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Why are poor people fatter? (pg. 5)
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| JD8180 |
| quote: | Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
The "crappy food is cheap" argument doesn't make any sense. |
of course it makes sense... no one likes to stay hungry after eating. so yeah, you can go to the market and buy a fresh slab of fish, fresh vegetables to make a salad, with fresh fruits for dessert and still have a big, filling (but healthy) meal. or you could go to mcdonalds and pay $4.99 for a big mac, fries, and a soft drink that can be just as filling, but way for fattening.
food that's bad for you is a lot cheaper to process, thus is cheaper than the average healthy food.
edit: and yes, there are some cheap alternatives like tuna and stuff like that, but there are PLENTY more cheap unhealthy foods right next to it. |
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| chach |
| quote: | Originally posted by Ygrene
You've never looked at your diet like that? Aren't you trying to get big and ripped? |
Of course... this thread is still stupid though. |
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| Halcyon+On+On |
| quote: | Originally posted by JD8180
edit: and yes, there are some cheap alternatives like tuna and stuff like that, but there are PLENTY more cheap unhealthy foods right next to it. |
While that may very well be true, I think the point Ygrene was making was that it's completely possible to sustain yourself on very healthy, cheap foods. And really, what other purpose for food is there other than mere nourishment?
aha.
Thought of an answer?
Food is awesome. It tastes great when made properly and some of it is really quite pleasing to our senses - there's an entire culture of food out there within the consumer culture - in fact, one might even argue that cuisine is the complete basis for consumerism in the first place. Like almost every 'civilised' endeavour, mere survival is not enough. It must be pleasing to our senses as well as our cultural sensibilities. It just so happens that western nations tend to hold consumerism quite high, and so the transmission of solipsistic behaviour does not cease, especially when it is paraded about as something "necessary" by those with everything to gain by making everyone gain, so to speak.
I can't believe how many people seem to hold onto the three square meals a day of meat n' potatoes routine. You just don't need to eat that much. Especially if you aren't going to use the calories at all. |
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| gehzumteufel |
| quote: | Originally posted by Ygrene
3 cans tuna = $1.80 ~90 grams protein
1 bag brown rice = $2.55 ~666 grams carb
We're way over on RDA for calories here.
Total stands at $4.35.
Spend $15 on a 90 day daily vitamin so that's $.17 a day and our total now is: $4.52.
Take the additional $3.48 and spend it on fruits, veggies, milk, whatever. Mix it up every day.
I know it's extreme but I'm just illustrating a point. If someone wants to maintain a relatively healthy lifestyle, it doesn't have to be expensive. |
very true. i dont think of tuna in general cause i dont like it but from a health stand point your point is well illustrated. and although i totally concede you to winning, theres the flip side if your like me and get tired of the same thing, even if there are variations if only slight, you want something new. theres not much difference in tuna and rice. |
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| JD8180 |
| quote: | Originally posted by gehzumteufel
very true. i dont think of tuna in general cause i dont like it but from a health stand point your point is well illustrated. and although i totally concede you to winning, theres the flip side if your like me and get tired of the same thing, even if there are variations if only slight, you want something new. theres not much difference in tuna and rice. |
this is what i was referring to in my edit. if you compare your cheap, healthy foods to cheap, unhealthy foods there are a lot more choices for you on the unhealthy side.
another factor that i'm sure plays a good part is the fact of how EASY it is to come across unhealthy foods. you are literally surrounded by fast food restaurants pretty much anywhere you are, so it's much easier on your lunch break to pass by and pick it up and be eating in 5 minutes, than to actually go and cook up a meal. |
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| gehzumteufel |
| quote: | Originally posted by JD8180
this is what i was referring to in my edit. if you compare your cheap, healthy foods to cheap, unhealthy foods there are a lot more choices for you on the unhealthy side.
another factor that i'm sure plays a good part is the fact of how EASY it is to come across unhealthy foods. you are literally surrounded by fast food restaurants pretty much anywhere you are, so it's much easier on your lunch break to pass by and pick it up and be eating in 5 minutes, than to actually go and cook up a meal. |
yeah very true. i actually have a few grocery stores 5mins from work though so i cant use that excuse. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
No food has some magical property such that it will make you fat irrespective of the amount you consume. The important question is not really why people are eating so-called "fattening foods," but why they are eating too much of them. And this cannot be answered by referring to the alleged fact that so-called "healthy foods" are more expensive.
If you asked an obese person what healthy food is, I have a feeling that you wouldn't receive an answer like "Snickers Bars, soda, and french fries!" People who eat crappy food know what they are doing. They just neglect to think (or care) about the future of their body. The pleasure of eating all those French fries and chocolate bars in their 20s outweighs the nebulous, temporally remote possibility of severe weight problems or a heart attack in their 40s or 50s. Before they know it, they weigh 250 or 300 pounds and have diabetes.
I think the feeling of invulnerability may be what does people in. That, and the denial of what is happening as the pounds creep on.
And apparently having obese friends can "make you fat." Poor phrasing, but kind of an interesting finding. |
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| leph555 |
Myth: Lots of poor people are fat… they're not suffering.
Fact: Fat has more to do with genes and past starvation than current nutrition.
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-poorfat.htm
not sure if it was posted or not |
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| Silky Johnson |
| People living on low-income are more likely to be depressed. And depressed people are less likely to give a about themselves. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| quote: | | Myth: Lots of poor people are fat… they're not suffering. |
Nobody has said that poor people are "not suffering."
| quote: | | Dr. Martin Seligman, an authority on obesity, writes: "Nineteen out of twenty studies show that obese people consume no more calories each day than non-obese people. In one remarkable experiment, a group of very obese people dieted down to only 60 percent overweight and stayed there. They needed one hundred fewer calories a day to stay at 60 percent overweight than normal people needed to stay at a normal weight." |
Indeed, but the article draws the wrong conclusion from this data. It is not that "genes make people fat," but that genes result in different caloric requirements and different amounts of food needed for satiety. Many people have lower caloric requirements (like those cited by the doctor), but do not adjust their diets accordingly. They certainly will not be helped in making this adjustment by stupid and false theories of genetic determinism.
First, thin people in obese families are rare, but they do exist, and their existence gives the lie to this sort of empty-headed theorizing.
Second, obesity has increased massively just in the past twenty years (an increase of at least twenty percent). Surely the writer of the site would not contend either that "fat genes" have increased dramatically in those twenty years or that far more people in the U.S. were simply starving twenty years ago, since both of those assertions are easily proved false.
So, what hope for genetic determinism? |
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| _Nut_ |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sushipunk
Beer is cheaper than gym membership. |
I beg to differ.
A gym membership is roughly 20-45 a month.
Beer - 30 pack of natty ice is 13. For people that drink that, it will be gone in a few nights to a week. Get 2-3 of those a month (assuming you can drink that piss) and it will be in the 20-30 range.
Now for people that drink and enjoy beer (IE Good micro brews or good beer) they will spend 8 bucks on a 6 pack and maybe 15-18 on a decent 12 pack. Will that last the entire month? Nope.
Beer + gym membership = expensive
That should have been your quote. |
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| Zild |
| Sure you can eat rice and tuna for $4 a day if you just happen to love the way cardboard tastes. |
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