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Kasz216 on 19 May 2012
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richardhutnik said:
Kasz216 said:
sethnintendo said:
SamuelRSmith said:
How about just ending all the subsidies for corn? That saves money, makes people healthier, and appeases me.


They should subsidize fruits and veggies (the good ones aka not corn which is turned into high fructose corn syrup).  Something is terribly wrong when you can buy 1000+ calories for 1 - 2 dollars of junk food / fast food yet have to spend way more money on what we should be eating in the first place.  The USA food system completely sucks and it is pretty obvious that corporations have led the USA diet to shit while profiting off of junk food that fatties can't resist.

That's misrepresentative.


Afterall, it's not like calories are equally filling.

Healthy food is perfectly cheap... and in general price has been shown not to be a factor.  Food deserts have mostly been proven to be a myth....

people are obese largely because... people WANT to eat unhealthy because Unhealthy food tastes better to most people/is easier.

 

In inner cities, and where poor people are, end up devoid of supermarkets, for a number of reasons, you will get fast food places stepping in with cheap stuff.  I end up picking up stuff a local dollar stores, in the frozen section, and it isn't optimal there.  Lots of corn syrup and so on.  Similar goes with inner cities not having banks, but check cashing places.  You add that on top of other things, and the end result is that you have people falling behind in the area of health and finances.

You can also factor in the inner city if people are doing several jobs and working a bunch, fast food ends up food that most easily fits into the diets of the lifestyle of people there.   Here is one article that looks at the issue in the city of Birmingham in the USA:

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2010/06/for_birminghams_inner-city_dwe.html

Beyond this though, food stamps, if people are on it, can't go for fast food, so people eating at fast food places end up having to work for the money.

Like I said.

Research shows that food deserts don't really exist... or rather, rates of obesity there aren't any greater then in similar neigherhoods with more food availability.

See the recent National Institute of Health and Public Policy of California studies.

Two orginizations if anything would prefer to make a big deal out of food deserts to fit along with administration policy.

Also... if you learn how to cook you'll realzie it's actually a LOT cheaper to cook... if you cook the right things.  (IE not your usual meat intensive US diet.)

I mean hell, Dollar stores by me have those $1 breakfest sandwhiches.  They also have everything needed for multiple servings of Pasta.

Though having money upfront is helpful granted.  I get basically 75% of the food i eat for $21 a week because I bought into a local CSA... and they deliver to me.