Poverty and obesity

[RebelK]

Maybe we should have the starving children eat the obese ones. Kill two birds with one stone.

 

I can't believe that I find this so funny.

 

I am always amazed and more than a bit mad, when I see people in the stores shopping for food with food stamps. I'm not upset that they have food stamps but what kind of food they purchase with those food stamps.

 

They fill up their carts with junk food and they always seem to have the whole bottom part of the cart filled up with "pop". They spend all they have for the month on junk food and this leaves them with nothing left to purchase food with for the rest of the month. I'm not saying that they all do this but it seems to me that there are very few that do buy food that they can prepare for the entire month.

 

We buy food that we can prepare and it would seem to me that they should also. I suppose it's quite easy to waste when you don't have to worry about the actual money coming out of your own pocket.

 

I think the think that has always upset me the most is if a family meets the income guidelines you can get food stamps and WIC for your child until he/she is 5 years old. This is simple double dipping, IMO, and I have never figured out why this is allowed.

 

You can have a family of ten...all of them getting SSI for each member of the family, food stamps, medical card, public housing and WIC. Yet you take someone who is just down on their luck they can't get a thing to help them over a rough spot in their life.

 

Perhaps the food stamp program should figure out a way that would only allow people to buy "good healthy" food with their stamps. Maybe if they wouldn't allow, cakes, chips, pop and the other junk food to be rung up, then they would learn how to use their stamps for better food.

[leatherneck]

Your post is not really responsive to the thread topic. The question presented is correlation between poverty and obseity. I contend they are unrelated.

 

I went back to the store today. One could purchase enough fresh fruit, vegetables, legumes, grain breads and rolls and poultry to eat healthily and heartily for 10 calendar days for approximately $65. To purchase frozen, pre-made meals (including frozen waffles and similar items) for the same period would run in the neigborhood of $120 and that was being frugal.

 

The common price denominator is fresh eggs, red meat, and dairy products, but even with those, you will pay double for frozen meat (frozen JTM's, pre-cooked sausage links, etc.) and for pre-made eggs than you will for the real McCoy.

 

I do not believe that obseity observedly suffers from demographic boundaries. I see as many fat rich kids as fat poor ones, as many fat whites as fat blacks.

 

Obesity is a function of education (understanding) and time. I'm sure there are numbers on this, but how much money did we spend last year on bag salad as opposed to a head of the same. This morning, a bag of romaine lettuce was $3.49; a head of romaine that yielded nearly 40% more was around $2.25. Is it really worth another $1.50 so you don't have to spend 5 minutes tearing it up yourself? Now, translate that attitude to the prepared meals aisle, and you now know why we eat foods high in calories, fat, and sodium.

 

I also read somewhere that Americans eat-out 46% of their meals.

 

Great post Hearsay. And yours too Rebel K. I have seen way too many people using food stamps to buy almost nothing but junk food when they could buy more nutritious food for less money. The only reason I can think they don't buy the more nutritious food is the prep time involved.

 

LBBC's point about the ability to plant gardens and grow your own nutritious food is a good one also, although I think that even in the big cities there are parcels of unused or under used real estate that could be used for gardens if the initiative was shown.

 

One final point, and its about food kitchens for the poor. Does it bother any one besides me that working people that would otherwise be contributing to the economic vitality of this country often times take time off of work and parents take time away from their families to volunteer to work at food kitchens doing tasks like cleaning up tables, washing dishes and mopping floors when there are hundreds of able bodied males getting the free food and doing nothing but eating it and then heading back to the streets? I mean come on. I realize some of the needy have mental problems but randomly picking out 5 to 10 people in the line and saying: today, to earn your meal you have to mop the floor after the food line closes or wash dishes, or clean up tables, or carry supplies from the delivery truck to the supply room, or etc, ect of the many other chores that could be done even if they had some mental issues, doesn't seem too much of a burden. And if they don't perform their task in an acceptable manner, they aren't eligible for free food for some period of time. It teaches them the lesson that nothing in life is free and that you have to work a little to get food. That wouldn't be a bad thing would it? What am I missing to what I think is a common sense approach?

[shamrock fan]

People living in poverty eat a lot of processed foods and foods high in calorie and fat content.

 

healthy foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables are simply too expensive to buy and eat on a consistent basis. As a result, those living in poverty are also eating unhealthy diets which contributes to the obesity of the nation.

 

The simple fact that you are poor in this country does not mean that you cannot have food, it just means that you might not have healty food.

 

 

A local health department funded a program which put vouchers for the area farmer's markets into the hands of WIC and food stamp receipients. Hardly anyone bothered to redeem the vouchers. Too lazy, or just not interested in eating fresh foods?

 

I don't think too many Americans are "starving". Malnourished maybe, because of the type of food they consume. But on the whole, I think we scrape more food into the waste bin in one week than alot of people elsewhere in the world see in many months.

[malachicrunch]

Great post Hearsay. And yours too Rebel K. I have seen way too many people using food stamps to buy almost nothing but junk food when they could buy more nutritious food for less money. The only reason I can think they don't buy the more nutritious food is the prep time involved.

 

LBBC's point about the ability to plant gardens and grow your own nutritious food is a good one also, although I think that even in the big cities there are parcels of unused or under used real estate that could be used for gardens if the initiative was shown.

 

One final point, and its about food kitchens for the poor. Does it bother any one besides me that working people that would otherwise be contributing to the economic vitality of this country often times take time off of work and parents take time away from their families to volunteer to work at food kitchens doing tasks like cleaning up tables, washing dishes and mopping floors when there are hundreds of able bodied males getting the free food and doing nothing but eating it and then heading back to the streets? I mean come on. I realize some of the needy have mental problems but randomly picking out 5 to 10 people in the line and saying: today, to earn your meal you have to mop the floor after the food line closes or wash dishes, or clean up tables, or carry supplies from the delivery truck to the supply room, or etc, ect of the many other chores that could be done even if they had some mental issues, doesn't seem too much of a burden. And if they don't perform their task in an acceptable manner, they aren't eligible for free food for some period of time. It teaches them the lesson that nothing in life is free and that you have to work a little to get food. That wouldn't be a bad thing would it? What am I missing to what I think is a common sense approach?

 

I like the idea. You might be shocked at how many would walk out when asked to help. A restaurant owner downtown once had an issue with a panhandler begging outside of his establishment. To kill two birds with one stone, he offered the man a job in his restaurant. To which the man declined, saying his panhandling was much more lucrative than any job in a kitchen. Restaurant owner proceeded to hang a sign on door telling this saga. Needless to say panhandler moved on.

[cch5432]

I like the idea. You might be shocked at how many would walk out when asked to help. A restaurant owner downtown once had an issue with a panhandler begging outside of his establishment. To kill two birds with one stone, he offered the man a job in his restaurant. To which the man declined, saying his panhandling was much more lucrative than any job in a kitchen. Restaurant owner proceeded to hang a sign on door telling this saga. Needless to say panhandler moved on.

 

When my family lived in New York, my dad asked a man who was holding a sign that said he would work for food if he'd like a hot meal for cleaning out a shed in the backyard. The guy said absolutely, and so my dad said "OK, let's go." The begging man told my dad "Oh, well, I can't right now, I am too busy."