Healthy eating only for the rich?

It's an interesting observation, that poverty is leading to obesity and associsated illnesses due to govt. subsidies and conspiracy.

Not sure how relevant, but I lived in Bangladesh for a couple of years, so witnessed serious amounts of poverty first hand.

Interesting that obesity, diabetes, heart disease and similar conditions were almost universally present amongst the RICH. In fact I didn't meet a single wealthy individual who wasn't overweight and either diabetic or 'heart health challenged'.

The poor who ate a bowl of rice and a banana and rode a rickshaw day in and day out, were fit and strong in comparison.

Interesting.

Originally posted by eagle32
Hmmm, those who believe it can be cheap to live healthily should really try feeding 5-6 kids aswell as themselves and a partner on benefits or a minimum wage even.
Not too many kids want a lettuce sandwich everyday.
Lets also not forget, breakfast, lunch, dinner and a bit of supper before bed.
Try living in the real world. we arent all single on the go who can survive on buying a prepacked salad from the supermarket.

you are being hard-headed. is it easier buying crap food? yes, of course. cheaper? no, not if you know how to shop for the right foods. p.s. prepackaged salad not only expires faster, it's more expensive. A head of lettuce is always cheaper, and stays fresher, longer.

Please provide an example of an expensive healthy meal, compared to a cheap unhealthy meal. I promise I can revise the ingredient list to be cheaper. It also would not require eating a lettuce sandwich or cheese sandwich or mustard sandwich, ever.

I've survived eating healthy food on MUCH less than minimum wage.

You wouldn't believe how much you can save by drinking only water, instead of juice and soda and milk.

[edit on 20-11-2007 by scientist]

Originally posted by scientist

I've survived eating healthy food on MUCH less than minimum wage.

Seconded.

During one rather financially tight period in Central London, I had only about $20 a week, so would go to Portobello Road market, buy several large bags of 'not quite perfect' veggies, cook em up into ratatouille style dishes, and freeze 'em.

Yummy, and healthy

plus, the ugly vegetables and fruits are usually the best tasting! Prices at a farmers market (fresh market) are always much cheaper than the supermarket, and the food is so much better!

reply to post by eagle32


I would like to see this as an experiment as well.

The relationship between poverty and obesity is more pronounced in America because we are not an agrarian society. Nobody in NYC knows how to farm vegetables, and the minimal supply for them that we do have needs to be augmented by import, which is pretty expensive when compared to growing locally.

Organic foods cost even more!

The idea that just because something is a 'raw ingredient' such as fresh produce or the like makes it cheaper is false, and furthermore, it takes a larger up-front investment to buy things in bulk and reportion. When we speak of poverty in America, this REALLY means poverty, not just your IDEA of what poverty is. Struggling to feed an entire family on a meager budget is unfair to the children in these situations, and promotes bad eating habits.

Proper food is just more expensive here, and there are articles lined up from here to the start of the thread saying the same thing.

This is not Africa, where people are starving because there is just no food out there. This is America, where people are being fed junk and garbage because it's cheap. Food is all around us, but simply costs too much for anyone making so little money.

Come on Brit's support local sources....
............... & I don't mean supermarkets!
Thankfully most of my foods are sourced from local farms as Cheshire is on my doorstep.
I regularly get milk from accredited farms, eggs from my colleague who has rare breed corn fed free range hens and grows his own seasonal organic vegetables. Pick your own from his land or he'll get them for you.
Farmers markets are another option in certain areas where produce is sold by the growers.
Local beekeepers sell thier honey much cheaper than your local supermarket.
Seasonal fruits - strawberrys, apples, blackcurrents are available on a pick your own footing from certain rural growers.
Cheese, goats milk, potatoes and greens are sold from many smallholdings and are picked fresh from the earth.
Find a local spring and you can forget your overpriced snazzy marketed spring water which costs £££££'s take some empty bottles and get it fresh from the source
Take the family out to a farmer/butcher in rural districts and try his home reared meat... and sausages.
Hells Bells.... support these people and encourage others to shop this way too.
Ladies.. & gents you can make a difference Bread- bake your own it's easy and economical with a breadmaker and you can be in control of your budget and the quality. Bake home made cakes.
What are you waiting for? Change the way you feed your family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Food, glorious food ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:

Originally posted by eagle32
Hmmm, those who believe it can be cheap to live healthily should really try feeding 5-6 kids aswell as themselves and a partner on benefits or a minimum wage even.

