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NUTRITION

Junk Food County

Why many rural Americans can't get nutritious foods. The unhealthy truth about country living.

By Karen Springen | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dec 11, 2007 | Updated: 5:56  p.m. ET Dec 11, 2007

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  • Posted By: health_guru1 @ 01/18/2008 1:15:19 PM

    Comment: People living in rural area lack access to many things: jobs, good schools, stores, hospital, airport, etc. This is a free country. If you don't like a place, you are free to move. Of course this is easier said than done. For example, I have a good job and no debts. But I can't afford to move because in today's market, it takes two years to sell a house and every year my house is empty I stand to love $8 plus the cost for upkeeping (my state has a high property tax rate)

    I understand the pain of not having a car. When I was a poor graduate student, I did not have a car. However, I finished my education, got a job, and bought a car.

    Life is full of hardship. The government cannot make sure that we all have nice homes, running cars, good grocery stores, good health insurance. It is up to us to find ways to overcome the hardship. Life would be terribly boring if we have no problems to solve and we just watch TV, eating chips and drinking coke all day long.

    Finally, let me point out one thing. I live 25 miles from a military town. It is by no means an affluent community. However, it has excellent fresh produce in a very small grocery store at very low price. Why? Because this town has a large Asian population and Asians eat lots of fresh produce. By comparison, I visit an affluent town in Colorado every year on my hiking trip. Their grocery stores have tons of nutritional supplements, but very limited fresh produce, and it is shockingly expensive.

    Good fresh produce cannot exsit without high demand. You can live in an affluent city, but if few people buy fresh produce, your grocer will limit the variety and raise the price.

  • Posted By: health_guru1 @ 01/18/2008 4:50:08 AM

    Comment: Sorry. I don't know if my comment was accepted. Let me type it again. And I will be short this time.

    I go to Walmart every week. I seldom see people buying broccoli. Even when it is on sale for $1 a bunch, people simply pass it, and pick up cut-up garden salad at $2.50 a package instead. Most people buy grocery by habit. They pick strawberries at $4.00 a pound in the winter, totally unaware that the same money can buy them 12 huge ruby red grapefruits.

    Fresh produce has limited shelf life. If few people buy them, grocers will charge them high prices to cover the spoilage, or even stop carrying them. Brussell sprouts were $1 a lb ten years ago. Now they are $3 a lb. This is not surprising. Most people think Brussell's sprouts are disgusting.

    Next time you go to grocery store, look at other's shopping cart. How many of them are not a mountain of cans, bottles, boxes, junk food, fatty meats? How much fresh produce can you see in them? The US is a nation that hates fresh produce because it does not taste as good as meats, pizza, junk food. And most Amreicans have tons of excuses not to eat fresh produce.

  • Posted By: SEmoto @ 01/03/2008 2:26:18 PM

    Comment: I can't believe how hardhearted and mean spirited the posts right above me are.

    Did you people even read the story? It said that there aren't as many full-size supermarkets in rural areas as in cities and that people living below the poverty line sometimes don't have automobiles to get them to the store. I bet there are other reasons, too -- choosing between medicine and food, high heating bills, property taxes that continue to escalate and so on.

    I live in a small , rural town and the average wage for many jobs considered good here is $7 to $40 dolars an hour. This town has a cheese factory run by the largest cheese producer in the world and jobs there start at $9 an hour. In a year a normal employee works a little over 2,000 hours, so that's a salary of about $19,000 BEFORE TAXES. After taxes, it's more like $15,000. That's $288 dollars a week to live on. And that's considered a good job here.

    Really, people, get a heart.

    • Posted By: SEmoto @ 01/03/2008 14:35:23

      Comment: Sorry about the typo. I meant to type $7 to $10 an hour.

  • Posted By: laurenlrs @ 01/02/2008 2:53:15 PM

    Comment: Excuses, excuses, excuses......veggies too expensive, please. It is far cheaper to purchase vegetables and meat and prepare your own meal, which should provide leftovers for the next day, then to buy prepackages, precooked foods. Stop the craziness, get off your lazy fat butt and cook something that is good for you. No more excuses!

  • Posted By: Kbrn93 @ 12/29/2007 1:25:28 AM

    Comment: Get real...if you want to eat healthy, you will. If you want to go to the grocery store, you will find a way. all i see is a bunch of lame excuses for eating bad foods. Portion is a bigger issue - if all you have is the bad stuff, eat less of it. No one is forcing you to consume so much.

  • Posted By: coedmi @ 12/23/2007 2:24:38 PM

    Comment: What is wrong with growing your own vegetables?

  • Posted By: John Luma @ 12/21/2007 2:16:44 PM

    Comment: I understand the problem of living far from a grocery store, or not having transportation to get there if you are poor or cannot drive due to age or medical condition. But there are solutions for these grocery store hurdles and healthy eating every day. Five cans of tuna are about $5 -- the cost of a fast-food burger, and they store for months. Vegetables of all sorts come in cans, protein powder in canisters, potatoes last for weeks if properly stored. A freezer can keep almost anything but leafy vegetables fresh for a couple months. The same for fruit juices, healthy bread, rice, etc. etc. Come on. With food stamps, friends, neighbors and community service groups, these obstacles don't have to get in anyone's way. My heart goes out to those who feel, or have been, "trapped." Yet I think there are solutions like these to get this burden out of your life.

    • Posted By: health_guru1 @ 01/18/2008 04:59:46

      Comment: Good point. And don't forget greens, which cost under $1 a bunch in Texas. In the winter, we get ruby red of 39 cents each. In the summer, we get mangoes at 50 cents each. When they are on sale, I buy 30 of them and store in my frig for weeks. (When I bought my frig I specifically chose one with a smaller freezer but a larger area for refrigeration because I prefer fresh food.)

      Most Amreicans are tratitional eaters who don't dare to try different food. They only use greens for garnish. What a shame. I stir-fry greens and I found turnip green and mustard green very tasty. Kale and collard green are a bit inferior in taste. But I eat them anyway because they are good to my health. .

