Are the poor fat?

bcattoes · February 2014

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

I'm not quite that bad, but container gardening is more difficult, at least for me. It's also much more expensive than planting in the ground. The initial setup is very expensive - pots, seeds, dirt. But pots also need fertilized more often because nutrients are depleted more quickly in the contained area.

I have been poor. Not dumpster diving poor, but near poverty level. I was a lot thinner then than I am now that I have money for whatever food I want. I was also younger then, had 2 young children to keep up with, and quite frankly we just could not afford a lot of junk. When one bag of potato chips costs as much as a bag of carrots AND a bag of apples, and you have only that much, only an idiot would buy the chips.

I have a container garden on my roof top with right now around 300 plants/containers. It took me a few years to establish, because I refused to buy pots and now use recycled containers from buckets to coffee cans and 2 or 3 liter soda bottles from the garbage. I also recover my own seeds from my plants, or participate in exchanges where all it costs me is postage. I am just one person, but for about 8-10 month I cover all my vegetable & herb needs for an investment of no more than the equivalent of 50 dollars. It is true that it is more work; especially watering as often as twice a day in this semi-tropical country, but since it's my hobby and the way I combat stress and keep from eating when I don't need to, it is time very well spent.

Nice! Plus a 8-10 month growing season! Only a few greens and herbs grow that long in my area. I can usually find pots cheap at rummage sales, but potting soil is expensive where I live. No way I could fill 300 containers with anything other than red clay for $50.

neanderthin · February 2014

I believe the stats do bear that out, with the south east worse off.

Shannonpurple · February 2014

I thought it was lack of education?

Ding ding ding.

Coming from a poor unhealthy overweight family I would also like to add poor people are LAZY end of story! There are plenty of opportunities out there you just have to get up off your @$$ and get them!

dumb_blondes_rock · February 2014

I get both sides...a head of broccoli costs .99 cents, and a mcchicken sandwhich also costs .99 cents. But

I lost both my jobs due to a car accident, and no longer have transportation to get to them until my car is fixed, which I don't have money to do. I live in a small town, where even Mcdonalds isn't hiring, so my dad is paying all my bills for me. We have about 100 dollars to spend for 2 weeks worth of food, including his lunches for work. Our nearest Walmart has family packs of boneless skinless chicken breasts that are 1.99/lb which is cheaper and healthier than the 70/30 hamburger. For about 8.50 we get 6 chicken breasts, which are about 10 ounces each, which is plenty for dinner with one breast each. I get frozen broccoli or green beans which are 1.99 a lb. I jazz them up with margarine, or sometimes add cheddar. I eat eggs and oatmeal almost every single day for breakfast, which are both relatively cheap, especially if you get them at Walmart. For lunch, my dad gets hot dogs or sandwiches, pudding and splurges on string cheese. I get a random bag of potatoes, some carrots, onions, garlic and celery, and beans or lentils just to have them on hand.

I learned that portion control really does help your budget for food. Instead of eating 2 chicken breasts each, we only eat one, or sometimes share one (5 oz chicken). When you use measuring cups and a food scale your food stretches farther than if you just guess.

We went to carls jr not that long ago, ordered off the regular menu and our meal was 20 dollars...all I could thing about was I could buy 10 chicken breasts and 2 bags of frozen veggies with that, which would last us almost a week. I have lived off top ramen, spaghetti, and beans before, but I learned how to budget in more protein dense foods to feel full longer, because I could eat like 5 packs of tap ramen and still be hungry at the end of the day.

Btw. beans and brown rice can be found at almost any "desert food" or whatever they call them places, and they are cheap and keep you full. The problem with those kind of areas is there are a lot of single families where the mom is working 2 or 3 jobs just to make ends meet, or both parents have to work 2 jobs and they don't have time to cook, or just don't want to cook when they come home, so its easier to give your kids 3 bucks to go to the liquor store and get some food.

randomtai · February 2014

I would also like to add poor people are LAZY end of story! There are plenty of opportunities out there you just have to get up off your @$$ and get them!

:yawn: :yawn: :yawn: :yawn: :yawn: :yawn: :yawn: :yawn: :yawn: :yawn: :noway: :noway: :noway:

MoreBean13 · February 2014

I thought it was lack of education?

Ding ding ding.

Coming from a poor unhealthy overweight family I would also like to add poor people are LAZY end of story! There are plenty of opportunities out there you just have to get up off your @$$ and get them!

WOW. Cool generalization skills.

