Are the poor fat?

KimiSteinbach

I just came across this post on a thread, "Why is eating healthy so darn expensive?"

"This is why poor people are usually the fat ones. Takes discipline to cut down on unimportant living expenses and buy healthy food, which is much more expensive (MUCH, MUCH MORE - if the farmers weren't subsidized) to grow, produce. Also, the cost if you are determined to eat healthy (and exercise) is a very good reason to grow your own. Even if you only have a patio, I grew tomatoes, cucumbers, etc., in pots on my sundeck."

I agree in a lot of ways.

Thoughts?

msf74

I think that being poor certainly increases your likelihood of being fat for a myriad of reasons. It is a big public health concern in the UK.

The reasons are less to do with some misguided idea of lack of discipline (which is usually nothing more than a moral stick to beat the poor with) as opposed to access to more suitable food options, shops which supply them, transport to reach these places, education about how to construct a healthy and balanced diet and meals.

It's a skills, education and means problem as opposed to a "they just don't want it bad enough bro" problem.

tyrsnbdr

The "truely" poor can not afford to buy food, plus they usually have very physical jobs like farmers and construction. They need high caloritic food to survive.

There is very few "truely" poor people in the US.

Go to a third world country, see real poverty.

MagicalLeopleurodon

Ill weigh in. We live below the national poverty level. I can buy a economy pack (100) honeybuns for the same price as three d'anjou pears. I can buy 25 tacos for the price of one uncooked, unseasoned pork tenderloin.

However- i live in a rural area. We saved and scrounged and went hungry to make an investment. We bought chickens and heirloom seeds. Now, i get 38 eggs a day (at $0.02/per egg) and up to 400lbs of produce a season (ex. Zuchinni ends up being under $0.01). It was a $300 investment and takes about 10 hours out of my day. We plan on hatching eggs to raise meat birds (they'll end up about $0.03/lb) and are going to invest in milk goats or a dairy cow.

$300 wouldnt have bought my family a months worth of healthy food in a store.

Eta- we ended up saving enough for the gun im holding in my pic-a hunting rifle. Another investment to bag meat for the cost of a bullet

twixlepennie

I was poor growing up (like as in dumpster diving poor), and my dad and I were thin, while my mom and sisters were overweight.

Now my family has a very tight budget (one income family, plus working on paying off debt), and we have a grocery budget of $90 a week, for the five of us (this includes non-food items like tp and also stuff to pack school lunches-plus one of my kid's is lactose intolerant so she needs different foods, like almond milk)). We do not get any type of assistance for food (or anything else). We're all thin, healthy and we eat a pretty well balanced diet, (we do eat out several times a week, and that's budgeted separately, but if we added that to our grocery budget it would bump it up to around $130 a week).

Also-I tried the whole container garden thing and it cost a lot of money to set up, and then nothing grew (we got a grand total of three strawberries and one tomato from it ). Definitely cheaper to just go to the store and buy veggies/fruit on sale, or buy frozen.

ChrisS30V

I know a few people that use the "I'm too poor to afford 'healthy' food" card as an excuse for being overweight. True, not everyone can afford to eat grass-fed beef and organic quinoa at every meal, but their being overweight is an obvious testament to the notion that they can afford to eat enough to put themselves in caloric excess. You'd think that being truly poor would result in being underweight/malnourished, instead of the opposite. Just because you can't afford the aforementioned grass fed beef and organic quinoa, that doesn't mean you can't adhere to reasonable eating and exercise habits.

msf74

but their being overweight is an obvious testament to the notion that they can afford to eat enough to put themselves in caloric excess. You'd think that being truly poor would result in being underweight/malnourished, instead of the opposite.

All it show is they have access to cheap calories although not necessarily cheap nutrition. I suspect if you look at the diets of many poor people they will be very high in carbs and fat but low in protein without even considering micros. They may be overweight but that does not necessarily mean they are properly nourished or have anything near approaching access to a basic balanced diet.

I cannot speak for the States but in the UK there certainly are poor people who struggle to make even a basic standard of living. Sure, they are not poor in comparison to people in developing countries but that is not to say they do not struggle tremendously.

ThatCatholicGirl

Here in the UK, anything that is "half-fat" or has the word "healthy" on it is 50% more expensive than it's less healthy alternative. It hacks me off no end...

MagicalLeopleurodon

I was poor growing up (like as in dumpster diving poor), and my dad and I were thin, while my mom and sisters were overweight.