  • Posted By: walt235 @ 12/20/2007 6:10:38 AM

    Comment: This article is a crock of ***. It makes the completely unwarranted assumption that people in rural areas are too stupid to find sources of healthy food and that the government must help them in that effort. Idiotic drivel.

  • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/17/2007 12:41:20 AM

    Comment: You should vote for a government that removes subsidies for unhealthy food, like red meat. Also they should redistribute those subsidies in the healthy crop production.

    • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/18/2007 10:30:36

      Comment: Vote for Communists? Only a Eropean could be so childish. I bet you sit on your butt all day and taake freebies. How about cutting the commie crap and getting a job?

      • Posted By: Bornita @ 01/02/2008 10:06:09

        Comment: Actually just keep eating that poo meat and die soon. :)

  • Posted By: Peyuke @ 12/16/2007 8:22:56 AM

    Comment: I see car ownership as the key variable in this discussion. If a person has a car, they can drive to nearby towns, suburbs, and cities to stock up. If a person is too poor to own a car and lives in a rural area, their options become extremely limited. The downfall of the North American diet and lifestyle is inextricably linked to the worship of the automobile. It is telling that the only reliable food source available to the people given as examples in this article is gas station convenience stores: places that exist mainly to serve the automobile and sell "food" only as a side business. business.

    • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/16/2007 23:36:51

      Comment: I never use a car and I always walk to a food store. Thankfully I don't live in such an illogical end-result of a society as yours. You will in my opinion not come out of your nationwide misery unless you stop behaving illogically and respect and honour nature. Nature is more intelligent than any man-made machine.

      • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/18/2007 15:54:43

        Comment: SORRY, but we had to let mother nature go. She wanted health benifits, so we hired a Mexican instead so she is now called, Naturaleza De la Madre

  • Posted By: vince.stewart @ 12/16/2007 2:47:00 AM

    Comment: This forum is cracking me up, especiallly any comment from William Demouth, comedy gold!

    • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/18/2007 16:10:23

      Comment: I'm here all week, and don't forget to tip the socialists, it seems they are starving.

      • Posted By: Bornita @ 01/02/2008 10:11:32

        Comment: Well they say that you would live longer. Of course I wouldn't turn down any grants from you rich fat people.

        • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 01/03/2008 15:55:26

          Comment: You have conceded you are fat. Shame really, a fat Swede. Bet you look like the muppet chef!

  • Posted By: RalphParker22 @ 12/16/2007 2:00:06 AM

    Comment: folks in the north have a 3 month growing season. we can can and freeze, but then the fresh food is dead food. there is plenty of everything, but a lack of distribution and desire. don't get me going on how the oil prices have increased our food prices. here in maine, food pantries pay .16 per lb. for food from a centralized warehouse. produce, because it spoils, is free. it isn't unusual to watch people choose canned items and white bread while leaving the veggies and whole grain items. is it time to send packages home with school children?

  • Posted By: NBSanDiego @ 12/15/2007 10:35:42 PM

    Comment: andrea06debs says: "I have never seen anyone that did not have transportation to get to the store or the means to buy groceries for their family." Well, I have, and I've lived in rural Nebraska for the last fifteen years. All our national resources and attention, including secure remunerative jobs, have become concentrated in our urban centers. Eleven of the twenty poorest counties in America are rural counties in Nebraska and South Dakota, and as the mechanization of agriculture has pushed families off the land into towns where there is no work waiting, I have seen adults well into their fifties and later, pulling sixty-hour work weeks in demeaning entry level jobs, to provide their kids with subsistence lifestyles. Frankly, nothing in this article is unexpected to me; the only surprise was that a research institution spend money on something I could have told them for free.

  • Posted By: andrea06debs @ 12/15/2007 9:32:33 PM

    Comment: As an individual that lives in the "country" I have never seen anyone that did not have transportation to get to the store or the means to buy groceries for their family, however, I have seen that in the inner city! Nevertheless, I think this article is extremely slanted and only aids in the misinterpretation of country living.

  • Posted By: andrea06debs @ 12/15/2007 9:30:09 PM

    Comment: As an individual that lives in the "country," I have never seen someone that did not have transportation to get to the store or the means to do it; however, I have seen that in the inner cities! I think this article is extremely slanted and only aids in the misinterpretation of rural country living.

  • Posted By: eruditenihilist @ 12/15/2007 8:45:31 PM

    Comment: ps. Never in the twenty years that I lived in South Carolina did I see obese, middle-aged women walking up and down the highway with grocery carts.

    • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/18/2007 16:19:38

      Comment: And believe me I have tried!

  • Posted By: eruditenihilist @ 12/15/2007 8:41:17 PM

    Comment: The claims of this article regarding the availability of nutritious food is pure exaggeration for the sake of sensationalism. I grew up Sumter, South Carolina, which neighbors Orangeburg county, and I always saw big grocery stores in even the smallest of towns. I lived in what was considered an undeveloped area outside of the city, and for me, it was only a five minute drive to a very large, newly built, grocery store that was full of every kind of healthy food imaginable. The only halfway valid point this author made was that not having a car is problematic. It is true that SC has extremely limited public transportation in its capital city, and none everywhere else, but owning a car is very cheap. I have seen old beater cars for sale starting at $500, and we did away with inspections, so basically anything is allowed on the road. Also, gasoline is much cheaper than in other places in the country. I just don't see the problems this article stated, and for that reason, I consider it completely bunk.

  • Posted By: zvizzle @ 12/15/2007 7:32:20 PM

    Comment: d

  • Posted By: zvizzle @ 12/15/2007 7:31:58 PM

    Comment: THis article is crazy. i live in a town of 500 people, in a county with a population of 22,000. not 95,000. I live in a rural area and i have high spead internet. everyone has a car. nobody eats snickers for supper. if people in south carolina took care of there neighbors like we do here there wouldnt be any problems. and the agriculture system is the most productive industry in america. dont fix something thats not broken. i dare anyone to find a corn field that yeilds over 220 bushels an acre outside of amereica, good luck!

