Junk Food County

I live in a rural Alaskan village where all of the food is flown in. There are few choices of what can be bought. Veggies and fruit seem to go first and they only come in once a week. The store carries rows of unhealthy foods. Freezer section with fast/microwaveable foods, row of chips, candy, etc. Most fruit and veggies are canned along with most other foods. There are no other stores! No choices! Milk is $5 for a half gallon. Try to eat healthy or stay on a diet with these conditions.

Umm, garden and orchard? Canning and freezing for winter months? Unless something has changed in the last, oh, 5000 years, things still grow when put in the ground and properly tended.

I'm sorry, but no grocery store close by is no excuse. I grew up in a rural area and we only bought beef, eggs, and milk, flour etc at the grocery store (high maintenance items or foods that require processing). We slaughtered 2 pigs annually yielding enough canned/frozen sausage, ham, chops, bacon, livermush, etc for an extended family of 8 . People are just lazy. Period. Frankly, i'm tired of hearing this kind of nonsense. We shouldn't be giving people in rural areas food stamps, we should be giving them a hoe and box full of seeds.

I just bought my lunch from the salad bar in the cafeteria where I work. For $5, I could fill up a 16 ounce container with any combination of the following: lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, corn, chick peas, pasta, red beans, broccoli, squash, eggplant, sliced cheese and salami, cottage cheese, grated cheese, sprouts, croutons, orange slices, chopped chicken, olives, beets, cucumber, and few other things that I can't recall. If I so desired, I could easily grab a second salad for dinner without repeating my lunch. This spread could be easily replicated in anywhere in the US; I'm sure the supply of contents of the salad bar are replenished no more than weekly. In theory, this means I could have a food budget of $3,650 a year and eat healthy foods. If I had a family of four, I would need $14,600. It may be somewhat unrealistic to expect folks to eat from a salad bar all year, but my point here is about the economics. Let's say a two bedroom dwelling costs $500 a month across rural America, that's another $6,000 in annual expense for me. If I earn $25,000 a year ($12/hr), that leaves close to $4,400 a year ($367 a month) for gas, utilities, and healthcare. My conclusion: Due to a combination of cultural intertia and poor education (and some laziness), there are lots of fat rural folks eating crappy food from convenience stores.

I grew up in a rural area or we like to call it "the country". We lived about 45 minutes from the closest city and about 10 miles from the closest town. We didn't live on junk food and we shop in the closest quick stop. We had a garden and we usually slaughtered a cow for meat. We also drove to the closest grocery store and bought real food. Meat, vegetables, eggs, bread and milk. The woman says that it is stereotypical that everyone in rural areas lives on a farm. Well this article makes it sound like everyone who lives in the country is unhealthy, dirt poor, has no car and is severly over weight. This has nothing to do with living in the country. The title should be "Diets of the poor and or lazy". I am sure that you could do the same study in most cities and find the same results. If she thinks buying vegetables is too expensive, then she should buy some seeds for a few cents each, plant them and have her own vegetables. Planting a little garden is very little effort with a high yield. It's called "taking care of yourself". Give it a try.

thank paul im a veteran underwieght disabled or i would get the idea you all want me and my kind on welfare dead and buried i mean how dare i come home alive and a burden to you all as i live in the boonies and our rent is 650 for a one bedroom just like you and our asst degree gets you 6.50 an hr and if you do grow it taste like the thousands of oil and gas pits they leave unfenced at every sight! try this on for size if you got a set!
i want to see home movies of all you who say we have a choice! Sit in a wheelchair and grow a garden, that would make a great comedy, or make it to a store and back with a months worth of food in a chair, with no sidewalks ie: MUD,ICE. I want to see you do what you claim we can do for ourselves, no help, as you wish on us! I want to see the movie as you try, and maybe when you get it, i want to see the sweat and your understanding face when you throw up your hands and scream this is impossible to do!!! If you got the guts
some of us who were injured keeping you free are also welfare boonie living skinny or fat its medical so deal and buggar off otterman,Demuth

I am from a rural area in Arkansas, and I found the article to be condescending and insulting. I grew up 30 miles away from the nearest grocery store and 40 miles away from the nearest Wal-Mart supercenter We, like pretty much everybody else I knew, had a routine scheduled trip once a week to the grocery store to buy a weeks supply of groceries. During the spring and summer we planted/harvested a large vegetable garden. When older family members can't or do not need to be driving, somebody more able and with a car drives them to the store. We took turns taking my Grandmother to the store. My overweight (350+), diabetic uncle or my Dad would help start her yearly garden by tilling. Despite her health problems caused by her age and her aneurysm, she would go out and pick what she wanted and would upkeep the garden once started. The article even states that Ms. Charles goes to the grocery store once a week; why can't she get enough food to last the week instead of walking to the convenience store to buy junk food everyday? People who live in urban areas, inner city residents or not, are just as likely to be unhealthy, overweight, diabetic, and have heart probems as rural residents. It is wrong to look down on people because of their geographical location and have the nerve to dress it as compassion., she would go out and pick what she wanted and would upkeep the garden once started. The article even states that she goes to the grocery store once a week; why can't she get enouch food to last the week instead of walking to the convenience store to buy junk food everyday? People who live in urban areas, inner city residents or not, are just as likely to be unhealthy, overweight, diabetic, and have heart problems as rural residents. It is wrong to look down on people because of their geographical location and have the nerve to dress it as compassion.

