Why are so many "poor" Americans SO FAT?

Originally posted by bommer09
reply to post by grapesofraft

 

Next time you are at the grocery store look at the prices of fruit and vegetables. It ain't cheap and it is only getting more expensive. Around here a single ear of corn costs at least 50 cents. Same with apples and oranges.

If only I could be so lucky. Cheapest I've seen an ear of corn lately is a buck apiece. D:
Kind of backs up your statement though, I suppose.

Cheers,
Tea

I gotta admit, one thing that isn't helping is today's youth - teenagers.

Via many associates, I know easily a half-dozen girls who aren't even old enough to drink, yet have two or more kids, some by the same dads. Some of these girls even leave the father blank on the birth certificates to assure their boyfriends they won't be chased after for child support.

Every single one has an apartment or house paid for, gets food stamps from the govt., has the utilities paid - and even get cable tv from the govt! For what, I have no idea, but they get it.

These same irresponsible girls, who have nothing to do but pop out more kids to get more money per month are also given rides for college.

What the hell kind of world is this that irresponsible, lazy people are rewarded while the rest of us bust our *sses to get what we have?

Might as well reward murders with guns instead of imprisonment.

I want my tax dollars back.

reply to post by TheTeaKettle


I do see your point that some of these people suffer from learned helplessness and seem incapable of making healthy choices or even using common sense.

For example, if your friend can afford to drink Dr. Pepper all the time then he can afford to drink Cool-Aid or Coffee and spend the savings on healthy food. So to me it is a matter of choice, but I guess some people are incapable of making good decisions. This is why cutting their funding would force them to think of healtier ways to eat.

reply to post by bommer09


Well maybe they should check prices. You can buy a 3lb bag of apples for 2.99, but a less than 3lb bag of chips cost as much or more. Also, your body wll get the nutrition it seeks by eating things like apples but hollow foods like chips leave your body craving more. I think people are just making excuses for their poor decision making.

reply to post by TheTeaKettle


Ok so you can buy an ear of corn for a dollar or a candy bar. What is the correct choice for your health?

Also you can buy a generic can of corn for 50 cents or less if you shop around.

reply to post by orderedchaos


I totally agree with you. A star for you. It is ridiculous that we encourage stupid behavior and punish the people that make good decisions by using their tax dollars to support lazy, stupid people like teenage girls that keep popping out kids so they can get more assistance.

Thanks, grapes.

And you're right - people have to learn quality from quantity. A big meal or a large portion doesn't equal filling and/or healthy.

Unfortunately, most people that don't know any better are the ones who get their nutrients from hamburger helper instead of roasted chicken and green beans.

Stupid is as as does.

I mean, how many people buy into the commercial of chef boyardee pasta having a full serving of veggies?

Where does the veggie serving come from, I wonder - the meat, the sauce, or the pasta? Born from a long line of chefs, I'd like to know how that little trick is done.

reply to post by grapesofraft


I think you are partly right. I mean if you don't grow up in a good home and are uneducated then yes you will make poor choices. However I still stand by what I said. If people have access to good food and they can afford it they will eat it.

reply to post by grapesofraft


As a response to his habits with soda, he claims it is as such;
Anon says (7:11 PM):
Soda is one of the few luxuries I get.
So I take it.
Anon says (7:12 PM):
It'll be easier when I can get a job
Which will mean more food for us, and more luxuries for me

So make of that what you will. For me, it screams laziness.

Candybar? I don't really know what to say to that, as I don't know what goes through those people's heads. I guess they prefer something tastier to the tastebuds? I've not a single clue.

As for the corn, I prefer fresh food as a whole. Something that has been sitting in a can for a few months doesn't really scream "appetizing" to me. Meaning to say, I won't completely turn it away if I'm using it in cooking, but if I want corn directly, I'm going to try to buy it fresh.

Cheers,
Tea

[edit on 30-7-2009 by TheTeaKettle]

There's a really good book called "Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich...

Some places who will give out free food packages to those with very low incomes tend to provide food that is high in carbohydrates, sugars, and fats.

Sometimes obesity is the result of health problems. When the thyroid no longer works the chances of becoming obese go way up. People with low functioning thyroids talk slowly. Exercising becomes more difficult becuase one of the side effects of hypothyoidism is painful joints. A hypothyroidal person appears fat and lazy because of this they will be discriminated against. Most fat people are told to eat soy; this advice will cause hypothyroidal people to pile on the pounds. Hypothyroidal people usually only lose weight when they stick to the Adkins diet. People usually become fat then poor not the other way around.

reply to post by orderedchaos


Great point and you know what is really crazy is that people will come on this thread and start to blame the commercials for brainwashing these people. Like people are so stupid that they dont know that commercials are full of crap and you need to look into things before you buy them.

Everyone always wants to make victims out of everyone. It is this very thinking that encourages certain groups of people to develop learned helplessness. Just think how your life would be if everytime you did something stupid, people made excuses for why you did it.

