What do you think of the obesity epidemic in the U.S.?
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ok so a weeks fruit only purchase. one piece of fruit a day/ one banana, one apple, and three strawberries for five days is 7 dollars+ a large bag of chips is 1.97 and it will last for five days of snacks. do the math.
I buy 10 Lbs of apples for about $7.50...that usually lasts me two weeks at an apple per day...that's like $.54 per day...that's cheaper than a candy bar. I buy 25 Lbs of dried pinto beans for around $18.00...I go through about 1 Lb per week with my family of four as a dietary staple in my home...that's $3.64 per week. I like to rotis a couple of chickens on Sunday for quick lunches and what not...cost me about $8.00 and makes a solid 8 meals...that's $1 per serving...cheap.
I get so sick of this nonsense. People choose what they choose. It is incredibly easy to eat healthfully on a budget...people are just lazy and favor convenience.0 -
Ah! I found a coupon for my grocery store: Jay's Potato Chips 2 10-oz bags for $6 total, and baking potatoes for 89 cents/lb, or about 6.75 lbs for the same cost as the chips.
And again I pay much more in reality on the chips because of the extra sales tax.0 -
I think about it more now that I am aware of my own size loss and determination to reduce it. I also am becoming more concerned with both sides of my family who in general still eat without much reserve (farm and comfort foods with dessert always). There is heart, cancer, diabetes, obesity, edema and blood clotting disorders in my own gene pool. I found myself wondering what I would develop as I got older, thinking it was inevitable, until I decided to get the weight off. These things could still happen, BUT I feel now that at least I have a fighting chance to "control" the controlables like food and activity choices.
My husband is trying, and my girls have slimmed down a little naturally I like to think because my cooking has changed and they are seeing me getting successful at loss and they are asking questions about nutrition and making better choices than they did before.
It makes me sad to see the US spiraling into obesity, at least that's how it appears from the midwest.0 -
So: how do people feel about policy solutions? Things like making spaces more walkable...
That's happening, big time, in many cities....maybe limiting portion sizes at restaurants...
Can't happen. Consumers won't stand for it....ensuring kids have healthy options at school...
Can't get parents to agree on what constitutes "healthy options"....cities limiting the number of fast food restaurants in a given area and encouraging the presence of at least one grocery store per x...
Zoning can prevent people from building X, but it can't force business to build Y....supporting (even funding) community gardens/CSAs...
There are already more CSAs than customers to support them....requiring that manufacturers meet a certain macro/micro threshold...
Unconstitutional....food pricing, too
Good luck getting re-elected.
lol - ALL TWEAKABLE! actually i think a heavy hand is called for, sometimes. i think this might be one of those times. granted i don't live in the US, some of these would fly better here in canada.
re grocery stores - no, businesses can't be forced, but they might respond to incentives.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »4 decent-size sides of broccoli=59 cents at my grocery store right now (if you don't insist on organic). Add the same amount of cabbage and it's 88 cents for a huge side. I think it's weird to compare that with chips, as the broccoli has nutrients and the chips have essentially none, but a 14 oz bag of Ruffles is $3.50, even without the extra tax I'd get on it.
hmm, yeah. i think leisure time is a thing, too, people need time to cook.
I think that's a MUCH bigger factor than the cost, yes.
Roasted or baked potatoes are about the easiest and least time consuming (but for waiting for them to get out of the oven) thing to cook, however, and so are roasted veggies. Also, the vast majority of chips are probably being consumed as a snack, not with dinner.0 -
hmm, yeah. i think leisure time is a thing, too, people need time to cook.
See, I was a single parent, busy, and poor. I also fed my family well, much of the food from scratch. This disturbs me when low income people don't think they have the time to eat well.
Here's a world leisure map. Europe is laughing at North America. Cry for Mexico.
https://public.tableau.com/s/blog/2011/09/who-works-too-hard
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So: how do people feel about policy solutions? Things like making spaces more walkable...
That's happening, big time, in many cities....maybe limiting portion sizes at restaurants...
Can't happen. Consumers won't stand for it....ensuring kids have healthy options at school...