    • Posted By: urbanforager @ 12/15/2007 23:59:28

      Comment: The agriculture system is what is destroying America. Commercialized farming of single crops depletes the nutrients in the soil and contributes to the dumping of chemicals onto the earth which seeps into groundwater and runs off into other water sources. Further, it disconnects people from the land and from their food sources. The globalization of food has had detrimental effects to the environment and health. I'd rather see people growing fruits and vegetables for themselves and their neighbors, rather than 220 bushels of corn an acre.

      • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/18/2007 16:21:12

        Comment: Dude, there are some brussel sprouts in the dumpster behind Gristede's, maybe if you hurry you can eat healthy, and stop living off ME for a while!

  • Posted By: urbanforager @ 12/15/2007 5:58:09 PM

    Comment: Many people in rural areas may not have cars or access to a vehicle, so they cannot drive 2 hours to the nearest large grocery store to stock up on healthier foods. What can they do? Walk to the nearest convenience store, where yes, they should make healthier choices than a snickers bar, but still, canned beans and white bread are not going to satisfy a person's nutritional needs. This article is important in exposing the common misconception that convenience store food is the plight of the urban dweller. Having just spent the summer traveling through some of poorest rural areas in the United States, I learned a lot about the way people live, and so much of it has to do with what's available to them, both in terms of actual food resources and education. One of the saddest things that is happening in this country is that so much of the land is being used for cash crops, so of course, there's no plucking the apple from the tree, or getting the eggs from the hens. Instead, it's harvest the wheat, corn, tobacco, cotton, soy, etc., ship it off, and go get processed, preserved food at the nearest convenience store. The system needs to be reexamined before people get blamed for their own food choices causing their obesity. Obese people in these situations are starving...they are starving for nutrients, to which they are not given access.

    • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/18/2007 16:08:26

      Comment: I'm sorry, but somehow I must have missed the pictures of all the obese in Auschwitz? Starvation is quite real, and these people are no more starving than I am.

      Obesity is caused by too many calories not from a shortage of them. If these people where emaciated people might care, but they are obese, a SELF inflicted condition. Granted better food cost more money, but these people are not malnourished do to society, but due to their own ignorant choices.

      Frankly, if you could get them to step away from all you can eat Twinkie buffet for a few minutes of exercise a year, they would lose weight and increase their health without eating ANYTHING more than they do already, and without spending a nickel of my tax money. Or they can rot in their own bloated corpses, but again, only as long as it doesn't cost me anything.

  • Posted By: urbanforager @ 12/15/2007 5:53:33 PM

    Comment: It's important to note that many people in rural areas may not have cars or access to a vehicle, so they cannot drive 2 hours to the nearest large grocery store to stock up on healthier foods. What can they do? Well, walk to the nearest convenience store, where yes, they should make healthier choices than a snickers bar, but still, canned beans and white bread are not going to satisfy a person's nutritional needs. This article is important in exposing the common misconception that convenience store food is the plight of the urban dweller. Having just spent the summer traveling through some of poorest rural areas in the United States, I learned a lot about the way people live, and so much of it has to do with what's available to them, both in terms of actual food resources and education. One of the saddest things that is happening in this country is that so much of the land is being used for cash crops, so of course, there's no plucking the apple from the tree, or getting the eggs from the hens. Instead, it's harvest the wheat, corn, tobacco, cotton, soy, etc., ship it off, and go get processed, preserved food at the nearest convenience store. The system needs to be reexamined before people get blamed for their own food choices causing their obesity. Obese people in these situations are starving...they are starving for nutrients, to which they are not given access.

  • Posted By: gongorac @ 12/15/2007 5:51:23 PM

    Comment: WAKE UP PEOPLE FROM US!!! 350 BILLIONS SPENT ON THE WAR AGAINST IRAK!!! UNTIL DEC/2006. 2.75 BILLIONS IN 10 YEARS TO FEED THE HUNGRY??? ARE YOU NUTS? ARE YOU CRAZY? WAKE UP!! IT'S HAPPENING IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY. NOT IN AFRICA OR ANYWHERE ELSE. THE GOVERNMENT HAS SPENT 350 BILLIONS IN WAR, THAT'S AROUND 8 BILLIONS PER MONTH!! AND THE ARTICLE SAYS THAT IT WILL GET JUST 2.75 BILLIONS FOR FOOD IN TEN YEARS???? WAKE UP!!!

    • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/19/2007 13:57:00

      Comment: Dude thats brilliant! Lets save money by dropping the poor on the Iraquis! Couple of 400 pounders should take out the biggest mosque they got!

  • Posted By: rancherwife @ 12/15/2007 4:37:11 PM

    Comment: I live in a very rural area. The nearest store is 15 minutes away, and everything there is so expensive (junkfood and healthy food) that I rarely shop there. Instead, I drive the two hours to a much cheaper and larger store to shop once or twice a month. It is soo much more expensive to buy chips and soda and pre-made food than fruits and veggies and a bag of flour. Stock up, buy things on sale, and just used to the fact that although an apple does not taste like a candy bar, it is much healthier and cheaper. Being obese has to do with each persons food choices, not with where they live. There are very few obese people here in my rural ranching low-income area. Maybe this "study" should broaden it's horizons and stop trying to find the why and how unhealthy people are that way. They choose not to be.

  • Posted By: lanina @ 12/15/2007 4:31:01 PM

    Comment: I used to live in a rural town when I was a child, and yes we did have a small convenience store that had just about everything that's junkie. Lucky for me, I didn't end up obese because of it, but there was definitely a possibility. If you live in a rural town without grocery stores nearby, it's a shame, and it's in these areas that people need to wake up and do something healthy for themselves. Whether it be planting a garden, or eating legumes. You can do it!

