Pretty silly article.
Huh? The idea that you’d have to spend $36 per person per day to eat healthily is idiotic. You could easily subside on beans, liver, eggs, frozen vegetables, potatoes, oats, etc. for just a few dollars a day. And none of these items require special cooking skills.
Because most people aren’t working 2-3 jobs for 120 hours a week. As has already been mentioned (did you read all the posts?), most people living in poverty do not work. Most people living in poverty who do work do not work full-time, year-round. As I posted elsewhere last year:
Now, many people do not work because they are disabled. That may make physical activity difficult. It does not describe everyone, obviously, but it is a consideration to be made.
What gives you the authority to fire customers who don’t fit the profile?
This whole thread is silly. Comparing people who earn below the poverty line with homeless people is absurd. Anybody who is a reasonably functional member of society - and that includes disabled and other disadvantaged people - should not be going hungry in the US. There are lots of governmental and private safety nets to make sure people get fed - the USDA food stamp program (by whatever name you want to use), state and county assistance programs, food banks, church meals, charities, etc… It is possible to eat relatively healthy with all of these programs, if someone uses a modicum of common sense and effort. And yes, it is common sense. How long has the USDA been publishing and advertising the food pyramid and other nutritional information? How many people truly don’t have the equipment or time to prepare meals at home?
Now, the homeless are a different story. They are removed from society, and typically don’t want to avail themselves of support and charitable programs. I can see how homeless people can be hungry and under-nourished.
In the Shopping Cart of a Food Stamp Household: Lots of Soda
No, it’s really not shocking. But taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for poor people to buy soda or other such drinks.
Yet USDA ERS reports over 12% of households as food-insecure in 2015, so something isn’t working out.
And when they get home, their dad would slice them in two with a bread knife. (Cite.)
Regards,
Shodan
Many moons ago, through agricultural subsidies, the US government made a commitment to supply cheap food to its population, said cheap food being almost totally carbohydrates and trans fats based on liquid vegetable oils. This is what causes obesity. Poorer folks, when they feel the pangs of hunger, opt to fill their bellies rather than eat for health, an option they do not really have.
EBT: An estimated 15% of the US population is on food stamps. This government “handout” is actually beneficial to the farming industry as it works as a kind of hidden subsidy to increases sales of certain products, usually the ones that fill you up fast, i.e carbs and trans fats.
The food stamp card, the EBT card, appears to be a different color and design in each state, but is very distinctive. Easily recognizable at checkout.
My (now 22 year old son) had a required course in (public) high school which was sort of a combined home-ec and shop class - one quarter was buying and preparing food, one quarter was sewing, one quarter was wood shop (I can’t remember the fourth subject). Not exactly the home ec of the old days, but better than nothing.
Of course he now subsists on Ramen noodles and takeout (and sushi) but weighs a very healthy looking 135 pounds…
That’s strange. Because in every thread like these, the fact that poor people work so much at 2 and 3 jobs and don’t have free time is always mentioned as a reason they can’t go to school, learn a trade, clean their yards/apartments/houses, cook food at home, look for jobs, and so on.
There are a couple of posts in this very thread where this is stated as fact. I’m confused 
:smack: Typos!
It would help a lot if people in places like Flint, Michigan could trust the tap water not to be poison, it would cut down on purchasing beverages.
There is an overlap between pollution and poverty. East Chicago, Indiana is another such problem place, but there it’s more the soil everything is built on. Which also eliminates backyard gardens.
So, you’re extrapolating a problem in Flint Michigan as the reason people on food stamps buy more soda than any other food item? Nice to see such logic at work.
Data on multiple jobholders from BLS: https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat36.htm
About 7.5MM in 2016, 5% of jobholders.
Okay. Some back story: I had eating problems all my life, either dieting (not eating when I was hungry) or binging (eating when I was not hungry). When I realized I’d spent half my life doing this and had nothing to show for it, I decided to three things for one year: eat only when I was hungry, eat whatever I wanted, and walk outside for at least an hour every day.
When I hit my time of poverty, these ideas were so ingrained in me that I simply couldn’t break them. I ate when I was hungry, not bored, frustrated, angry, depressed, whatever. The only thing food cures is hunger. I did have to eat whatever I could afford and was available, but I made sure to get my one cup of coffee every day. And I walked a lot more than one hour every day. More like two, three or even more. It took care of the emotional and more important, the excess calorie problems.
I’ve told many people that if you eat what you want but only when you are hungry and walk outside every day for a year, you will not have food or weight problems, and it has worked for them.
While it’s not the (sole) reason for the high sugared drinks consumption, unsafe drinking water is a huge problem in the US. It’s not just Flint.
And it’s going to get worse, if the current administration has its way…
It would seem to me that if clean water issues are affecting poor people, then they would use the SNAP benefits to purchase, I don’t know, bottled water instead of soda.
It looks like typical Heritage Foundation ‘clever’ selection of data. The bottom 20% include people on disability, people who should be on disability, people on low SS retirement, and the like. People who manage to work 2-3 part time jobs likely stay in the bottom 40%, but not the bottom 20% they cherry picked. So it’s probably technically a true number, but misleading, and parts of the article are saying ‘these people with severe disabilities and little to no treatment should just magically get 40-hour-a-week jobs’.
Soda is generally cheaper than bottled water, sadly.
Now honestly, I don’t think a lack of clean tap water is increasing soda consumption. Poor people drink soda for the same reasons everyone else does. I was mainly objecting to the previous implication that bad drinking water is a problem only in Flint, MI.
Nope, I’m saying it’s one of many factors. Poor people are more likely to live in substandard housing with old plumbing that can lead to seriously “off” flavors in tap water. The solution is either a filtration system, or buying beverages. Beverages are covered by food stamps, filtration is not. Replacing old plumbing to remove sources of things like lead is not covered by foodstamps. And then you have places like Flint where the municipally supplied water is unhealthy - moving is not covered by food stamps, but beverages are. And unfortunately, it CAN be cheaper to buy a 2 liter of soda than just about any other beverage (other than plain water, but it’s not prominently displayed or advertised in my store, probably because it’s not high profit item).
As I pointed out, it’s NOT just Flint, Michigan - East Chicago, Indiana is also having a lead contamination problem that has poisoned the people of that city, it’s just been as prominently reported in the news. If you are willing to dig you can find multiple instances of this sort of environmental/infrastructure contamination in the US.
I realize you and manson1972 get your jollies by misrepresenting what other people say and attempting to make caricatures of your perceived opposition but some of us actually want to have a real discussion here. Grown ups recognize that some problems are multi-factorial in origin.
To sum up, SOME causes of poverty obesity can be linked to what’s below:
NO ONE is claiming every poor fat person has all the above factors. Some have only one. Some have multiple. Some have none and just have lousy eating habits, like many poor middle-class and wealthy people.