Do You Know a Pollyanna Nutritionist?

A “naïve optimist” is one way to describe the guy in front of me in the checkout line at Wild Oats, a few days ago. Or, I might label him a “Pollyanna Nutritionist”.

Pollyanna was a fictional character, created by author Eleanor H. Porter, in a novel by the same name in 1913. As a young orphan, Pollyanna devoutly practiced a game her father had taught her of always finding the positive in any situation.

Somewhere during the many decades of novels and movies about the adventures of the young “Glad Girl”, the word “Pollyanna” became synonymous with anyone who held a steadfast belief in the positive spin on any situation. Eventually, however, the name gained a derogatory meaning to describe the naïve optimist.

While waiting to check out, this pollyanna-nutrition guy apparently decided he could make points with the attractive lady in front of him by commenting on the nutrition products she had stacked on the conveyor belt. Most of us were fidgeting and becoming impatient, waiting for a price check on dried cumquats, or something, when he made his move to strike up a conversation.

“That’s a lot of vitamins, you have there...,” he says while poking his finger at her stack of bottles, “...that must get expensive each month.”

She glances back at him, and with a courteous but short tone, she responds...
“Sometimes... but it is worth it.”

Mistakenly, interpreting her polite response as an invitation to annoy her, he continues...
“Yeah... I don’t do any of that stuff. I stay healthy by eating right. You look like you are in great shape. You don’t look like you need any of that stuff. ”

Without looking back, she mumbles a subdued "thank you", which is then followed by the pollyanna-fella going on, ad nauseam, about something to do with his grams of protein per meal, or his five servings of fruit, or his percentage of body fat... I don’t know what all he was babbling about, and I suspect neither did the lady in front of him.

However, while I was witnessing this one-sided exchange – all the while, biting my tongue – I was reminded that even with all the information available to the average consumer, there are still droves of nutritional optimists out there that believe they get all their nutritional needs met with the foods they eat. I personally know several individuals, who fit this profile, and my guess is, so do you.

[Pol·ly·an·na·ish - adjective: unreasonably or illogically optimistic]
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