Now my family has a very tight budget (one income family, plus working on paying off debt), and we have a grocery budget of $90 a week, for the five of us (this includes non-food items like tp and also stuff to pack school lunches-plus one of my kid's is lactose intolerant so she needs different foods, like almond milk)). We do not get any type of assistance for food (or anything else). We're all thin, healthy and we eat a pretty well balanced diet, (we do eat out several times a week, and that's budgeted separately, but if we added that to our grocery budget it would bump it up to around $130 a week).

Also-I tried the whole container garden thing and it cost a lot of money to set up, and then nothing grew (we got a grand total of three strawberries and one tomato from it ). Definitely cheaper to just go to the store and buy veggies/fruit on sale, or buy frozen.

I can grow ANYTHING.....until i put it in a container. I can murder the healthiest plants in two days in a stupid pot.

RllyGudTweetr

I can see no way this thread can go badly, so I'm tagging in to follow it.

Sovictorrious

I thought it was lack of education?

OllyReeves

The "truely" poor can not afford to buy food, plus they usually have very physical jobs like farmers and construction. They need high caloritic food to survive.

There is very few "truely" poor people in the US.

Go to a third world country, see real poverty.

Wow, what rubbish!

rml_16

I really believe it's a lack of education more than anything else.

I have known people who came from geneations of poverty and people who were "poor" for a short time while attending college or starting their careers after having children young. Both sets of people were on food stamps at some point. The people who came from educated, middle-class backgrounds ate healthy, nutritious, balanced diets while the people who came from a lower-class background ate more junk food.

I don't know if they truly don't know better or they don't care.

PrincessCris

Just the tittle of this post made me lol so much.

amfmmama

I work in a low income, urban school district. It is definitely cheaper to buy less nutritious food. In addition, people who do not have cars, shop close to home. There are not many supermarkets in the inner city, and the ones that are there, do not carry quality fresh products. The children of these families are fed two of there 3 (3 if they are lucky) at school. The options at school are not the healthiest options either.

There are many factors here and math will not give you all of the answers.

usmcmp

I'm poor. We barely make ends meet (and some months we don't make ends meet). I'm not fat.

I know how to cut back on things we don't need to spend on things we do. We don't have cable or internet. We don't go out to eat unless someone else pays. I've learned to exchange services and my spare time for extra cash to spend on health. (I also have sponsors that pay for my competitions or I would not be able to compete, I exchange services and advertising for entry fees).

It's about priorities and education, not opportunities.

Grumpsandwich

We went through a spell after college where my family of 3 lived off LESS then 18k a year. Now when you have less than $5 left to feed your family for a cpl days to you A buy a head of lettuce n perhaps chicken breast and have 1 meal or spend 99cents per pack of 8 hotdogs and a bag of potatoes. What do you when you want to keep your family fed n sated. Its not always easy times actually get tough when there is no work, no money coming in. And yes there were times we were taking cans back to get money for that pack of hotdogs. Let me tell ya a diet of hotdogs n hamburger helper doenst bode well on the body lol

dshalbert

Many times it it also a lack of access. Many poorer neigborhoods have what is called food deserts. Food deserts are defined as urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Instead of supermarkets and grocery stores, farmer's markets, these communities may have no food access without a car or are served only by fast food restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options. The lack of access contributes to a poor diet and can lead to higher levels of obesity and other diet-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.

This combined with lack of education about healthy food choices can be a problem.

amfmmama

Many times it it also a lack of access. Many poorer neigborhoods have what is called food deserts. Food deserts are defined as urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Instead of supermarkets and grocery stores, farmer's markets, these communities may have no food access without a car or are served only by fast food restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options. The lack of access contributes to a poor diet and can lead to higher levels of obesity and other diet-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.

This combined with lack of education about healthy food choices can be a problem.

I think we were typing at the same time! You put it much better than me!

Zomoniac

Here (UK) it's true that to buy the ingredients to make a fresh salad for a couple of people (let's say the most basic garden salad, a lettuce, a pepper, a few tomatoes, a cucumber), you can buy around 200 biscuits or 30 chocolate bars. Which suggests something has gone badly wrong.

I know my food bill is pretty high, but that's because I eat a lot of meat and I have personal moral issues about not buying free range. But if you're ok with battery you can generally eat pretty cheap, if you stick to budget own brand stuff vs premium branded (in my local Asda it's 50 pence for a giant box of Smartprice bran flakes, over £3 for the equivalent Kellogg's box, they both taste of much the same amount of flavourless cardboard to me, I'm not poor but I see no reason to pay over the odds for things if I don't need to). Do Tesco still do two whole chickens for £4? Whilst the very thought of how that is viable makes me feel quite sick, it shows the options for cheap food exist.