I always find it strange when people try to argue to obesity is not a feature of poverty in developed nations despite the huge literature investigating the topic and always coming to the same conclusion.
Well don’t worry the Torry governor are solving this obesity crisis with its new policy….
“No money, no choice”
This radical new plan will force the poor to decide between heating and food this winter, ready for next summer and show off that size 0 beach body…
Is it any surprise when healthy food costs more?
I think it’s a myth that junk food is cheaper than healthier options. You can batch cook healthier food for cheaper. However lots of other things play into it. Like poorer people not having access to cooking materials, not being able to afford electricity/gas. Being too exhausted and worn down compared to better off people etc. Lots of social reasons. And fast food places deliberately target poorer areas
Speaking as someone who eats healthily and isn’t obese I still think its hugely unfair that an entire aspect of the economy is the unregulated large scale food corporations that make accessibility to high sugar, low nutrient snacks and treats that take up several aisles in super markets, they just make whatever they want cashing in on ruining the health of millions. Barring tobacco as the deadliest plant the sugar cane closely follows.
Though self control is imperative to eating better I don’t blame people for finding themselves in a negative feedback loop choosing their favourite dopamine trigger especially when times are as tough as they are. Sugar is addictive and they know it is. Easier to create a product that preys on this rather than something productive and helpful.
If we are wanting to move forward we shouldn’t let the extreme end of capatlism sell products designed to be as ridiculously addictive as possible, their business models highlights that they prefer profit over the health of their consumer. An ideal soceity would be one that promoted health and good nutrition.
Being stressed, sleep deprived, physically exhausted leads to poor food choices.
Ask any parent of a poor sleeping newborn what their diet is like. When I was in that situation, the shocking thing wasn’t that I didn’t have time to cook “good” food. It was that I only desired “crap” food, very strong desire too. High calorie, high fat/sugar etc. It was extremely eye opening to me.
Truly believe kids should do for more PE in school. Literally a lesson a day. Build people into the habit of getting fit.
I think stress and general state of mind play into this alot, speaking ss a person who was obese, lost all the weight then put it back on.
Personally I find it works out around the same cost to either buy fresh ingredients and make healthy meals as it does to just buy cheap frozen food.
Its all down to the effort in making the food.
When I was working retail I was stressy and depressy and ate nothing but fast food and frozen easy meals, started delivery driving where I was happy and all of a sudeen I had the energy to start eating healthy meals….now im a bus driver and after a long day I just cant be arsed anymore. Id rather just yeet a pizza in the oven and chill for the 9 or 10 hours I have before I go back and do it all again.
Good thatour previous Chancellor took funding from the poorer areas and gave to the icher right?
As I’m budgeting more and more I’ve found it really is easier to pack in the calories with cheap, nutrient-light foods.
Dirt cheap oats for breakfast as an example, works out at like 8p per breakfast.
Working hard to throw in cheaper whole foods like carrots and apples as snacks to counteract the problem.
As always it’s a mixture of poor decision-making (perhaps stemming from poor education and role models), and economic pressure.
Edit: Among other factors of course. I’m really not blaming people for thier own hardship here.
I find it interesting that the tools needed to eat a healthy diet are freely available nowadays (there are free recipes online for cheap meals via fresh foods, there are free calorie tracker apps the tell you which nutrients you need) – shouldn’t the proliferation of such free tools have enabled everyone to make better health decisions?
There’s a whole area of research on the impact of stress on cortisol levels which I wish came into these discussions too. If you have high stress, low income, time poor, you’re going to gain weight more easily and also have limited time to think of fixing that through nutrition. It’s a very sad set of patterns.
I just don’t get how vegetables can be more expensive than crap processed/junk food. It’s bullshit. I’ve been a vegetarian for 90% off my life, I buy fruit and veg all the time and it’s the cheapest part of my grocery shop. I wonder what the outlier is on my receipt;
It’s time that’s the cause not monetary poverty. Being either time poor, skill poor, or just plain lazy are the reasons why people eat shit food. I was a student and lived on ready meals, because I was lazy. It was expensive and I gained a stone in a year.
Because they can’t afford fresh food. Especially in todays financial climate.
Maybe a tangent, but something i’ve noticed recently. Sweets (haribo especially) never goes up in price, but pasta has basically doubled. All my veg is a good chunk more expensive now but haribo has been a quid or less for ages. Surely they are impacted by inflation too, but its all the basics that are getting slapped way harder.
I guess the basics have been kept cheap to bring in customers but i don’t get how sweets are basically unaffected.
This shouldn’t be shocking. Income inequality impacts food health in a number of ways. Middle income families are more able to support stay at home mothers or fathers who can dedicate the necessary time to making healthy meals, or at least keep them on part time. Culinary skills are also cut across class lines, with many working class families relying on pre-made, heavily processed foods in that they both cost less and save time. It’s cheaper and faster to make a meal with some cheap frozen chicken nuggets than to make a meal with fresh chicken breasts.
