Working Poor Face Higher Obesity Rates

[twilight]

"CUTLER, Calif. - Farm worker Iris Caballero often has a hard time keeping the refrigerator and cupboard stocked with food. Yet, she's overweight and diabetic. She is a classic example of a modern-day paradox: as reliable access to healthy food declines, the likelihood of being overweight goes up.

The working poor like Caballero often have no time for cooking, little money to buy fresh vegetables, and a long walk to the closest supermarket with a good produce section.

"We have been pretending that it is easy to replace a diet of soft drinks and fast food with home-cooked meals, fresh fruits and vegetables," said Adam Drewnowski, a University of Washington epidemiology professor who has studied the problem.

The problem is pronounced in what seems an unlikely place — California's Central Valley, where much of the nation's produce is grown. The valley also has some of the highest poverty rates."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=ap/fit_obesity_paradox

Why do I not find this surprising? Let's face it, poor people cannot afford the food a weathier person eats. They tend to eat more cheap on-sale junk food, thus the weight goes up and up. It seriously makes me wonder at times if this is not a plot to off the poor.

However, what good would this do? It would only create a job market consisting of more poor people with crappy jobs eating those Papa Murphy pizzas that they buy en mass when they run a sale and keep stocked in their freezers (if they have one that is).

I know when I was a member of the "working poor" my weight was a major problem for me because I couldn't afford to eat good food. My health also suffered along with the constant battle of the bulge.

Hmmmmm ................

:dem:

[Katha]

1. Paradoxical

It's a really interesting paradox. I remember reading Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed a while back; she ate fast food every night because she wasn't able to afford anything else.

[stepnw1f]

2. Cheap Food=Junk Food

= fat. People are literally starving themselves of a good diet, because they cannot afford healthy food.

[qanda]

3. You are so right

Most people don't realize how expensive it is to eat healthy. Fruits and vegetables are very expensive as are better cuts of meats, which tend to be more healthy for you.

It's saddens me when I hear people say that people must not be too poor if they are overweight. I feel as though the two go hand in hand.

[twilight]

6. at present ...

I started eating very healthy food in August of last year. The grocery bill for two people is about $100.00 a week and we rarely if ever eat out. Prior to this time I was cutting all corners and the grocery bill was about 1/3 less per week (or possibly more).

My health has improved I'd say as I had major surgery in November and despite a serious pre-existing health condition, I recovered "amazingly fast". I think the reason I recovered (or am recovering that is - still in recovery mode) is because I am not eating anymore junk food. I am focusing on eating healthy foods including organic chicken, wild fish, organic produce and dairy products and not much sugar.

I also quit eating red meat in August 2003 after getting a cholesterol reading of 311! Yikes!!!

I agree with the others that have posted here. Just because you are overweight and/or obese does not mean you sit on your ass all day and do nothing - it could mean you are poor and can only afford junk food and trips to Burger King and McDonalds.

:(

:dem:

[qanda]

8. So glad to hear that you are doing better

After my husband lost his job about two years ago, I put on over 25 pounds. I didn't make the connection to our financial struggles until recently and have since taken steps to reverse the damage by losing 15 pounds.

We have two little ones and rarely, if ever, go out to eat. Our grocery bill is easily $150 a week for balanced meals, but when you don't have the money, you just have to eat what you can afford.

I've started being a more educated consumer by clipping coupons and stocking up on good foods when there is a sale, and I guess that's the only way to "make it" when you're at a financial disadvantage.

[twilight]

11. yes tips ....

:hi:

Thanks for the well wishes! Believe me I need them as I almost died in November of last year :scared: !!

Tips on saving on healthy foods includes: Checking out other stores that sell healthy foods. Often, one store is competing against the other one if close by (my situation). I go to both stores and buy the best deals I can find - like organic orange juice.

It tends to keep for a long time in the cartons. Sometimes they have a run on the frozen organic OJ and I buy several cans of it. Saves about $1.00+ a can.

I try to buy as much healthy food as I can and remain price conscious at the same time. You sometimes find coupons in the stores themselves for the products.

I can't afford to buy wild salmon very often, but when I do, I buy 2/3 of a lb. cuts. Usually runs about $5.00 and you can broil it and cut it in two and serve with organic basmati rice and some organic carrots which are pretty affordable. I got a whole bag of the little peeled organic ones (one lb.) last week for $1.09. Not bad and they taste very good, are pre-washed and ready to cook without any preparation.

I try not to waste money on any of the food I buy as much as possible. I throw out some food, but very little compared to the high junk food diet I was on before. I didn't care as much because the price was lower and thus, the cost of what ended up being tossed was not as much of a loss either.

I really hate throwing away food given how many people are starving in the world today. However, it is difficult when you are on your own or just have one other person around to feed.

:dem: :kick:

[Another Bill C.]

4. Lots of carbohydrates, too.

Carbs are cheap compared to fresh vegetables and meat.

[liberalnurse]

5. Mostly, they lack the resources to purchase

protein on a predictable basis. This analysis has been used for decades to describe third world nations. Starch products, like potatoes, rice, corn and/or bread items are main course staples. Meat products are a rare treat.

Now it describes Middle America.......

[shrike]

7. duh

I gained weight when I was flat broke. A lady I knew who ran a food pantry (thank goodness I didn't have to use it) came right out and said that poor people are fat because they can't afford fresh meat and vegetables.

[Bridget Burke]

9. There's also less time to cook....

Working 8 hours or more. Add commute time--driving can be tough, waiting for buses (more than one each way if you have to transfer) is tougher. By the time you get home, you're hungry & so are the kids.

Complex carbohydrates can be economical but they take a long time to cook. Fresh, seasonal vegetables aren't too expensive but staying stocked up requires more visits to the market. (Raising them is even better--if you have the land--if you have the time.)

