Comments on: Who’s The Fattest?

By: linkmaxbub

linkmaxbub — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:11:00 +0000

Unfortunately, the food production/distribution system in this country is rotten to the core. Poor, often uneducated, people in poorer rural areas often have to rely on fast food for “affordable” meals. These cheap meals are really incredibly expensive when one considers the cost to the environment during production and the health care costs that are mostly always a result of ingesting that garbage.

It’s wrong but, sadly, it’s our reality here in the US of A.

By: danaseilhan

danaseilhan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:17:57 +0000

Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the nation and, at least when I lived there, contained some of the most abysmal public school systems. The more the poverty, the greater the number of fat people–check out an Indian reservation sometime.

Speaking as someone who’s had to worry about it, a premade burger can be cheaper than buying the beef and the buns and the condiments separately when you have absolutely no wiggle room. It’s one bun, one patty, one slice of cheese and one set of condiments and you don’t have to store anything or cook anything. People who must ride public transit have to worry about this. People who rent rooms have to worry about this. People who can’t afford storage dishes have to worry. It’s a mess. In rural areas it’s even worse because they don’t have the population mass to attract quality grocery stores, so if someone locally doesn’t give a darn and just opens a large version of a convenience store, stocking more junk than real food, and you don’t have a car to get to the nearest sorta-large town… you’re toast.

Mississippi is mostly rural, as I recall. Louisiana’s just about as bad. They still have some of their traditional food, so they have a bit of an advantage, but it’s being eroded away all the time. My dad buys premade roux for his gumbo now and I’ve seen other Cajuns make jambalaya from boxed mixes. Industrial food is evil.

By: Ed Bruske

Ed Bruske — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:08:24 +0000

Keri, you’re right that we need to reach out to people who don’t know how to cook and don’t know the difference between dangerous and healthy foods. Would you believe there is not a scintilla of nutrition or cooking or food in the D.C. schools curriculum? I don’t think Americans fully grasp how deep this problem goes.

By: keri

keri — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:56:23 +0000

Obesity is a combination of many, many factors; much of which pertain to lifestyle and slowed metabolism.

I was just recently informed that HFCS actually slow metabolisms, so while there are many people that are already inclined to be heavier are more likely to become obese by eating things with HFCS.

Food marketers target the poor into believing that “products” are cheaper than food. It’s simply not true.

My boyfriend and I eat for less than $20/wk (of course, we don’t eat meat) in the summer and about $45/wk in the winter. When we ate junk food regularly it cost us at least that for one meal.

We need to build a program to teach people how to eat economically and safely. A lot can be said for CSAs, small garden plots and a tiny bit of planning.