Poor people are fat because they can't afford healthy food

[Jarhyn]

On food deserts: I live in north Minneapolis, in Webber-Camden neighbourhood. While it is certainly not a bad neighborhood, north Minneapolis is where a lot of poor people live. Home prices in the area are depressed, and on the bus ride from downtown I keep my hand on my wallet. I occasionally catch some uninvited teens walking through my back yard, and there are a lot of chai link fences one block down.

There also happens to be absolutely no supermarkets within walking distance. The nearest is 3 or 4 miles, and I don't even have a license, much less a car.

So yes, there are food deserts. I live in one.

I never doubted that some exist. How do you get your food if you don't mind me asking? What do other people in your neighborhood do?

Down the street there's a massively over-priced General store called 'CamdenMart' which I think turns good business at the expense of the neighbourhood. I walked in, saw the prices, said 'NOPE' and walked right back out. I actually got a decent house, and rent my spare bedrooms, and put one of them on my Costco membership, which I got when I lived in Burnsville. We go to Costco once a month or so, and get groceries in bulk. There's a cub foods about four or five miles away (not on a bus route). Currently the guy who I usually went with went back east to West Virginia because he works landscaping and construction and I won't be able to go again for another couple weeks.

Another problem, though, is time. A lot of people here work multiple jobs, and either live alone or with someone who similarly works multiple jobs. Inevitably, the work they do is draining and it isn't hard to see why they can't be arsed to spend another few precious hours making food, just to have to go immediately to bed so they can do it again the next day. So while food deserts are bad enough, worse is the time desert causes by low wages and working multiple jobs.

 

[dismal]

Unless you count city bodegas (not known for being inexpensive) the percent of Americans that walk to their supermarket has got to be very, very low. Low single digits.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

So while food deserts are bad enough, worse is the time desert causes by low wages and working multiple jobs.

But that won't make them gain unhealthy weight. Something else is causing that.

 

[arkirk]

I never doubted that some exist. How do you get your food if you don't mind me asking? What do other people in your neighborhood do?

Down the street there's a massively over-priced General store called 'CamdenMart' which I think turns good business at the expense of the neighbourhood. I walked in, saw the prices, said 'NOPE' and walked right back out. I actually got a decent house, and rent my spare bedrooms, and put one of them on my Costco membership, which I got when I lived in Burnsville. We go to Costco once a month or so, and get groceries in bulk. There's a cub foods about four or five miles away (not on a bus route). Currently the guy who I usually went with went back east to West Virginia because he works landscaping and construction and I won't be able to go again for another couple weeks.

Another problem, though, is time. A lot of people here work multiple jobs, and either live alone or with someone who similarly works multiple jobs. Inevitably, the work they do is draining and it isn't hard to see why they can't be arsed to spend another few precious hours making food, just to have to go immediately to bed so they can do it again the next day. So while food deserts are bad enough, worse is the time desert causes by low wages and working multiple jobs.

It is perhaps mainly the time desert you are referring to that gives McDonalds its place in American life. They don't call it "fast food" for nothing. If you don't produce your own food, it will always be some kind of compromise. Human history is short in comparison with eons involved in the evolution of the human body. We are still better suited to another kind of living than we are allow to live in today's world. Outfits like McDonalds are mere parasites on a system that made a place for them and doing a lousy job of that. I think the time issue is at the heart of the food desert issue...also the fossil fuel issue.

Do you not have any local food stores that cater to ethnic communities where you live...or is it just a kind of suburbia? The notion that a supermarket is necessary to provide good food seems a bit overblown. Supermarkets themselves are ripoff outfits, compared with the ethnic stores in my area. In California, there are huge housing tracts that are just houses served only by convenience stores and requiring a car to get anything like real food. These had huge foreclosure problems with there actually emerging industries to empty out foreclosed houses that were abandoned (San Bernardino County, Riverside County, etc.). We also have things like leisure world with masses of houses and ONLY A SUPERMARKET AND A FLOCK OF FAST FOOD AND DELIVERY JOINTS SERVING THEM...and those were aimed at the upper middle class.

 

[NobleSavage]

This is the thing arkirk, no one in this thread has denied that the life of poor people is very difficult. The trend is that food is becoming more accessible and less expensive -- healthy and junk. The evidence would suggest if food gets even less expensive and even more accessible that things are going to get worse. I can't imagine that things were any better for poor people during the industrial revolution when there was no safety net or OSHA. Would you rather work at Walmart or Foxconn in China?

 

[Jarhyn]

Joedad, Are you serious? My food options are usually either give up 100% of my non-work free time for a healthy meal because I have to cook the damn thing myself, give up a HUGE chunk of my unallocated budget remainder to eat out, or eat something fast and disgusting. 'Instant' and fast food have a cost tied to that low price.

 

[NobleSavage]

Ok, looking into this this more it seems a lot of fast food restaurants are now allowed to food stamps in some states:

This is from 2011, so I'm assuming there are a lot more now.

Michigan:

Church’s Chicken

Kentucky Fried Chicken

McDonald’s

Subway

Grandma’s Famous Chicken

Eight Mile Pancake House

Mr. T’s BBQ

Vito’s Pizza

California:

Jack in the Box

Subway

El Pollo Loco

Papa Murphy’s Pizza

Florida

KFC

Taco Bell

Pizza Hut

Papa Murphy’s Pizza

Arizona

Domino’s Pizza

Golden Corral

Southern Cuisine

Rally’s Hamburger

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2011/09/fast-food-chains-getting-into-the-food-stamp-act/

It seems to reason, if there are "food deserts" and poor people can get food stamps. There would be a viable business model to provide healthy/cheap/fast food. Would anyone shop there though?

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Joedad, Are you serious? My food options are usually either give up 100% of my non-work free time for a healthy meal because I have to cook the damn thing myself, give up a HUGE chunk of my unallocated budget remainder to eat out, or eat something fast and disgusting. 'Instant' and fast food have a cost tied to that low price.

I understand all that, but that's not the reason a person, rich or poor, is overweight. The reason any given person is overweight is because of overeating - eating too much for their level of activity.

 

[NobleSavage]

Joedad, Are you serious? My food options are usually either give up 100% of my non-work free time for a healthy meal because I have to cook the damn thing myself, give up a HUGE chunk of my unallocated budget remainder to eat out, or eat something fast and disgusting. 'Instant' and fast food have a cost tied to that low price.

I understand all that, but that's not the reason a person, rich or poor, is overweight. The reason any given person is overweight is because of overeating - eating too much for their level of activity.

I just checked out the McDonald's menu. They have a lot of stuff under 400 calories. Biggest problem seems to be high sodium. They have a small amount of trans fats. Compared to some fried foods and baked goods it IS healthy. Skip the super sized soda with fructose and get an orange juice. Skip the fries and get the apple slices. Skip the ice cream shake and get the fruit and yogurt parfait. Their salads don't look bad. Heck, I might even go there for something healthy/quick/cheap after reading the menu.

 

[DBT]

'Poor people' may have issues related to education, self identity, self image, self worth and value. One's place in the pecking order of society. If your underlying paradigm is that your life has little or no value to society in comparison to the beautiful people, the 'movers and shakers' the Stars, the Important Ones, it doesn't matter that you don't take care of yourself. You yourself are not important.