stunned at link between income and obesity

Originally Posted by Stacey Bender

Ignoramus14555 wrote:
Great question! But is fast food the only choice for poor people? For
example, cabbage is a very cheap vegetables, and it has a lot of
vitamins etc.

Cabbage tastes horrible. Sorry. It looks especially shabby against a
hamburger, fries, and drink.

Convenience and palatability are part of the equation as well.

With a little bit of shopping, meat is also not that
expensive (think chicken, etc, can be had for 39-60 cents per lb).

Less convenient so less likely to happen.

Bread and potatoes are not that expensive. Fast food is much more
expensive than many alternatives.

Potatoes are almost 50% of the veggies consumed.


For about $1, you can eat a pound of potatoes and a pound of chicken.
Rice and bread cost next to nothing.

Notice no fruits and veggies in your list? I don't really count potatoes
as a veggie, specially since i can't have them.


A comparable amount of fast food would be much more expensive.

$2.99 for a good hamburger, fries, and drink. It tastes a lot better
than your suggestion. It is far more convenient. And it is far more
effective on a dollar/calorie basis.

Poor third worlders do not live on fast food.

When they get the option they will.

Protein is just more expensive than carbs.

Randy

www.antiagingatlanta.com

ted rosenberg wrote:
Much fast food is cheaper and easier than cooking at home. "Ignoramaces
idea of food prices is not very accurate.

Ted, let's just check. Are you sure you are not:
1. an idiot
2. an uneducated shopper
3. a lazy good for nothin'
4. someone who never learned to cook
5. a bad time manager
6. someone who wants to throw their life away
7. someone who values your own pleasure over your kids
8. unaware of how to manage your money

Otherwise you must be deluded. Everyone here can live on next to
nothing, cook great food, has lots of time, is a whiz in the kitchen, is
infinitely fast and efficient, and knows everyone else must be broken.

Dear Anny,

Thank you much for your kind thoughts.

We got the call early this morning. She passed during the night peacefully,
thank goodness. Her suffering is finally over. She had Alzheimers disease
and recently was also diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Been running
around all day so far to the nursing home, the funeral home etc.

You make excellent points in your post below.

--
Best Regards,
Evelyn

(to reply personally, remove 'sox')
"Anny Middon" wrote in message
m...
"Evelyn Ruut" wrote in message
...

Stacy I apologize. I may have been more harsh than I intended to be.

Right now as I type this I have been under tremendous pressure. My
mother in law is dying right now and it is a bad time for me and my
family.

I am so sorry to hear about your MIL. My thoughts and good wishes are
with you and your family during this trying time.

I just cannot for the life of me understand when we live in the greatest
country in the world, with choices like no other people have ever enjoyed
in history, how anyone can blame other people for their poor choices in
food, or the consequences that come from it.

I don't know how poor you might consider "poor" but I assure you I was
VERY poor when I was raising my kids. I have outlined in earlier posts
what we bought and how we ate. Others have done so too. There are
the poor who eat junk and the poor who don't.

If that means those of us who fed our families healthy food on miniscule
food budgets smarter, then maybe we were actually smarter. It is a
possibility.

I do know that greater educational opportunities often come to those who
are intelligent, and intelligence combined with education usually
increases income.

So perhaps the obesity that is perceived or observed among those with a
lower income, is due to lack of education or intelligence, or maybe it is
something else.

I'm not going to say that the convenience and relative inexpensiveness of
fast food has no influence on obesity among lower-income people, but I do
think that influence is pretty trivial. Any qualified sociologist will
state there are myriad reasons why poorer people are more likely to be
obese. Ignorance of what constitutes a healthy diet is one. Lack of
intelligence as you opine is likely another.

Lack of exercise is another possibility. If you live in a neighborhood
where you can't safely jog down the street and your home has no space to
exercise, you're probably more inactive than you should be. (Yeah, I
know, you can jog in place in your home. Unless of course your infant
child or sibling is napping or the older ones are trying to do homeork or
your downstairs neighbors complain or....)

There are plenty of other possibilities, too. My problems with Stacey's
stance is that she seems to be ignoring all those other influences to
state that the poor are more obese because, despite knowing that a fast
food diet is unhealthy, they eat fast food because it's tasty, convenient
and inexpensive. The fact that there are other tasty, inexpensive, and
almost as convenient choices available to them isn't in Stacey's book
enough to sway them from the lure of McD's. I don't view the poor with
that much disdain, myself -- while I don't claim to know why they tend to
be fatter, I allow that there are many resaons much more compelling than
"I'm lovin' it" ad campaigns.


By the way, speaking of education and intelligence, that same mother in
law who is dying as I write, had a fifth grade education, and worked in
sweatshops in the garment industry all her working life.

