Junk Food County

I suppose I see how this can be a problem, but as long as cheap, junky food continues to be cheap, those with little money will continue to buy it. Now, it isn't a societal responsibility or personal responsibility. It's both. As an unemployed college student in a fairly rural area, on Thanksgiving of 2004, my husband and I were searching our apartment for spare change to buy a gallon of milk. We rarely ate out and subsisted on Ramen noodles. My husband is now a successful engineer and I am still working on my degree. But, as it stands, food is very expensive in rural areas. Sometimes, it is cheaper to eat out. I can get a double cheeseburger for a dollar, or I can go to the store and buy a pound of beef for around $3.00. Of course, I can make several cheeseburgers with that pound of beef. But it???s just easier. It???s like the old adage of, ???Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime.??? Sometimes, people don???t know how to fish, figuratively speaking. This is where the government can step in and organize educational programs. The problem of availability still stands. If apples are not available, people will not eat them. If you can get 6 packs of Ramen for a dollar as opposed to one apple, you???ll buy the Ramen. The problem of cost needs to be resolved. Where I live, we have a program for food stamps where people can buy a certain amount of certain foods every month and some foods are not eligible. For example, a family may get 5 gallons of milk a month, but they are not allowed to buy processed foods, like TV dinners, with the assistance. This does come into the government telling people what to eat, but it does encourage families to eat healthier by making the healthy foods affordable.

SCgirl obviously didn't read the article in its entirety. The focus of the article is on families in rural areas who DON'T live on farms, who live in poverty, and who do NOT have the resources, ability, or ... whatever... to produce their own healthy foods on their own property. (Probably because they don't OWN any property and have never been taught how to farm or garden.)

This narrow-minded judgmental attitude that SCgirl shows is part of the problem. I live in rural Kentucky and see these people frequently. They are overweight with significant health problems and haven't the resources or motivation to do better. They see the cost of fresh vegetables versus the cost of veggies in a can and it is a no-brainer. The can is cheaper. They run out of bread and rather than run to the grocery, 8 miles away, they run to the HandyMart a mile down the road where they have white bread instead of wheat... pre-packaged meals instead of fresh choices... filling, high calorie snacks instead of fresh fruit and nuts.

SC girl should take her holier-than-thou attitude and some of her fresh vegetables and eggs to some of the neighbors a few miles down the road who DON'T have the resources she has... it isn't just the government's responsibility to take care of our brothers and sisters... its everyone's responsibility. Quitcher 'bitchin and do something about the problem.

Dear Mr. Demuth,
You must admit, these people are victims of predator convenience stores that
are driven by huge profits and are not selling non-toxic good foods. Though if a good
food grocery store was located near them and they still chose the poisins at the convenience store, then you have to chalk it up to ignorance, which unfortunatley is out there. No problem here with my governmnet helping to alleviate ignorance, for example they could start with our ignorant president.
I think you sound a bit ignorant in your response.

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.

I grew up in the mountains above the shenandoah valley- We lived 30 minutes from the nearest grocery store. A shopping trip to the local IGA was a weekly event, planned for in advance. We didn't have tons of money but we ate very healthy. My mom never bought junk- Each meal was planned. It was an effort on her part but she did the right thing for her family.
The article is just telling us these fat rural folk are just uneducated and/or lazy about making proper choices- period.