  • Posted By: lanina @ 12/15/2007 4:27:11 PM

    Comment: Yes, although there are many rural areas in the same situation, people need to wake up and do something about it! People are making the conscious choice to choose the high fat, unhealthy foods. People who allow themselves to become obese obivously don't care for their bodies enough to exercise and plant a vegetable garden. Snap out of the twinkie phase and start eating dried legumes!

  • Posted By: captterm @ 12/15/2007 4:25:08 PM

    Comment: I am building in a rural town out West and the situation there is exactly as depicted in the article. The convenience store is the only place to buy food for 50 miles. They only stock processed foods and high fat everything. I can't go in there and come out with ANYTHING that I would normally eat as "healthy". Just about everyone is poor, obese and uneducated about healthy food.

  • Posted By: travelerflor @ 12/15/2007 3:11:05 PM

    Comment: Let's start to teach America how to eat well cheaply. Rice bought by the pound goes a long way and,if it's brown rice ,has the added fiber kick. Dried legumes are cheap and nutricious. Powdered milk in the USA is almost always low or no fat and cheaper then fresh. She could post a note in the local fast food place and try to connect with someone going her way for a ride to either store. She could have a windowsill garden for sprouts and lettuces. She could make her own yogurt. In season local produce is usually not expensive. Eggs on sale can be frozen (out of the shell) But, there must be some programs to get info like this low income citizens.

  • Posted By: NikkiRose @ 12/15/2007 2:57:00 PM

    Comment: I cannot help but sense that this is fast food propaganda. First (decades ago), the processed food manufacturers convinced consumers that they were too busy to cook (even though statistics show that most people watch more TV now than ever, confirming that their days may not always be packed with mandatory obligations). Now, consumers are hearing that diet-related diseases are due to lack of availability and high costs of fresh produce (or ANY REAL food). While lack of access to real food is a reality in many urban and rural areas, what we have yet to see is real proof that real food costs more than a full day's worth of fast food -- processed sweets for breakfast, a burger, fries and soda for lunch, and a pizza and soda for dinner, for instance. And with a real dinner (a roast chicken, potatoes, carrots and head of broccoli, for instance), there may be leftovers for days to come, if cooks planned ahead. A pound of pasta with fresh tomatoes and other vegetables (and that leftover chicken and broccoli) is likely cheaper than a single serving of a burger or instant noodles every day. What we are not seeing is such reports is the high costs of treatment due to diet-related diseases. How do poverty-stricken citizens afford health care and medicine to treat these diet-related diseases? What we have yet to see is solutions, like local authorities pushing to open grocery stores. Or citizens creating demand -- pushing markets to sell more fresh produce. Or Community Supported Agriculture, where many people in the neighborhood can pitch in to get some fresh produce at a decent price. If diet-related diseases are truly and solely based on lack of access to real food, then consumers need to work on their own solutions and push local authorities and businesses to provide affordable access to the foods they desire.

  • Posted By: skinnyminny2 @ 12/14/2007 9:54:11 PM

    Comment: re: beans and lentils....
    This makes good sense and these foods are a significant part of my own diet. Most people would rather make excuses and continue to eat junk instead acquiring the cheaper and more healthy dry goods......go figure.

  • Posted By: Turbojesse @ 12/14/2007 2:54:56 PM

    Comment: What a crock. None of these posts have anything to do with the article.

    The price of living as free people is that some will not be able to sustain or take care of themselves. And as usual there???s always someone willing to blame it all on Bush. The lack of supermarkets in rural areas is nothing new. It???s as it???s always been. There are numerous ways rural people deal with this from stiocking up on canned and preserved food, to private truck gardens, to farmers markets, to hunting and fishing and on and on. It???s not that these people have no healthy choices, they choose not to exercise their choice. And it???s not just rural poor people. Look around the next time you go to the mall. See how many middle class and upper middle class folks are waddling down the aisles. Lack of good food judgement is not reserved for poor people.

    • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/14/2007 18:08:36

      Comment: It's not just lack of judgement I believe, rather it's the lack of availability. US food is the fattest in the world in my experience. Americans are the dirtiest people on the planet.

      • Posted By: Wulfhart @ 12/15/2007 04:13:57

        Comment: Thankyou Bornita. I enjoy being called dirty. I would like you to know I shower daily and I am not dirty. You should try living off of 5.85 an hour. How much do you make? I could probably live for a year off of what you make in just one month.
        I have access to a grocery store and I eat "bad." I live off of Pizza and potatos. Only reason I get pizza is it is free from my work. I eat potatos because they don't go bad. I go to the store and I see chips for $2 a bag, hamburger, $3/lb, 1 lb bag lettuce for $5, and a 20 lb bag of potatos for $5 Logically I think chips won't keep me alive, steak will be gone in one meal, lettuce will spoil and mold within the week and it is only 1 lb, Potatos don't spoil and it is 20 pounds. I choose potatos

        I make $500 a month working 30hr weeks. I would work more, but I am a fulltime college student paying his own way. Thank God for scholarships. We should switch spots for a year. I would bet you would start crying after the first week without your environmentalist hybrid car, try bicycling as your only transportation. That trumps your car for the environment. Then bicycle home after work when it is raining and windy because that is the only way you are getting home. There is no bus in my town and there are no cabs.

        • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/16/2007 23:58:42

          Comment: I apologise for being unclear. I mean Americans are the environmentally dirtiest people on the planet. Apart from that I find you to be very charming most of the time.