Can't get parents to agree on what constitutes "healthy options"....cities limiting the number of fast food restaurants in a given area and encouraging the presence of at least one grocery store per x...
Zoning can prevent people from building X, but it can't force business to build Y....supporting (even funding) community gardens/CSAs...
There are already more CSAs than customers to support them....requiring that manufacturers meet a certain macro/micro threshold...
Unconstitutional....food pricing, too
Good luck getting re-elected.
lol - ALL TWEAKABLE! actually i think a heavy hand is called for, sometimes. i think this might be one of those times. granted i don't live in the US, some of these would fly better here in canada.
re grocery stores - no, businesses can't be forced, but they might respond to incentives.
Sure, in a non-democracy, a "heavy hand" may be feasible.
Fortunately I don't live in such a place.
I have close, dear friends who provide CSAs. Very high quality CSAs. It's a terrible business model, and is yet another "wonderful" thing that consumers want to fawn over but not actually pay for. **** 'em. Everybody has choices. In the end, if obesity has meaningful negative long term implications, the evolutionary process will take care of it.
Meantime, I teach my about-to-be-dating daughter that if the boy she's interested in has a porker of a dad who can't move any further than the beer-holder on the arm his Laz-y-Boy, that's most likely where that currently-cute kid will end up, too.
:drinker:0 -
hmm, yeah. i think leisure time is a thing, too, people need time to cook.
See, I was a single parent, busy, and poor. I also fed my family well, much of the food from scratch. This disturbs me when low income people don't think they have the time to eat well.
Here's a world leisure map. Europe is laughing at North America beat by a long margin. Cry for Mexico.
https://public.tableau.com/s/blog/2011/09/who-works-too-hard
jgnatca, ok. but i'm thinking about the young woman who died in her car last year because she was so overworked and fatigued from her three minimum-wage jobs that she couldn't tell her car was being gassed. (she'd been napping between shifts)0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »4 decent-size sides of broccoli=59 cents at my grocery store right now (if you don't insist on organic). Add the same amount of cabbage and it's 88 cents for a huge side. I think it's weird to compare that with chips, as the broccoli has nutrients and the chips have essentially none, but a 14 oz bag of Ruffles is $3.50, even without the extra tax I'd get on it.
hmm, yeah. i think leisure time is a thing, too, people need time to cook.
People have plenty of time to cook...I'm the primary cook in my home...I'm also a busy professional, I make time for exercise, I make time to play with and do things with my kids...I make time to spend with my wife, etc...and somehow I manage to cook most meals and get everyone fed.
Excuses are abundant....people would rather reach for a "junky" snack and sit their *kitten* on the couch and do nothing...people make choices and many of them are *kitten*. Most people i know are just really lazy, and that's what it boils down to.0 -
So: how do people feel about policy solutions?
Open to them, if they sound reasonable.Things like making spaces more walkable
In favor of this, but my city is (for the most part) already quite walkable (the issue would be safety in crime-ridden areas).maybe limiting portion sizes at restaurants
I'd be against this, and it will never, never happen. I mean, look at the uproar about the limited effort to regulate soda size in NYC.
The market indicates that in the US people like food to be cheap beyond anything else and size is one thing that people perceive as making it a deal.ensuring kids have healthy options at school
I'm in favor of this, but again it's already the case lots of places, including where I live.cities limiting the number of fast food restaurants in a given area and encouraging the presence of at least one grocery store per x
This already happens to a certain extent. In my city there's a big push to deal with food deserts. Simply making the stores available isn't sufficient, and also is to a certain extent resisted by the current residents, weird as that seems, because of a fear of gentrification.supporting (even funding) community gardens/CSAs
In favor, already happening to some extent, but I'm the kind of person who would favor doing more here.requiring that manufacturers meet a certain macro/micro threshold...
Seems pointless and would be easily abused, just like Snackwells were created when the market wanted certain macros back in the day.
Re food pricing: I'd need more specifics.0 -
hmm, yeah. i think leisure time is a thing, too, people need time to cook.
See, I was a single parent, busy, and poor. I also fed my family well, much of the food from scratch. This disturbs me when low income people don't think they have the time to eat well.
