberal Myths, investigated the idea of a liberal arts education, a generalist ability to think with some clarity and learn continually as life requires. It applied some of Timothy Burke's thoughts on the subject to a particularly bad NYT article.

The article was so bad, such a good example of bankrupt journalism, that another post, Myth Makers referenced it too.

But there's still more defects in the article which Branden Berg reveals.

Back in January, I questioned Mark Bittman's claim in the NYT that Americans consume on average 200 pounds of meat per year.

I've found data from the USDA on loss-adjusted food availability--that is, edible parts actually available for consumption and not known to have spoiled or otherwise been wasted. . .

Total loss-adjusted weight (after adjusting for consumer-level losses) is 83g/52g/14g, or about 120 pounds per year. . .

Of the 2680 loss-adjusted calories available per capita for consumption each day, only 375, or 14%, come from meat of any kind. Compare this to 610 (23%) from flour, 480 (18%) from added sugars, and 640 (24%) from added fats, of which about 84% are seed oils. The typical American consumes more than four times as many calories from sugar, flour, and seed oils as from meat.

Apparently, those NYT fact checkers didn't actually get a liberal arts education, though I suppose that mistaken facts in an article that was so completely bad are to be expected.

The interesting bit to me is that so few calories come from meats of all kinds. Americans apparently live on flour, sugar and vegeatble oil. Now there's health food.