It is a lifestyle choice to be sure. Look at Britney Spears. She makes $700,000 dollars a month, and still does her grocery shopping at the 7-11 and Burger King. She chooses to eat like that. Why? Because it is easy and convenient, and not because the cost of nutritious food is too excessive. She can afford to have fresh organic food delivered to her house and prepared by a trained chef, but she doesn???t choose to do that. It has nothing to with cost. Ounce for ounce, prepared foods cost more. They have had added labor cost to prepare it, packaging costs, storage cost (cooling and warehousing), and shipping cost.

to many clueless with heartless comments! i still want to see the movie" I tried to grow but my chair got stuck in the mud" understand what you have never delt with for a day and make statements you yourself cannot live by should a disability affect your entire life and for the rest of it! You don't want to pay for me, and i raised my kids already ,so supporting yours is out of the question! why should i pay for whats not mine? I do and do it with glee, support an American, cause those who don't should face karma and get hit by a car ,wake up in a chair, and no car!!! Get yourself home without the use of family or a cab then talk to me about support!

I liked the poster who stated this should be called "Diets of the Poor and Lazy."

This I have heard about since the 90ies. Of course healthy food has to be the most convenient. Anything else is cruel and unemphathic. Show a little grace towards people's suffering. I am 90% sure your brain is suffering from mal-nutrition as well. Healthy food is almost non-existant in U.S. Other reasons for not eating healthy: Lack of information. Lack of compassion from your community. The vicious circle. Etc etc. One could easily put an end to it by banning unhealthy food, that also burden the medical system. Prevention is better than cure. This is done in most developed countries. The situation is really a state of emergency, and has been for decades. However it can easily stop. We can read how food prices in developing countries are driven up by the fuel industry. Sugar is used to cheapen the cost of food manufacture at the loss of health and quality of life, whereas wheat is used for ethanol production instead of food in China.

Sugar canes are the most efficient for renewable fuel production, since it uses the least space. Divert sugar from food to fuel and you will ease two problems at once! Sugar should really have an import tariff in EU and North America (for food) and should be used for fuel only. I don't eat any sugar. It is simply a question of habit. I feel much healthier from eating almost only unprocessed food. I just cut and cook the vegetables, I eat organic fruits and nuts and seeds, I make sure I get enough nutrition, and I feel great. Processed food contains no nutrition at all and shortens your life expectancy. Also I buy fair trade, which certifies that the food is free from human rights abuses. So I ease my conscience too! I really recommend that you ask for these foods today! Please get back to me here about how it goes.

It seems clear that a number of people are unclear as to what the term "median" means or that the author isn't pretending to tell us that the behavior and situations discussed are the norm in the area. While the idea of growing a garden to supplement food is a good one, it doesn't work if you are in poor health and can't tend said garden. I don't pretend that welfare is an optimal solution for anything, but those heaping scorn and derision on the poor and the helpless are exactly the problem with this country; how we treat the least among us reflects upn who we are.

This article is full of stereotypes and it's just idiotic. We have a new disorder: low food insecurity. It affects the inner city and rural areas. Once again, Newsweek tries to make middle America look stupid. Food insecurity? Give me a break. I don't live in a rural area or the inner city but I did live in a rural area for a very long time and this article is untruthful and distorts other information. I have many convenient stores close to me. They sell gas, lottery tickets, beer and wine plus food. Obviously, there are going to be a much larger number of these stores than grocery stores. I have been around a number of obese people outside of rural areas. These are not people that are worried about having food in their house or the expense of that food. The people that I know are involved with eating. They liove to eat. They do not want diet drinks. They go to Christmas parties and the most important thing is the food. They feel bad about how they look but they can't stop themselves. I need to lose weight but I am personally responsible for that and no government program is going to stop me from liking certain food. Low food insecurity is just another diss by Newsweek against fly-over country.

Those who lived in the country were once admired for their versatility, surviviability and ingenuity to 'make do.' and make a living off their land, big or small garden. folks i knew growing up knew how to garden, can veggies, and fill a freezer full of meat from hunting- now the sterotype is that of lazy fat cheeto eaters, pumping insulin inside their trailers while watching TV from their satelite reception disk in the front yard. 'Making do' in the country is now a lost art it seems...

Comment: I live 21 miles from Orangeburg in SC. I find it difficult to believe and can't imagine anyone in SC living 46 miles from a store that sells fruits and vegetables. Are the facts of this article accurate?! Is this just another stab at South Carolina? We may have many rural areas in SC, but we are NOT the boondocks!!
Gloria