Maybe people who are on minimum wage or benefits shouldnt breed unless they can afford to feed their offspring with the quality of food they deserve.

Originally posted by Enrikez
You guys have obvious discrimination issues and possibly some sort of hatred towards obese people to make statements like you have.

That you automatically associate obesity with lower intelligence and lazyness is pretty disturbing.

Not really, they wouldnt be obese if they were intelligent, they would understand what risks they were putting their body through.

Scientists agree with me, the fatter you are, the more stupid you are.
www.telegraph.co.uk.../news/2006/10/15/nweight15.xml

"The new five-year study of more than 2,200 adults claims to have found a link between obesity and the decline in a person's cognitive function. The research, conducted by French scientists, which is published in this month's Neurology journal, involved men and women aged between 32 and 62 taking four mental ability tests that were then repeated five years later."

I dont hate fat people, I dont really care any more/less about them than any other person but what I dont like is the blame culture thats puts blame on everyone apart from the person themselves.

Originally posted by Flyer

Originally posted by Enrikez
You guys have obvious discrimination issues and possibly some sort of hatred towards obese people to make statements like you have.

That you automatically associate obesity with lower intelligence and lazyness is pretty disturbing.

Not really, they wouldnt be obese if they were intelligent, they would understand what risks they were putting their body through.

Absolutely ridiculous. I am obese. I possess an intellect that has been charted at over 140 IQ. Fat doesn't automatically equal stupid, and it's insulting to say so. Do not make broad generalizations like that, it only makes you sound like an idiot.

reply to post by Loki

Did you read the above link, scientists agree with me and it doesnt mean anything statistically when 1 person bucks the trend.

ie, Americans are fatter than Swedes but pointing out youve seen a 140lbs American and a 300lbs Swede doesnt mean thats not true.

That shouldnt be too hard to understand.

i feel like everyone is just ignoring my entire case. Seriously, it's a challenge. I will create a menu that is cheaper and healthier than any fast food meal you can throw at me (except those .29 hamburger days at certain mcdonalds.. i throw in the towel on that deal).

p.s. loki - citing your own IQ is not only tacky, it's meaningless. IQ is not for identifying intelligence, it's to identify a lack thereof. If you look into the original intentions of the Intelligence Quotient test, you will confirm this. It was meant to identify children that would have problems learning. But I digress...

Anyone here who is saying that healthy food is too expensive, is BEING LAZY, and you deserve to be overweight, because at that point, you are making a choice, and then playing the victim.

I guess this will just get ignored too, since it's making too much sense to draw out some absurd debate on a class conspiracy.

The idea that just because something is a 'raw ingredient' such as fresh produce or the like makes it cheaper is false

really? please explain this to me. Explain to me how buying a pre-made sandwich made by employees is cheaper than using your own fresh supplies. Of course this does not apply to every city or town, especially not globally. I'm not about to debate the price of turkey, in Turkey, or the price of rice in China. I will debate that buying single ingredients is cheaper than buying a combination of ingredients that was also packaged, marketed and prepared. Please understand, I can see where you are all coming from, but you are just very misinformed, and I would even take it a step further and link it to brainwashing - the exact purpose of all the commercials and "value" meals.

Plus, if you are taking a family of 5-6 to McDonalds or other fast food chains on a constant basis, you are not just a bad parent, but you are perpetuating this horrible eating habit.

[edit on 20-11-2007 by scientist]

Just curious, has the UK gone to Supermarkets for the most part or is the majority of the grocery shoppng confined to small, local neighborhood markets you can walk to?

Unfortunate that due to the irresponsibility of some, many must suffer. Some being parents, and many being their children.

"I can't afford to feed my family!" Well, maybe you should have thought of that before you started a family. It's for these situations that I approve of providing food stamps. It's not for the deadbeat idiots parents, it's for the innocent children.