Here's a world leisure map. Europe is laughing at North America beat by a long margin. Cry for Mexico.
https://public.tableau.com/s/blog/2011/09/who-works-too-hard
jgnatca, ok. but i'm thinking about the young woman who died in her car last year because she was so overworked and fatigued from her three minimum-wage jobs that she couldn't tell her car was being gassed. (she'd been napping between shifts)
I would say that is not representative of the norm in my experience.
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<---feels like a hairy prophet, honey dripping down my shiny locks, crying in the wilderness.
I say, reduce the income inequality and obesity rates may very well drop. I suspect stress as a key factor in the obesity epidemic.0 -
Cooking healthy is CHEAP and QUICK. It takes a couple of bucks a day and 30 minutes to load up a crockpot with a week's worth of nutritional goodness. I'm with WolfMan...world is full of people who just don't give enough of a **** to do it.
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Cooking healthy is CHEAP and QUICK. It takes a couple of bucks a day and 30 minutes to load up a crockpot with a week's worth of nutritional goodness. I'm with WolfMan...world is full of people who just don't give enough of a **** to do it.
so let them eat cake, is what you're saying.0 -
It makes me sad to see the US spiraling into obesity, at least that's how it appears from the midwest.
We seem to have reached the summit and are maintaining or going down a bit, last I heard. Other countries are still on the increase.
Probably there's some natural cap on obesity based on human differences in who naturally regulates well and who does not in the rather historically bizarre situation of cheap, plentiful, easy to prepare/ready-to-eat food that we are in.0 -
Cooking healthy is CHEAP and QUICK. It takes a couple of bucks a day and 30 minutes to load up a crockpot with a week's worth of nutritional goodness. I'm with WolfMan...world is full of people who just don't give enough of a **** to do it.
so let them eat cake, is what you're saying.
Can't force 'em to do otherwise, if that's what they want to do.
Either we believe in personal responsibility and the right to make choices, or we don't.
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lemurcat12 wrote: »So: how do people feel about policy solutions?
Open to them, if they sound reasonable.Things like making spaces more walkable
In favor of this, but my city is (for the most part) already quite walkable (the issue would be safety in crime-ridden areas).maybe limiting portion sizes at restaurants
I'd be against this, and it will never, never happen. I mean, look at the uproar about the limited effort to regulate soda size in NYC.
The market indicates that in the US people like food to be cheap beyond anything else and size is one thing that people perceive as making it a deal.ensuring kids have healthy options at school[/quote}
I'm in favor of this, but again it's already the case lots of places, including where I live.cities limiting the number of fast food restaurants in a given area and encouraging the presence of at least one grocery store per x
This already happens to a certain extent. In my city there's a big push to deal with food deserts. Simply making the stores available isn't sufficient, and also is to a certain extent resisted by the current residents, weird as that seems, because of a fear of gentrification.supporting (even funding) community gardens/CSAs
In favor, already happening to some extent, but I'm the kind of person who would favor doing more here.requiring that manufacturers meet a certain macro/micro threshold...
Seems pointless and would be easily abused, just like Snackwells were created when the market wanted certain macros back in the day.
Re food pricing: I'd need more specifics.
i'd be very into reading more about the kinds of efforts you've mentioned, and how various factors have played out. you're right, the devil really is in the details.
gah quotes - response bolded.
i've got to run guys, good talk, though0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »
Yes, evidence suggests that. Like with everything else, the evolutionary process is brutally efficient at weeding out the biological BS.
:drinker:
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Or, based on daily visitors on MFP, there's a whole lot of people who don't know how to cook. Or critically evaluate health claims.Cooking healthy is CHEAP and QUICK. It takes a couple of bucks a day and 30 minutes to load up a crockpot with a week's worth of nutritional goodness. I'm with WolfMan...world is full of people who just don't give enough of a **** to do it.so let them eat cake, is what you're saying.
The older I get the liberaller I become. Let's help low income people lift themselves by their bootstraps. I do think that the poor have more gumption than we give them credit for. Surely if asked, they could come up with a whole bunch of ideas on where they could use support.0
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