      • Posted By: Wulfhart @ 12/15/2007 04:08:47

        Comment: Thankyou Bornita. I enjoy being called dirty. You should try living off of 5.85 an hour. I would like you to know I shower daily and I am not dirty. Half of what I make goes to rent the other half goes to college. How much do you make? I could probably live for a year off of what you make in just one month. I have access to a grocery store and I eat "bad."
        I live off of Pizza and potatos. Only reason I get pizza is it is free from my work. I eat potatos because they don't go bad. I go to the store and I see chips for $2 a bag, hamburger, $3/lb, 1 lb bag lettuce for $5, and a 20 lb bag of potatos for $5 Logically I think chips won't keep me alive, steak will be gone in one meal, lettuce will spoil and mold within the week and it is only 1 lb, Potatos don't spoil and it is 20 pounds. I choose potatos

        I make $500 a month working 30hr weeks. I would work more, but I am going to college right now. We should switch spots for a year. I would bet you would start crying after the first week without your environmental hybrid car, try bicycling as your only transportation. Then bicycle home after work when it is raining and windy because that is the only way you are getting home. There is no bus in my town and there are no cabs

    • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/14/2007 15:33:20

      Comment: Cool! As a fat rich dude I have been concerned I wasn't getting enough credit!

  • Posted By: Turbojesse @ 12/14/2007 2:53:13 PM

    Comment: What a crock. None of these posts have anything to do with the article.

    The price of living as free people is that some will not be able to sustain or take care of themselves. And as usual there???s always someone willing to blame it all on Bush. The lack of supermarkets in rural areas is nothing new. It???s as it???s always been. There are numerous ways rural people deal with this from stiocking up on canned and preserved food, to private truck gardens, to farmers markets, to hunting and fishing and on and on. It???s not that these people have no healthy choices, they choose not to exercise their choice. And it???s not just rural poor people. Look around the next time you go to the mall. See how many middle class and upper middle class folks are waddling down the aisles. Lack of good food judgement is not reserved for poor people.

  • Posted By: thejunkman @ 12/14/2007 12:08:36 PM

    Comment: We are commodities in the eyes of our government and the corporations that support it. As commodities we are valued in two ways: present and future value.
    What values does an obese unemployed woman with no education living in a rural area have? Does she pay taxes to the government? Does she own stock in major corporations? Is there any chance she will likely rise above her present condition?
    Why does Bush keep vetoing the healthcare bill? Because most people with value already have health insurance, that???s way. We don???t need any more poor Americans. There are plenty of poor across the border ready to come here and work, they have a future value to us.

    • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/14/2007 12:18:24

      Comment: Another logical post! Capitalisim's sinister face exposed again. I love it

  • Posted By: the_gwo @ 12/14/2007 10:52:51 AM

    Comment: Before everyone starts thinking that Fannie's situation is the rule, not the exception, let me chime in. I spent most of my life in rural Mississippi, and in my experience it's just not that way for the majority of people. True, not everyone lives on a farm, but families (mine included) usually will buy fresh veggies and meat from our farming neighbors relatively cheaply without bothering with a car trip to the supermarket, and small vegetable gardens and fruit trees are very common. And, with perhaps the exception of the extremely poverty-stricken, almost every family has a car, or at least access to one through family or neighbors.

    Obesity is definitely an epidemic, in rural America and everywhere else, but I think that this has more to do with cultural eating habits of rural people (lots of meat and starches and few veggies and fruit) more than lack of access to nutritious foods.

    • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/14/2007 18:18:27

      Comment: As an economist I don't understand how there can be lots of nutritious food available if no one wants it, but I guess that can happen in the real world. Thank you for explaining your experiance of reality in rural US to me! And I hope good eating habits spreads to your country too, with access to better information.

      • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/18/2007 16:26:00

        Comment: Economist? HAH! Good grief, your a poorly veiled Marxist with delusions of grandeur, and by your own admissions you are a drain on productive society.

      • Posted By: Wulfhart @ 12/15/2007 05:17:26

        Comment: Same reason when I prepare pizza dough for tomorrow I prepare way more than what will be used. The restaurant makes profit it sales a third of what it prepares, but if we have to send a customer away because we ran out of pizza. We just lost profit and a customer, which is bad. Basic economy, be prepared. What company do you work for? The grocery store must have vegetables whether people buy them or not. If I walk into a grocery store and they don't stock enough of what I need. I am going somewhere else.

  • Posted By: Nemonic @ 12/14/2007 10:05:17 AM

    Comment: This is why localization is a good thing. The idea of a global economy with everyone working together to help everyone else is quant but the bigger the system gets the more people fall through the cracks. Things like this didn't happen nearly as often 60 years ago, people may have been poor but at least they had the common sense to grow their own food and were much healthier as a result. One can't rely on the government for food and clothes, because this is what happens when you do. If you want a good introduction into the world of food production and how horrible it is in the US watch King Korn.

  • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/14/2007 12:53:01 AM

    Comment: Short journeys like driving to the food store is very climate dirty. That is another problem of not having walking distance to your groceries store: Too much unnecessary pollution.

    • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/14/2007 09:10:11

      Comment: Well if you are REALLY concerned about a dirty environment in your home country relax. Before your life is over we Americans will have cleaned the environment in Sweden quite well. We will accomplish this by melting the polar ice caps so the ocean washes your tiny country squeaky clean! It's the least we can do for our left wing former allies to the north. So I recommend you start building an ark with all the Falafel and Sushi it can carry. Bon Voyage Mon Amour!

      • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/14/2007 17:55:23

        Comment: Well the polar ice cap in the north is already gone and you are almost 100% ignorant about the issue of climate change. Please educate yourself to avoid further public humiliation.

        • Posted By: Wulfhart @ 12/15/2007 04:22:27

          Comment: Maybe in Sweden, but I have seen some recent photos of Alaska and Northern Canada and don't see any glaciers missing.

          • Posted By: btvsrcks @ 12/15/2007 15:05:52

            Comment: Are you kidding me? There is a town in Alaska, heavily populated, that is almost completely washed away due to global warming. Pardon me, but your ignorance is showing.

  • Posted By: angelus1967 @ 12/13/2007 3:43:08 PM

    Comment: William.Demuth - I just realized that you and I were on the same page on the board about the new holy waters that are for sale. if you are an agnostic/athiest (I'm not sure you said which you are) well then, shoot you can't be ALL bad!

    • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/14/2007 07:41:52

      Comment: Not only am I am atheist, I am a militant one. I have always believed that I will end up dying in the battle to keep religion from dominating the world. The greatest irony of them all is that I realize when I am face down in the street with a gun in my hand and a bullet in my back, the bullet shall not be a Muslim one, but rather a Christian one.

      • Posted By: angelus1967 @ 12/14/2007 12:45:53

        Comment: There are few, if any, more dangerous institututions on this planet than organized religion. I will never understand the level of self delusion that goes into believing what these people believe and the damage that this belief can do.
        Militant/fanatical christianity is just as dangerous and pervasive as militant islam, if not more so.

        • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/14/2007 17:57:38

          Comment: I think they concentrate in developing countries as missionaries and greatly contribute to structural aid dependency in the developing countries.

          • Posted By: Wulfhart @ 12/15/2007 04:37:47

            Comment: Lol no that is what the UN does. The UN hands out money. And we all know what happens when you give a mouse a cookie. Ok maybe some of us don't. The mouse asks for milk to drink with the cookie. You give him milk he asks for a bed to sleep in because the milk made him tired. That is why developing countries are dependent on aid. UN gave them food. (all good there starving people should get food) Then they said we need clean water. UN gives them water treatment plants. They say, "hey we need electricity" we get them that. Then the developing country says, "We need medicine" UN gives it to them.

            And so on the list goes. Thus when we quit giving them aid they go into turmoil. It is not missionaries that cause dependency on aid, it is the UN's aid policy.

  • Posted By: mrsavizdrav @ 12/13/2007 2:36:34 PM

    Comment: Here is another article that tries to blame "something else" for causing obesity, rather than just admit some people in the USA eat too much and work too little. I already said in a comment to a different article, that there are very few obese people in Africa (nobody can argue about the poverty there).
    I partially agree with the author of the article about healthy food being more expensive. It sure is more expensive to eat healthy if you buy everything or most of the food prepared. But if one buys the healthy ingredients and cooks the food at home, it can be surprisingly affordable. Plain oatmeal cooked at home (for breakfast) is cheaper than sugary dry cereal, and a lot cheaper than egg-McMuffin. And you also burn some calories while you cook your oatmeal and wash the dishes.
    I don???t think eating fresh fruits and vegetables is crucial for not being fat. For 30 years I lived in a part of the World where fresh fruits and vegetables were not available except when in season. But our chest freezer was our treasure chest. I learned at a very young age how to preserve and/or freeze all of the fruits and vegetables available, and also how to cook with that kind of ingredients.
    I???m 37 years old, I have a postgraduate degree and I work, but I still cook most of the meals for my family from scratch. I breastfed my child for 13 months, and now I???m trying teach him to love all the good food. Unfortunately, I???m battling an unfair battle against the junk they feed the kids in day-care, because nobody thinks it???s worth spending some more resources to give the kids a good start and teach them from the beginning how to eat and be healthy. Later, a lot more will be spent to treat all the illnesses, but who cares about that?

    • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/13/2007 22:35:32

      Comment: Well I would rather live on well-fare than work with you so I can understand them. I would actually rather grow a garden. You are not a very understanding. Africa is a very different continent from your country, they don't eat fast food. You simply cannot compare the poorest continent on the planet to the richest, where there is social injustice. Why are the poorest people in America and also the obese overwhelmingly black? It's not as simple as saying 'work more and eat less'. Everybody knows that they are stuck in centuries old discrimination. Perhaps eating fast food is the only affordable luxury the people at Orange County have.
      I actually gained a lot of weight when I worked in the summer, because of stress food (McDonald's, microwave..) It is not that people eat too much, they eat bad, proccessed nutritionless, industrial food. Eating fresh fruit and vegetables doesn't necessarily lower a persons weight I think, because a lot of those are fat too, like avocados and nuts. But it does lower risk of diseases like cancer also it lowers your carbon footprint. Most of the flavor in meat comes from the spices/marinade, so I don't see the point in risking ones health for that. I you add the same spices to chick peas it tastes more or less the same.

      • Posted By: health_guru1 @ 01/18/2008 05:11:08

        Comment: Of course eating fresh veggies and fruits lowers a person's weight. When I think of them, I don't really think of nuts. Instead, I think of broccoli, cauliflower, greens, cabbage, tomatoes, citris fruits, peaches, pears, etc. etc. If you eat those moderately, they fill you up, and you have less stomach for fattening food.

      • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/14/2007 08:08:48

        Comment: Then Europe is the place for you. If you emigrate I wouldd have you deported. America wants workers, not freeloaders

        • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/14/2007 18:02:01

          Comment: I feel securer than ever that I can get wellfare from US, maybe while living in Mexico. I will request that I get your tax money exclusively. Bling bling...

        • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/14/2007 16:03:24

          Comment: Up to now I thoght you where a hot Swedish chick, and now you say your fat? What a blow head!

          • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/14/2007 18:03:35

            Comment: No comment.

    • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/13/2007 15:03:39

      Comment: I hate to sound cruel, but healthy people are expensive because they get to retire. Uneducated laborers that die young are a boon to this economy. You see, people living a long time requires resources this government doesn't have. So rest assured, even if we were all to do everything perfectly, the government would still have to kill off several hundred million of us before our retirement age or go bankrupt. So if they don't kill you with corn syrup, they will simply drop your kids into Tehran and leave them to die. What you seek is a shift in a cultural paradigm that will only change through active resistance to a government that is no longer of the people, or by the people, much less for the people. In addition, Mexico seems to have offered this administration their poor at a per diem rate that is cheaper than the maintenance cost of our domestic poor, so imports are on the rise. Soon our domestic poor shall become as obsolete as the phonograph, and will be discarded just as quickly thanks to NAFTA.

      • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/14/2007 00:14:07

        Comment: I think it's a grave misconception that healthy people are a burden due to retirement. Retirement money is money that has been invested all through their lives, so it has benefitted the business world. It is simply an unscientific comment I believe. If people were unhealthy and could not work the whole world loses tremendously more from the loss of work, consumption and investment. An unhealthy society has inferior quality of workers. I don't know if a healthy diet is linked to IQ, so I won't speculate, but I am sure the richest nation in the world per capita has a healthy population.
        I sure hope nobody drops any soldiers in Teheran. In Darfur perhaps. Violence causes more problems than it solves. Intelligent people do not resort to violence. Self-defense and making an attacker harmless without physical or mental injury I would consider to be the policy or strategy worthy of this millenium.

        • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/14/2007 07:50:38

          Comment: You must be European. In case no one has told you, the US government stole Americas retirement monies to pay for the weapons we had to build to save you from the Soviets. Less than half of us can retire as promised with the money that can be raised now. Luckily our government will kill a lot of us off before we have a chance to even try. And why does it seem that whenever I choose to speak the truth, everyone assumes I support it? I speak of reality, which exists whether or not you choose to believe it. I do not like what I see, but I see it none the less. As for Iran, perhaps not, but we have industries that need to be supported. These industries make weapons. Unless we use the weapons, the industries will not receive orders for more. So whether it be Iran, or China, or even Canada, we WILL make more war, simply because it is needed to drive the economic engine we have built.

          • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/14/2007 18:52:47

            Comment: Thank you for that entirely misguided but sweet endeavor. Perhaps it would have been better spent to protect you since you have been attacked numerous times whereas we have enjoyed peace for several centuries. I hope you can exercise democracy and get what you are entitled to. I'm sorry that you got the impression that I think you support the reality, I didn't get that impression, however I think it is dangerous to rhetorize lies as I think it may cement them further.
            I know that increased public spending stimulates national economy, but there are structural changes all the time and there are many ways to increase the spending with greater results, like on health and education. Peace, human rights and the businesses involved with defense can harmonize by weapons manufacturers thinking smarter and choose to support peace proactively. Someone who goes to violent war thinks with his balls/ her vagina. The defense industry is subject to the same laws of economics as anybody else, and has to continuously evolve and adjust to demand, laws and human values. If Apple can make an ipod then SAAB and their American counterparts can make defense technology that debilitates people with violent intentions, without physical or psychological harm to anyone. The public can support this by investing their money in ethical funds. In a democracy, the educated people have the power.

      • Posted By: mrsavizdrav @ 12/13/2007 15:34:54

        Comment: Well, I don't agree that fat people are useful to any society. After all, fat=unhealthy people cost the society a lot by not being able to work some of the jobs (or any jobs), and by spending huge money on medication and health services. This society simply doesn't think or care about the future at all.

  • Posted By: reporter21 @ 12/13/2007 2:20:15 PM

    Comment: Do You Believe This?
    www.ourtownreport.com

  • Posted By: dewcooper @ 12/13/2007 1:25:50 PM

    Comment: I will agree with only one aspect of the article: it does cost more, in dollars, to eat healthy. While you may save in the long run on doctor's visits, medicine, etc., the shopping bill is higher when you shop the outside of the supermarket.

  • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/13/2007 11:30:51 AM

    Comment: Your a most fascinating socialist, and even though you loathe me, I bear you no malice! I have never said that individuals don't have the freedom to do what they want with their money. I am a firm believer that individuals with convictions can achieve great things, so if you believe what you say please show some initiative and do something about it. Just don't ask me to pay for it and you will have my total support. Any person who claims that help is needed and injustices are occurring are always welcome to give to charitable institutions or directly to the poor. Regrettably as is so often the case with you socialists, you want someone else's wallet to absorb the cost of your egalitarian ideals.

    To take money from citizens and have the federal government distribute it to the needy is as naive an idea as I have ever heard. The government is the PROBLEM, it is not the solution. Whenever people like you desire the redistribution of wealth, you believe the government can accomplish this? It can not because the government is bought and paid for for generations to come. Any money dedicated to the war on poverty will be stolen just as quickly as the money for the war on terror has been. Free markets and private industry are the only hope a man has to elevate his position. Americans who have the illusion of security because they have been lead to believe they are entitled to more from their government then it can supply. In truth, most of you are already totally screwed and will end your lives hungry and destitute, and any attempt to have the state provide for the hungry now, will only hasten the time until you join their ranks. I for one can read the writing on the wall, and will provide for myself and my family in the time to come. I hope you have the courage, insight and strength to do the same. As for the rest, they can get their own life boat, but if they try to climb in mine, they will met with a boot that pushes them further under.

    As far as your not being here when "it" happens, I can assure you, you wont be.

    • Posted By: cagday @ 12/13/2007 12:56:23

      Comment: William Demuth your ideas are twisted and illogical. If you read this article carefully it has nothing to do with money noone is asking for FREE food you idiot but of course you have your agenda to fulfill so as soon as a social commentary is made you jump on this old cliche Republican Conservative bandwagon and start blaming the misfortunite for all the problems in this society.. Give me a break. The concept of having healthy avaliable food for everyone is a great idea and will only make this country stronger and fincancially healthier in the long run. As a rich industrialized country like America the citizens have a responsiblity to make this avaliable to people that want it. I am not suggesting a hand out but helathy food should at least be avaliable for all citizens of this great country, there is not way it cant be done, resources are avaliable, And for everything big business takes from us they should be required by LAW thats right by LAW to make grocery stores avaliable with in a certian amount of miles of where people live. This is NOT socialism or fascism it is just GOOD business sesnse period. The less fat out of shape people in this country the stronger it will be and the less our hopsitals are taxed and the less we are taxed. These people would get thin and start contributing to society as well. All would benefit. ITs just narrow minded people like you that have grabbed all they can the hard way and dont want to let it go who are against something like this.

      • Posted By: angelus1967 @ 12/13/2007 15:47:07

        Comment: It would make no sense at all to require big businesses to open grocery stores within x miles of where people live if you are not going to subsidize a food give away! If there is no profit motive they could never stay open anyway so what good would it do?
        Talk about illogical.....

      • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/13/2007 13:51:56

        Comment: If it was good business sense, why hasn't it happened? Your childish interpretation of good business is plainly evident. Americans would sell oil to an Arab if their was money in it. If you are too blind to see the underlying agenda then you are a fool. This is about the farm bill, and who will get the BILLIONS in the pot. You don't actually believe that anyone gives a damn about people eating Cheetos do you? They are expendable. The companies that make this crap are owned by the same people who eat it. If you want to make business sense of it, chain their fat rear ends to a network of treadmills and drop the cost of energy. You have not a clue about the cost your idea might entail, you are just blowing smoke. If you want them thin then less stores would be a more logical alternative than expecting business people to open stores for welfare recipients to receive more crap. Before you continue to sound like a fool, think for a second. Just how close would you LAW make these stores? Then do the math, if you can, and you will quickly realize what is and is not possible.

        • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/13/2007 21:46:31

          Comment: It must be embarrassing to be the wealthiest nation in the world and not be able to feed the population. Forget the talk about how business wins over health...You can't eat money and dead or sick people don't pay taxes. I think LAWS logically would regulate the content of food. That way healthy food would be available everywhere. Aren't those 'American death on plates' the weapons of mass-destruction you've been looking for ;) Don't be cynics, saying that the only way is to let people destroy themselves, of course in this millenium there are simple, easy ways to fix problems. Of course LESS stores isn't the answer. Are you trying to kill your own people?

          • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/14/2007 08:33:21

            Comment: I say we feed the poor the chepest meat we can get, Europeans!

            • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/14/2007 18:58:51

              Comment: How about beans, peas and lentils? It's much cheaper, healthier and environmentally friendly than meat, plus guaranteed animal cruelty free. Buy/grow ecological ones and you further reduce environmental impact.

              • Posted By: Wulfhart @ 12/15/2007 05:05:44

                Comment: Do you know how many animals/people die raising lentils. I am sure a lot. I know that wheat farmers routinely run over small animals living in the wheat fields. you can't miss them. Think about it if there is food animals such as birds and squirrles will live there. Birds and other animals eat lentils and beans. Only way to stop this kill them or trap them in "environmental" cages and dump them in the desert to survive.

              • Posted By: Wulfhart @ 12/15/2007 04:50:20

                Comment: I prefer potatos, they have kept generations of my family alive.

    • Posted By: angelus1967 @ 12/13/2007 11:58:03

      Comment: No, I am not a socialist nor do I loathe you. You were coming across very harshly but in reading some of your other comments I can see that your ideas are more in the direction of self-reliance and leave me to mine that kill all the poor and the world will be a better place. At least I hope I am right about that./

      I do give time and money, I do not believe that the government owen people who choose not to work a free ride, and I think that most people can make a contribution of some kind. Obviously there are some that can't but unless you really want to get into eutanasia ther eis nothing we can do for those people except help them out and support them.
      I also do not believe in the redistribution of wealth; history has taught us that this is an unworkable idea, one that looks good on paper but never actually works. I think that helping people get on their feet in not the worst idea in the world; if you have someone who unexpectedly and through no fault of their own is thrust into a situation such as the death of a spouse or a catostrophic injury then we should provide some help. Perhaps daycare, retraining, and food / rent money for some fixed amount of time. NOT for life! Government has already proven inept at properly spendiing the money that we give them, they don't need more.
      My problem with your line of thought is that it seems you feel that you seem to lean towards true anarchy and fascism. No government at all, which can't work in modern times as people need some form of governance or chaos will reign supreme. And true fascism (to my understanding anyway) would tell us to kill the weak and unproductive lest they bring the rest of us down. There is room for both of our schools of thought to meet in the middle but the system we have now is simply unworkable in the long run.

      • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/13/2007 12:20:47

        Comment: Well we Fascists got a well deserved bum rap after WWII and it will be generations before the word wont be equated with Auschwitz. Fascism was originally about the state and industry working together to further the aims of the people. Like any other belief it has been misused. As far as Hitler, although I am certainly not a fan, he was no worse than Stalin or Poll Pott. In fact communists have killed far more than fascists ever did.

        My basic point is that when one stands in line behind a person who uses food stamps in the grocery store and then stops at the liquor store with cash for lottery tickets and booze, one begins to feel they have been played for a fool. To then see the same person berate the system that feeds them and shelters them act as if they deserve more is intolerable

        • Posted By: Wulfhart @ 12/15/2007 04:54:59

          Comment: My favorite is the people who stand outside the grocery store trying to sell their food stamps to you. I wonder what they want to buy???? Not food obviously. Food stamps for sale $5 worth for only 3 dollars cash.

        • Posted By: angelus1967 @ 12/13/2007 12:52:32

          Comment: And you are right, the communists have killed FAR more people than Hitler and his fascists ever did.

          • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/14/2007 00:21:59

            Comment: Communism exists/has existed in almost half the world so of course the numbers will be higher but nazism and other similar rules like the second largest genocide in modern history in Darfur, is by far the most deadly, inhumane, dehumanizing and dangerous in my opinion.

            • Posted By: William.Demuth @ 12/14/2007 07:58:12

              Comment: Then you can't count on a third grade level. Chairman Mao killed more humans in a day then the entire population of Darfur. If you Euros want to save them stop asking Americans to clean up your filth. I suggest you re-arm the Germans and they will make quick work of it. They will then invade France Belgium Holland Norway Italy and Northern Africa

              • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/14/2007 19:28:39

                Comment: Why would I 're-arm Germans'? Your comments is really below criticism. Most of the weapons in Germany belong to the US.

              • Posted By: Bornita @ 12/14/2007 19:24:54

                Comment: Americans emit 100 tons of co2 per person and year compared to 6 tons by Swedes per person and year. I think the majority of the world just want you to clean up your own filth. I wouldn't dream that you would clean any better outside your nation, however of course communism with it's long history and and global spread has led to more deaths. You can buy African goods instead if you are truly angered by it. I am sure many Chinese have died while producing goods for the west too.