Did you happen to see the post I made earlier with actual statistics relating socioeconomic status to obesity? Your insinuation is both insulting and incorrect.

amfmmama · February 2014

there are often weekly farmers markets 2 and 1/2 months out of the year (I live in the North East, US) and they are definitely more expensive

Grew up in New York state (Chemung County and then near Buffalo) and now I live in Florida. It was cheaper to buy local produce in New York (where I lived) than in Florida (where I live).

Where YOU live may be more expensive, but you do no live in the entirety of the Northeast.

that still does not offer a solution for the other 9 1/2 months of the year, when a farmers market is not available... that is the entire North East and many other parts of this country.

janelann222 · February 2014

I think the OP is correct in assumption but there is reason for it. When I was in college and "poor" it was very very difficult to eat healthy. Food that is processed and worse for you is much easier to purchase. Healthier foods such as chicken breast, fruit, etc is much more expensive. It is more pricey to eat healthy. I think our government should do vouture. We focus too much on the whole healthcare thing, we need to focus on prevention.

Cathalain · February 2014

I'm not questioning the veracity, but those definitional criteria seem awfully restrictive...

Food deserts are defined as:
An area where the distance to a supermarket is more than ¼ mile,

Then I have lived in a food desert my entire life.

Is the City of Baltimore saying that 1/4 mile is too far for someone to carry groceries?

All of that information is pulled straight off of the Baltimore City website about the topic, that is correct.

A quarter of a mile isn’t a lot, no – if you’re shopping for one person. If you’re shopping for a family of four, or five, or six, however…. yeah, it actually can be. If you need two gallons of milk, a lot of eggs, laundry detergent…. hauling all of that more than a quarter of mile will net you some strong, strong muscles, I’d say.

Now, speaking for myself only – I was always prepared. I had a market basket, someone to help me out pushing a SECOND basket, and a lot of stamina. But I can only speak to my own experiences. These days I have a car and an easy way to get to the local market.

Again – not making any excuses here. There’s always a way, if you really want to find one. But I do understand that there ARE challenges to the goal, especially since I have experienced them myself.

And, keep in mind that Baltimore City in particular is struggling with a lot more problems than just food deserts – they can’t even keep their water system running properly. It’s truly a city in decay (though I’m from there and will always love it in my own weird fashion). I don’t know if other cities have the same issues, though I’m betting they’re not far off.

ETA: I wanted to add that, in Baltimore particularly, the usual way when there's no supermarket around or when people can't get to one is what we term "the corner store". It's usually some little store with bulletproof walls where the register is - you can pick up food, but it's really awful stuff - Kraft mac and cheese (the .33 cent kind), Campbell's soups (full of sodium), cheap white bread, margarine.... along with liquor and cigarettes. It's the epitome of everything awful for your health. But I know a LOT of people that do it all the time. If you ask people about "the corner store", almost everyone in this city (including me) could point you to one.

amfmmama · February 2014

I am a Food Producer (top end luxury items) - I always believed that people need to get back into the kitchen, and learn to cook. I was having this rant one day during an interview with a journalist. Later that week, she tweeted me with a challenge. "Put your money where your mouth is Mrs xxxx". It was the "Live below the line" (google it) challenge. I had £5 to live on, for five days. (I raised money for Unicef in the process). I was not allowed to forage (which was my first thought), no fishing, snaring, shooting - and if I ate anything from the garden - I had to count man hours and costs.
I did complete the challenge successfully. TV got involved too - and that was good for raising my fund for charity.
It did however, give me a whole new perspective on people who do indeed "live below the poverty line".
I found I had to buy very cheap, very fatty foods. I bought sausages which were quite frankly disgusting, I used the fat from frying the sausage as stock for risotto. I bought cans of peas for 19p (there was more mush than peas) - I had peaches which were tinned and steeped in syrup - fresh fruit was totally way out of budget.
By the end of the five days my stomach ached - I could smell grease in my skin - I was bloated - I did gain weight - and my whole bodily functions ceased. I could not afford to buy the foods which cater for my allergies - again - resulting in massive stomach pain.
I felt sluggish - didnt sleep well - and no notion of exercise as I felt so weighed down by fat -
everything cheap - was low in nutrition - and high in fat.
It was an eye opener - poverty - real poverty - does not finance good nutrition.

Interesting! Thanks for sharing.

zephtalah · February 2014

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

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

Go to a third world country, see real poverty.

This is kind of my thought too. The truly poor are starving. The people with low incomes have a choice of what to buy. Yes, sometimes junk food is cheap, but that doesn't mean there are no alternatives. A pack of seeds cost less than a bag of chips. Sometimes, things might be difficult, but that doesn't mean "destined to be" or "impossible."

dbmata · February 2014

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

Yup, exactly this. There is significant demographic data that shows the lower you go in yearly household earnings, the higher the chances of obesity.

dbmata · February 2014

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

It's comments like this that make me feel bad due to the large population of ignorant people we have in this country.

dbmata · February 2014

Coming from a poor unhealthy overweight family I would also like to add the poor people in my family are LAZY end of story!