Well Here in Canada we suffer from the same issues with our social assistance. Sadly though when it comes to food, if you want to buy carrots and celery and cucumbers to eat as a snack it coses normaly arround 3-4 $ for those items (each) where as giving your child chips or cakes only costs 1.25$ for chips and a package of cakes is 12 cakes for 3$ and is probably what your child would prefer to eat then the 'healthy foods'. This being said we have a hard time to get on welfare, I lost my job and our unemployement insurance refused my application cause my employer stated that i was late, when he fired me for refusing to do overtime. so he stuck to his guns and i had no proff, so they wouldnt pay my UI. I was flat broke as i was not expecting to loose my job (since then i now always have a back up, I was 18 when this happened and had no parents to go back home to live with) So i applied to welfare (social assitance.) it took me 2 months to be accepted after giving them every document that i believe i recieved in my entire life, and all they gave me was 650$ to live on. They said they could not provide me with social housing and i had to put my name on a 3 year waiting list for it. ( my rent at the time was 350 and that was considered low. ) I then had to pay my heating, electricity, phone (so i could call for the job interviews, buspass so i could go down to the job). It gave me so little to live on for food and clothing that i swore i would never do it again. I later found out all the other benifits i could have been privy to when they called to 'check up on me after i had canceled. ( they called to find out why i canceled it and if i would be returning to it at a later Date.) I found out that if you have any money owed to the government, such as tickets from driving your car (which your allowed to own) or taxes or even student loans you do not need to pay them back while your on social assistance. If your bills run up to high and you cant pay them you can have the government pay them off once per year. I recently had a high bill for parking tickets that i couldnt pay all at once, i had to go on a contract to pay the government back, and found out that if i was on welfare i didnt have to pay it. but it was a hassle to put myself on the contract as i had to prove that i couldnt pay them all at once. I got to the point that i snaped and told the woman "what if i quit my job and go on welfare i dont have to worry, but because i am working i get the large end of the stick?"

While i was on welfare it is a hard life when your used to working and making good money, but when your raised on it and are used to it its really a great lazy life. Sadly i know a mother and son who are both on welfare they came over from haiti and they both got on welfare easier then i did as they only had to show a document they recieved from imagrations. the son kept gloating when i applied for it 'how easy it was for them' and he would laugh about it. They have been on welfare for years now and the son doesnt plan on working. he was given the option to go to school which he did, then when his schooling was done(granted a program allowed by the government) he just hops from program to program now.

During that month it was easier for me to eat a fry for supper since it was 1$ and maybe 2 hotdogs since they were 0.50$ then to go out and buy tomatoes and chicken breast and other stuff. An order of food is about 100$ for me now, while eating chips or fried or other fast food was cheaper, in the fact that it cost me 2.50$ for a fry, 2 hotdogs and a drink. which 30 days X 2.50 was 75$. I never eat breakfast (yes i know unhealthy, and lunch is on the fly. supper is the only meal i get to actually sit down to eat)

I believe i did gain some weight on welfare, and i wasnt lazy i hussled to find work and when i wasnt working i was busy with helping people i knew do renovations or computer work arround thier houses.

reply to post by bommer09


Unless you live in a rural area where there isnt a grocery store for 20 miles then you can grab a wagon or something else and walk to the nearest grocery store. What is wrong with that. If you are fat and depressed a little exercise might do you some good.

reply to post by eradown


So are you trying to say that all the fat people on public assistance have thyroid problems? That is hard to believe.

reply to post by anubis9311


Thanks for sharing and I am sorry you had to go through that. Having said that, I think being on welfare should totally suck. So everyday you wake up and the only thing on your mind is how can I get off of this crap and have a good life. Public assistance should suck so bad that nobody in their right mind would want to be on it. Then you wouldnt have people choosing it because they dont want to work.

You all are nuts. Fresh produce is not more expensive in most areas than all the crappy prepared food. This is a matter of choice not finances.

Also it has been proven that those people who have ancestors that were poor, tend to store the food they eat rather than fully process it through the body. It is just one of humankinds survival mechanisms.

Fat is not your fault

Most of the people on this thread should be embarrassed, but I am quite sure you will obstinate instead.

I'm poor, not on welfare, and underweight according to BMI. I eat only one meal a day myself, but my kids eat almost constantly. We tend to have pretty unhealthy processed foods and such, but I always try to have apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers... the kids go through fresh stuff quick tho!

Everyone else I know is on welfare, AND all of them have jobs... they all tell me that I need to gain weight and ask why we "can't get on welfare". As a kid, I did know one couple who lived off every sort of gov't assistance they could get, didn't have jobs, and had 3 kids... but in my experience, that's not as common as you're suggesting. I totally get your perspective though...

I don't shop at WalMart, I suspect they might have something to do with generally less healthy foods with more additives, but I have no proof of that. Also, WalMart is on the other side of town and we can't afford to get the car inspected, so that has saved us from shopping there out of desperation...

Edited to add:

Everyone in my extended family (mom, aunts, sisters, brothers, cousins) are overweight, and both sides of my family have been poor for generations.

[edit on 7/30/2009 by eMachine]

reply to post by eMachine


Well I am sorry to hear that you do not get enough to eat. Maybe you should get on assistance so you can at least get an education so you can get a higher paying career. I dont really have a problem with people who use it as a leg up. I have a problem with people who think being on assistance is a good career choice. Anyway, I wish you the best of luck and good fortune.

reply to post by eMachine


I'm also underweight according to BMI... but my family doesn't have any financial problems (at least not enough to cause a problem with getting food). I just can't eat a lot, ever, and I don't gain much weight.

Some people are just like that.