Junk Food County

the unhealthy truth about rural america is called DEVELOPMENT, by all parties across the political spectrum, all greedy, all of them...you can't appeal to their conscience because they DON'T HAVE ONE...there are no such things as "liberals" or conservatives when it comes to making money in this country, only the dollar floats their boat...the insanity of the metropolis is here in small towns. this country is a sinking ship. oh yeah, i forgot, greed is what this great nation was founded on...Description of early Americans, the ones who invaded this already-inhabited continent: LIARS, MURDERERS, THIEVES...what a proud heritage...and not too much has changed since then...healthy living? WORRY ABOUT YOUR SOULS...if you still have one...

I am poor, but I am not lazy. I live in an urban area, and have no trouble getting to Wal-Mart for groceries. But the simple fact of the matter is: nutritious food costs more. I can buy a package of ramen noodle soup for 16 cents. A can of ravioli is 99 cents. White, generic bread is 67 cents. Now, the makings of a salad add up to about four dollars, a package of mini carrots $2.89. Whole grain bread $2.39. Frozen veggies are anywhere between $1.89 to over$3.00 a bag. If my food budget is just over six dollars a day for my entire family---you do the math. will I be feeding my kids more salad, or more ramen noodle soup? We try to eat as nutritiously as possible, and yes, we worry about going hungry every single month.

And, no, I don't smoke or drink, or waste money on anything frivolous or wasteful. I even cut all of our hair myself to save money. There is simply no way for my household to come up with more money to spend on more nutritious food. I know how to feed my family nutritiously, and it breaks my heart to know that my children would be healthier and have more energy if I could feed them better.

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.

Another reason behind suicidal eating habits: Marketing. How many billions do large corporations spend to literally brainwash grown-ups but mostly children to buy their poison, made in sweatfactories and poisonous farmland, probably grown by children in South America...etc. They pollute our minds with their advertising. They use their own psychological laboratories to do it. Advertising unhealthy food is another thing that should be banned. Of course companies like Mcdonalds and Coca-Cola should be taxed instead to pay for ads and marketing for healthy food and exercise.

I have no scorn for the poor, I spent most of my childhood amongst them and I have seen their suffering. That is why I do what I do. I have been working 60 to 70 hour work weeks for well over a quarter of a century. I have dug ditches, ran numbers, telemarketed, shoveled snow and even collected beer cans for the deposit money. I have lost everything on more than one occasion, but I refused to lay down. I have actually worked three jobs concurrently at one point. I have raised two children, one who is studying medicine and one who wants to be a soldier, and I did it with just myself and my wife. I have had my home burn to the ground, have had two suicides in my family and had a premature child who was desperately ill all in the period of one year. I have been unemployed, have seen companies go bust, and watched entire industries collapse. All this has taught me one thing. If the world knocks you down, get up quick or your dead meat. We can not permit youthful illusions or socialist propaganda to cloud the issue. If people truly can not provide for themselves then the state must provide nothing more than basic sustenance, but for those who refuse to take care of themselves all the state is obligated to provide is a cremation. As for those of you who want to take what I have worked for and give it to someone else I need point out one obvious fact you may have overlooked. I will simply take it back! You could divide all the wealth equally across the planet, and within a few years it would be back in the hands of those who had it in the first place. It is merely economic Darwinism, and only the strong will survive.

Many of you seem to think that we should not do anything at all for the poor and disenfranchised in this country. William Darmuth leads the charge, calling himself a fascist and when someone mentioned Hitler this man said if that's what it takes. I don't want to support able bodied people who choose not to work but at the same time I don't think that we can leave people to starve. We are not that kind of country. Some of you told them to grow a garden which is not always an option; I enjoy gardening and am very good at it but if I would've had to count on this summers garden I would've starved. It was a bad year between the heat and lack of water.
I don't have all of the answers but we do need to have some compassion for those who are less fortunate or are unable to take care of themselves. If not we may as well embrace euthanasia and give our country to fascists like William Demuth. I for one do not want to be here when that happens.

We're going to keep spiraling downward on the health problems as long as we keep doing what we have been doing, i.e. blame the individual. Conservatives and libertarians have been doing that for years and we've been getting crummy results for years...what makes them think that if we stick with that approach things are going to change?