I spend roughly $180/mo on groceries for just myself. That's less than a single mother in Kansas gets for food stamps. I eat 5 healthy meals a day. My fruits and vegetables are organic. My meat is antibiotic and hormone free, with my beef being grass fed. Eggs are free range, too. $180 a month. There's some financial advisers that would say I must be starving myself.

I dated an example of who these studies are referring to once. She was just barely making ends meet even working two jobs. But she spent more on food than I do. She would eat fast food a lot, or prepackaged crap from the grocery store. Lots of soda pop. One thing I was dumbfounded by... she would buy pre-made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Seriously. Stupid things cost twice as much as a loaf of bread and the fixin's.

The idea that good food is only affordable by the rich sounds like victim mentality garbage. Same thing as the argument for socialized medicine. Telling people it's not their fault they live unhealthy lives, they can't help it. Bologna.

Does anyone still even eat bologna?

Originally posted by scientist

Anyone here who is saying that healthy food is too expensive, is BEING LAZY, and you deserve to be overweight, because at that point, you are making a choice, and then playing the victim.

I entirely agree and cant stand the blame culture and in any case, I bet the vast majority of obese people arent living on the breadline anyway.

reply to post by Flyer


Nevermind this whole thing is stupid



[edit on 11/20/2007 by Blaine91555]

Originally posted by Desert Dawg
Just curious, has the UK gone to Supermarkets for the most part or is the majority of the grocery shoppng confined to small, local neighborhood markets you can walk to?

Its all supermarkets in towns and cities, small shops are about 25-50% more expensive.

Of course theres still the market option of buying produce if people can be bothered to go there.

I just buy all my food online and they deliver it for free.

reply to post by Blaine91555

I would have thought someone so intelligent would understand single cases mean absolutely nothing a large studies.

I pointed out the US - Sweden example and I cant make it any clearer for people having difficulty understanding like yourself.

Next you will be telling me Americans arent fatter than Swedes.

FWIW I was invited to join mensa after I did my IQ test when I was 14 but declined because I think its lame to be part of a group because you have a high IQ and I think its lame that anyone has to bring it up anywhere just like its lame to bring up how much you earn or boast you give to charity.

I tolerate (as I tolerate a lot of things) fatness but it doesnt mean I have to support it as a lifechoice and you have no clue what a bigot really means.

Originally posted by apcDoes anyone still even eat bologna?

I hope not, especially after this post:
Macrophotography of processed meat

[edit on 20-11-2007 by scientist]

You guys should really lay off the abusive talk here.

Being obese or overweight has many causes. Mostly a combination of things including genetics. Different bodies are built different ways.

It doesn't mean that people are stupid.

And for the record, I am not claiming to blame society for obesity, I'm partially blaming the government for not providing subsidies for foods that we need more nutrition in.

The subsidies the government is giving to farmers is for growing animals to be turned into meat for humans.

Instead of subsidizing the farmers that grow food for direct human consumption.

Meats and dairy gets almost 80% of the government money, but humans nned only about 15% of these things in their diets.

Humans need more grains and fruits/vegetables than they do beef, but the beef farmers get a disproportionate amount of the government money.

The bill provides billions of dollars in subsidies, much of which goes to huge agribusinesses producing feed crops, such as corn and soy, which are then fed to animals. By funding these crops, the government supports the production of meat and dairy products—the same products that contribute to our growing rates of obesity and chronic disease. Fruit and vegetable farmers, on the other hand, receive less than 1 percent of government subsidies.

This drives the prices of beef down and the prices of produce up. It's totally backwards.

This thread is not about bargain-hunting and creative grocery shopping so you can eat affordably and healthy, it's about the fact that the government is supporting the low cost of 'crap' foods and pushing the prices of 'good foods' up.

Morally speaking, this is an atrocity on it's own. But you add the supply and demand into the equation, it gets even worse. The more people who want to eat healthy, the more demand for healthy foods, the worse the problem gets.

Don't you think the government should be doing its best to get subsidies into the hands of the farmers that produce bananas, apples, oranges, mushrooms, carrots and the like? Instead of making McDonald's patties cheaper?