So you use those coupons to call for a pizza. Time for a long walk? After dark, not a good idea in many neighborhoods. Talk to the kids, see about their homework, do a bit of cleaning. Time to get to bed, because the alarm rings early.

Wild caught salmon, certified beef--even fresh tofu--are out of the question. How about a personal trainer? (ha!)

<Just from observation. I've got no such excuse--the cats are easy to please & I spend too much time with the TV/PC.>

[Scout]

10. poor selection in stores

also, finding a good grocery store with fresh fruits and produce can be very difficult in a lot of poor neighborhoods.

even if you have the money to buy healthy food, if you don't have a store close enough :shrug:

[twilight]

14. thats because the poor can't afford it

so they wait and go to the Safeway and get those great 2 for 1 deals - thats what I used to do.

However, those 2 for 1 deals were killing me. I've never eaten much meat in my lifetime because I don't particularly care for it. I guess the reason my cholesterol (last reading, pre-op) was 311 was/is due to the junk food even though high cholesterol does run in my family. I guess those junk foods are loaded with cholesterol (I never looked on purpose).

It is truly sad when the people in this country cannot afford to buy and eat healthy food. After awhile you develop a taste for the junk and healthy foods take awhile to acquire a taste for I have found.

However, once you acquire the taste for healthy foods, the junk tastes exactly like what it is - JUNK.

It was too easy to eat bags of Keebler cookies at $1.25 a package and it is not so easy to eat smaller packages of organic/healthy packaged baked goods at twice the price. That right there will put you on a forced diet! :)

More is less and less is more! :)


:kick:

[wellst0nev0ter]

12. Reminds Me

How our governor ( :eyes: ) made a proposal that poor people must use their food stamps to buy only healthy foods. Never mind that it would mean less food since healthy foods are expensive, poor people are poor because they lack the responsibility to eat like the rich.

[SoDesuKa]

13. Diet Cost

Diet Cost is one of the factors considered at http://www.dietsurf.com . For instance, Atkins is cheaper than Pritikin and Weight Watchers, but it gets to be boring. Diets that require a lot of self-discipline also require a lot of self-esteem.

[Emillereid]

15. The Politics of Obesity

Go to the following site for an extremely informative radio broadcast of a panel discussion at UC Berkeley on the Politics of Obesity. Eminent scholars discuss how the US government subsidizes cheap starches, especially corn and basically gives the food industry a free pass. Excellent. Scroll down the page until you find the two programs on Food that Kills. You can either listen to it as an MP3 or order tapes or CDS.

http://www.tucradio.org/new.html

Food that kills: THE POLITICS OF OBESITY
A panel at UC Berkeley's School of Journalism called attention to the role of the food industry in our current obesity crisis.
The media and the food industry - even government agencies - tell us that the serious current obesity crisis is our own fault and that we need to exercise more. Of course exercise is good for us but nobody tells us that the food industry, with the help of huge government subsidies, through advertising and addictive ingredients promotes ill health by feeding us grease, sugar and starch.

There is talk of law suits targeting fast food chains patterned after the law suits against the tobacco corporations. They also claimed that there was no health risk associated with smoking. The food industry, like the tobacco corporations, target children. There are only three academics in the health field who talk and write about the role of the food industry. All three are on this program::
Marion Nestle from New York University, author of: Food Politics
Kelly Brownell from Yale, author of: Food Fight
Joan Dye Gussow, formerly with Columbia University, author of: This Organic Life


and

Fast Food World: Vandana Shiva, Wendell Berry, Eric Schlosser, Carlo Petrini & Michael Pollan (3 parts)
Three out of every five Americans are now overweight. Children who eat fast food every day gain an extra 6 pounds every year. It now appears likely that - for the first time in American history - our children will actually have a shorter life span than their parents.

This program about fast food is not just about the fact that grease, sugar, and extra calories make us fat and sick. It is about the giant industries behind fast food that change not only our bodies but the body of the earth and the lives of farmers who traditionally grew our foods.

With a cast of real stars: The physicist and seed collector Vandana Shiva from India, the Kentucky farmer and poet Wendell Berry, Eric Schlosser who wrote: Fast Food Nation, the founder of the Slow Food movement Carlo Petrini from Italy AND Michael Pollan, teacher and author of The Botany of Desire.

[twilight]

17. Shorter life span than their parents ...

"Children who eat fast food every day gain an extra 6 pounds every year. It now appears likely that - for the first time in American history - our children will actually have a shorter life span than their parents."
-------------------

I find this to not be at all surprising. My parents lived into their 70s and some of my other relatives that died 20 years or more ago lived into their 80s and 90s.

And to think they are so worried about social security costs in the future. I am beginning to believe that the generations coming up may not live long lives. Maybe that is the real reason they talk about social security - grab that money now before the person paying into it drops dead! :grr:

It is a sad fact, and yes, I also agree with the other poster - junk food is a form of genocide.

I'd love to see legislation get passed re: junk food and its health effects. Many poor people (and others) get hooked on the McDonald's and live on it 24/7.

:dem: :kick:

[mumon]

16. It's slow genocide.

Pure and simple.

[FlaGranny]

18. This has been obvious to me for most

of my life. You can tell rich and poor apart by their weights. You can see the reasons in their grocery carts.

[Frederic Bastiat]

19. Fresh produce has always cheaper than fast food for me

I don't get it, where do you shop?

[Endangered Specie]

20. Poor people tend to be fatter (aka me) for a reason...

Can only afford junk/cheap food as opposed to good high quality stuff that you are supposed to eat.

and

Work more usually means less time to excersize, medical attention etc.