FIFY. You're welcome.

Gshort78 · February 2014

I would defy and say that the rate of smoking in adults is higher in the poor than the wealthy. I don't think that smoking is cheaper than not smoking.

Maybe we're looking at it backwards?

I would think it has something to do with this

chard_muncher · February 2014

Can people stop telling us how much rice, chicken, and eggs cost in their town. First off, it completely misses the point. Second, the price of food changes a lot by location.

Food deserts are defined as:
An area where the distance to a supermarket is more than ¼ mile,

Then I have lived in a food desert my entire life.

Dito.

You have to meet all the criteria, not just 1 of them. Additionally, that person was talking specifically about the city of Baltimore. I'm guessing that you both don't live in poor areas of Baltimore.

In case you're wondering, the USDA defines a food desert here:

http://apps.ams.usda.gov/fooddeserts/foodDeserts.aspx

Note that in rural areas the minimum distance to a grocery store is 10 miles, and the poverty requirements are more strict.

zephtalah · February 2014

I am a Food Producer (top end luxury items) - I always believed that people need to get back into the kitchen, and learn to cook. I was having this rant one day during an interview with a journalist. Later that week, she tweeted me with a challenge. "Put your money where your mouth is Mrs xxxx". It was the "Live below the line" (google it) challenge. I had £5 to live on, for five days. (I raised money for Unicef in the process). I was not allowed to forage (which was my first thought), no fishing, snaring, shooting - and if I ate anything from the garden - I had to count man hours and costs.
I did complete the challenge successfully. TV got involved too - and that was good for raising my fund for charity.
It did however, give me a whole new perspective on people who do indeed "live below the poverty line".
I found I had to buy very cheap, very fatty foods. I bought sausages which were quite frankly disgusting, I used the fat from frying the sausage as stock for risotto. I bought cans of peas for 19p (there was more mush than peas) - I had peaches which were tinned and steeped in syrup - fresh fruit was totally way out of budget.
By the end of the five days my stomach ached - I could smell grease in my skin - I was bloated - I did gain weight - and my whole bodily functions ceased. I could not afford to buy the foods which cater for my allergies - again - resulting in massive stomach pain.
I felt sluggish - didnt sleep well - and no notion of exercise as I felt so weighed down by fat -
everything cheap - was low in nutrition - and high in fat.
It was an eye opener - poverty - real poverty - does not finance good nutrition.

This was a staged scenario. Why couldn't some one who was poor have a mini garden in their window sill? Why couldn't they forage or hunt? Why not buy dried beans for protein? Why not buy canned peaches with light or no syrup? There are options. I have had times where money was severely limited, and while I would be the first to admit it is easier to have fresh fruits and vegetable when money is abundant, I reject the "I have no choice" mentality. Where there is a will there is a way.

yarwell · February 2014

UK obesity vs education from no qualifications at left to degree on right. From http://www.noo.org.uk/uploads/doc/vid_16966_AdultSocioeconSep2012.pdf which also covers socioeconomics

thatgirlkellib · February 2014

I know quiet a few people who get food assistance and most of them are obese and so are thier kids, most of the kids are picky and would rather have junk for a meal, verses a real deal cooked meal that is healthy.
Due to the fact they rather buy the fries that are preseasoned and cut and frozen for $5. verses.. a $3- 5lb bag of whole potatoes that can be used a few times for different meals that takes a little prep work but way more nutritious..
.total lack of planning and education on money and food...

amfmmama · February 2014

Again, I work is a low-income, inner-city school. I have a student that was over 100 pounds overweight, stopped going to school because he was bullied and depressed. His dad brought him to the doctors. His dad is raising him on his own. The doctor spoke to them and signed a referral to see a bariatric surgeon about gastric bypass surgery. The dad was horrified and asked if there were any other alternatives, his son was only 15 years old! The doctor told him that his government insurance would pay for it and that he should get the surgery. His dad inquired about any other options available. The dr. told him he could try a visit to the nutritionist, but it probably would not work and was a waste of time. The dad did go. His son lost 110 pounds through diet and exercise. He is back in school and it has been 3 years. This is a wonderful and true story. BUT IT IS NOT THE NORM. His dad is EXCEPTIONAL.

This is multi-faceted problem. It is access, it is education, it is a matter of breaking a cycle, it is marketing, etc etc etc

And for the record, who cares what the definition of a urban desert is? .... there are places where a market with fresh food is not available and that is a problem.

Are the poor fat?

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