In addition to the car-less lady cited in the story, there are tons of people working $10-an-hour McJobs who have to maintain a car because their workplace is not within walking distance. Sprawling suburbs and rural areas practically guarantee this as a requirement, and cars are extremely expensive. Car pool? Not when the McJobs don't have the same hours every day. Public transit? Only if you're lucky. With gas around $3, guess what's one of the items that gets cut? That's right - food. For the cost of 2 apples you might get a whole pack of Little Debbie Snack cakes. Or look at college students near the end of spring quarter...sometimes you see ramen noodles or those awful 99-cent frozen pizzas.

I don't deny the fact that people today are obese because they choose to eat unhealthy foods. I would like to point out the fact that eating healthy comes with a high price to pay. It is much cheaper to get fast food/junk food than it is to buy enough vegetables to make a salad. I think that it is rediculous that some of you are making comments that obese people are lazy and reaping the benefits of welfare. I just don't understand how the conversation went from unhealthy eating habits in rural America to "buying welfare bums cadillacs?"
By the way I am 5'9" 145lbs, I live in the country, and have a good job. That comment was for the few of you who would try to disect my statements and turn the around to be a plea for my own defense.

Where I came from people where coddled. Kids who where illiterate where promoted year after year, and the culture determined a mans value not by the strength of his will, but bye the brand of his sneaker. Young girls lay with old men and bore children like rats, and then ran to the government asking them to feed the hungry babies. These babies then grew up watching the sole parent stay at home and get high. Needless to say, these children are now either in prison, or dead in the streets. Please do not bet the future of rural America on the failed urban policies of the past. Self sufficiency is the ONLY way out of poverty, and if any of you are foolish enough to believe the US government can save you when you refuse to save yourselves, your destinies are preordained. Just do us a favor and don't make any more ignorant children, we have all the burger flippers we need, and besides Mexicans are cheaper in the long run.

Low food security sounds to me like a bunch of bull. However, this type of stereotyping people in fly over country is nothing new for this magazine. Convenient stores sell gas, lottery tickets, beer and wine. It's easily understandable why there is such a higher percentage of convenient stores. Food is important to fat people in the cities just as well as rural areas. I sat across from a morbidly obese woman at a party this past weekend. She sat at my table because it was the only table with nothing behind it so she was able to easily enter, exit and also just sit. She ordered real cola instead of diet. Her major concern from the moment she arrived until dessert was served was what food would be served. She had two appetizer plates of meatballs etc. Her husband had to bring her the food because of her back problems. She did not eat salad at all. Then she had cheesecake and chocolate cake. She isn't from a rural area and doesn't live in one now. She can't stop herself from eating all she can eat. Even with all of her health problems due to weight, she cannot stop. She is responsible for this behavior and the government cannot help her. I feel extremely bad for her because she can't stop herself right now. But I think this website is promoting stereotypes. People in New York city have the same issues so why are you singling out rural people with this stereotype of rural people and blacks.

Of course cultivation won't work if one is not healthy enough to tend a garden....but, most people are. They just won't. In rural communities I've lived in, we helped our neighbors who needed it, whether it was getting things for them or giving them a ride to the store. I was merely referring to those who can change their diets but instead of doing so, they make excuses to eat garbage.

I'm really surprised at the comments I've read. If you live in a rural area, like me, you can't just walk to a grocery store and carry back shopping bags full of groceries, broberts01. I live in rural Mississippi, fortunately, my family owns property and we do raise a garden. We also share with our neighbors. However, poverty is rampant in our area. Most of our neighbors don't own the property where they live. And gas being $3.00 a gallon and minimum wage being $5.85 an hour, I don't see these people buying property an time soon.
The idea of buying food on the internet is just wrong, William. The article is about poor people. I don't know many poor people with internet access and a credit card, do you? I think the real answer is education and a willingness to change their own lifestyle.

Gee whiz, maybe we could buy these welfare bums a nice new cadillac so dey coud drive to da groshry sto. Or better yet, lets send chauffered limosines to take em to and fro. you newsweek idiots are either incredibly stupid or you think we are. i bet its both.

Response to jqeskimo - You are unsympethetic and cold hearted. The woman the article mentioned weighs 240 pounds with Type II diabetes. She has to WALK a great distance to get her groceries. If she is like my mother that is a monumental undertaking because the weight affects her joints. Her health probably makes vegetable gardening too difficult and who says she has enough land to have a garden much less a cow (which she would have to afford to feed). Your comments are idiotic and you should count yourself lucky that you grew up as you did. My mother is in the same situation and lives with me. She lost her drivers license because her diabetes affects her vision. She depends on me to help her; what about the people who can't depend on their families? My heart goes out to the woman in the artilcle and others like her.