posted on Jul, 20 2011 @ 02:20 PM
Access to nutritional foods is only part of the problem. After you make it available, then you must educate the poor that proper foods are necessary
for good health... otherwise, you can sell cheap apples and carrots all you want, the iggnorant will go for the MickeyDs Value Menu everytime.
Sit down in a fast food outlet at a Walmart... and just watch people, or wander the produce area of a Walmart on a Friday or Saturday and just watch
people. I say Walmart because they tend to attract a high number of low income people with their pricing points and selection. Just casually observe
what people buy.
I just returned from Tizimin, Mexico on a mission trip in an effort to aide the poor of the Yucatan Penninsula. Although bottled water is available
everywhere and is safe and easy to buy and consume....the big seller down there...Coca Cola. Everywhere there is Coke...the tred and white logos
plaster every store front, their logos are on furniture and tables and chairs everywhere....almost like a political campaign, they have embedded their
product into the popular psche.
It was easy to see the long term effects of a preponderance of Coke in the local diet.... beautiful healthy small children were turning into obese
teens and adults with bad teeth. Fresh fruit is free for the picking literally... huaya, lemons, oranges, avocadoes dot the yards and side streets of
the area... but if i saw one child coming from the store carrying a bottle of Coke for the family, I saw hundreds. Upon visiting some of the villages,
peple that had little and slept in hammocks over dirt floors...drank Coke.
I like Coke too, but not every meal and inbetween every day....
My point is...true iggnorance is not knowing any better...a lack of education. And all the cheap nutritious foods will not sell well to an iggnorant
consumer when they don't realize what will happen to them 2-5 years down the road eating dollar cheese burgers and dollar fries everyday.... but look
at those that do by age 30 or so. Many are diabetic, overweight, suffer numerous ailments, bad hearts, high blood pressure, etc.
Thus the old addage ..."you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."
You can offer people affordable fruits and veggies, but you can't make them eat.