She ended up owning her own home, and made wonderful meals on very
little. Her strategy was to have a regular set weekly menu of meals.
That way she served the same 7 meals each week. It kept the food budget
stable, and simplified both the cooking and the shopping. That did not
include holidays when she went all out, or the occasional variation.

She was never obese nor were any of her family.
She never bought prepared foods, not ever.
She never ate in a fast food restaurant either.

Anyway, I hope you forgive me for speaking more harshly than I ordinarily
would, but frustration was the cause of it. I also hope you have found
some wisdom in those who shared how to eat cheap and eat good at the same
time:-)

Again, my sympathies are with you over the pain of losing your MIL.

Anny

"Susan" wrote in message
...
x-no-archive: yes

Evelyn Ruut wrote:
Dear Anny,

Thank you much for your kind thoughts.

We got the call early this morning. She passed during the night
peacefully, thank goodness. Her suffering is finally over. She had
Alzheimers disease and recently was also diagnosed with pancreatic
cancer. Been running around all day so far to the nursing home, the
funeral home etc.

You make excellent points in your post below.




Evelyn, I'm so sorry to have passed over this news in my earlier reply.

I'm sorry for your loss and the painful times leading to it, but glad to
know the passing was peaceful.

Susan

Thanks so much Susan...
--
Best Regards,
Evelyn

(to reply personally, remove 'sox')

x-no-archive: yes

Evelyn Ruut wrote:
Dear Anny,

Thank you much for your kind thoughts.

We got the call early this morning. She passed during the night peacefully,
thank goodness. Her suffering is finally over. She had Alzheimers disease
and recently was also diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Been running
around all day so far to the nursing home, the funeral home etc.

You make excellent points in your post below.


Evelyn, I'm so sorry to have passed over this news in my earlier reply.

I'm sorry for your loss and the painful times leading to it, but glad to
know the passing was peaceful.

Susan

Sorry to hear it Evelyn, but I believe you're right about the suffering.
We're going through the same thing with my MIL right now, and it
certainly is not a day at the beach. Best Wishes.

--
Cheri

Evelyn Ruut wrote in message ...

Dear Anny,

Thank you much for your kind thoughts.

We got the call early this morning. She passed during the night
peacefully,
thank goodness. Her suffering is finally over. She had Alzheimers
disease
and recently was also diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Been running
around all day so far to the nursing home, the funeral home etc.

"Cheri" wrote in message
...
Sorry to hear it Evelyn, but I believe you're right about the suffering.
We're going through the same thing with my MIL right now, and it
certainly is not a day at the beach. Best Wishes.


You have my deepest sympathy, Cheri.

It is good to know her suffering is finally over with, but it is still sad
and still hard, no matter what.

--
Best Regards,
Evelyn

(to reply personally, remove 'sox')


--
Cheri

Evelyn Ruut wrote in message ...

Dear Anny,

Thank you much for your kind thoughts.

We got the call early this morning. She passed during the night
peacefully,
thank goodness. Her suffering is finally over. She had Alzheimers
disease
and recently was also diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Been running
around all day so far to the nursing home, the funeral home etc.

"Stacey Bender" wrote in message
...
Median income is $42K. Average is much lower.

Really? What is it then? Average is around £28k in the UK, I've no idea what
the median is!

Nicky.

--
A1c 10.5/4.5/6 Weight 95/76/72Kg
1g Metformin, 100ug Thyroxine
T2 DX 05/2004

"Stacey Bender" wrote in message
...
Grandma was a homemaker. She had no choice because KFC etc weren't
available. Once available look what happens.

My Gran was a nurse; my Mum was a secretary; I do computer support. We all
still found time to put fresh meals on the table every day. My kids get a FF
burger maybe twice a year - I don't think they've ever tasted a KFC. They
can also cook real food with real ingredients.

Again, not a valid argument.

Nicky.

--
A1c 10.5/4.5/6 Weight 95/76/72Kg
1g Metformin, 100ug Thyroxine
T2 DX 05/2004

Well asshole

Unlike you, I am a well educated shopper and am excellent cook

I also have some idea of cost and value - which you do not appear to.

It is lots of fun to bash the fast food outlets, but often inaccurate.

It is what you order when you go there

Stacey Bender wrote:
ted rosenberg wrote:

Much fast food is cheaper and easier than cooking at home.
"Ignoramaces idea of food prices is not very accurate.


Ted, let's just check. Are you sure you are not:
1. an idiot
2. an uneducated shopper
3. a lazy good for nothin'
4. someone who never learned to cook
5. a bad time manager
6. someone who wants to throw their life away
7. someone who values your own pleasure over your kids
8. unaware of how to manage your money

Otherwise you must be deluded. Everyone here can live on next to
nothing, cook great food, has lots of time, is a whiz in the kitchen, is
infinitely fast and efficient, and knows everyone else must be broken.

--
"...in addition to being foreign territory the past is, as history, a
hall of mirrors that reflect the needs of souls observing from the present"
Glen Cook