And this is to say nothing of the kinds of problems in mental health those in poverty face, and the impact on diet that that can have.
This correlation has been known about for decades. It’s as though people suddenly wake up when there is a crisis rather than preventing them in the first place.
I see a lot of debate about the cost of frozen Vs fresh food, but think about this:
You live paycheck to paycheck, if cost was the same, would you prefer a fridge full of fresh food that will be expired by next week, or would you rather stock your freezer?
The psychology of food scarcity is overlooked, even if fruits and vegetables are cheap, they’re not dependable and won’t last
Fatty unhealthy food is a lot cheaper as well which shouldn’t that shit be reversed. Healthy food should be cheap
Likely down to education, predatory junk food advertising, money, and stress.
The state of health in the UK is dismal. It’s one of many areas that are deeply disappointing in this country because we could be doing so incredibly much better with good governance and a more positive culture.
I believe we should all be working no more than 20 hours a week and a culture of self care (exercise, rest, good food, etc) in free time should be strongly promoted.
Healthier food generally does cost a bit more, so it is a barrier, but there’s also a level of personal responsibility parents have to ensure their child gets enough exercise and has a reasonable diet. The government can certainly do more to readdress the balance between cost of healthy and unhealthy food. Families can also educate themselves to make better life choices, especially the parents. Having an obese, young child isn’t acceptable and is bordering on abusive.
People who is arguing cheap food vs “healthy food” is looking in the wrong direction. The true reason is the time and money cost of entertainment or leisure is way too high for the poor. Ask a person that earn low what they would do in the weekend, most will answer you “just chill at home and order pizza maybe”. And takeaway isn’t exactly cheap is it? These people works 12 hours a day and you cannot expect them to have any free time to plan any outdoor activities. They are physically and mentally tired, unlike the riches who only work 2 hours a day, if at all.
One thing that I don’t often see mentioned are the issues you have if you have to live in a shared house.
If your housemates don’t bother cleaning up after themselves, take their expired food out of the fridge etc your food goes off quicker. Or you’ll come back after a busy day to no clean pots and pans. There’s less room to store food, especially if the freezer gets rammed and no one but you ever defrosts it either. Some people even get people using their food and not replacing it (thankfully that’s never happened to me though).
Yes, you can talk to people but it doesn’t reliably solve the issue a lot of the time.
Not to mention if you don’t like your housemates, you’re not going to be wanting to spend much time in the kitchen in the first place.
These comments… always a excuse. Some people just lack self control, and no that’s not a hot new mental illness.
Why people shouldn’t take statistics as fact: plentyof rich folk around my area are lumps of lard. Some are athletic and some are average.
But… hunger and poverty.
Well yeah. For the price of four apples I could buy two frozen pizzas. Food prices are a disgrace. It’s expensive to eat remotely healthy.
Because shopping in Iceland is soooo healthy.. Food manufacturers are not trying do do anyone any favours we need to go back to home economics at school teach cooking and basic health.
If it’s cheap and prepared it’s like that for a reason.
As a trained chef it sometimes amazes me how little people understand what they consume.
Queue the Tories launching an investigation into how they have enough money left to keep the weight on.
In Africa it’s the other way round.
Stop eating the rich
[deleted]
Obesity is a feature of life for both rich and poor, but the rich are in a better financial position to deal with it.
If you have the money you can have private bariatric surgery long before you hit the NHS criteria.
Liposuction, personal trainers, weightloss camps/health spa stays, and the opportunity to spend time recovering all abound for those who can pay.
Then there are the countless social opportunities that come with having money/being rich like being able to have your own pool, tennis court, home gym, work out room, Yoga shrine.
The rich dig in to the doughnuts just as much as the poor but they are far better placed in society to be able to negate the results.
Anna Wintor begins every day by getting up between 4 and 5 am and playing a game of Tennis.
Me, I make a cup of tea and if its a Thursday put the bins out.
Higher stress
Food banks working then!😄
How can this be!?!?!?!?!
A bag of pasta is only 32p!!!!!!
Why are they eating more pasta when they have less money!?!?!????
The government ought to just hand out bland and tasteless salad dishes laced with small dose protein pills for those on a low economic income, set the price of normal food to 10000x more expensive than what they currently are, and force those same people to spend 3 hours per day running on a giant hamster wheel. I’m sure that’ll solve the problem of poor people being fat in no time(!)
37 comments
I always find it strange when people try to argue to obesity is not a feature of poverty in developed nations despite the huge literature investigating the topic and always coming to the same conclusion.
Well don’t worry the Torry governor are solving this obesity crisis with its new policy….
“No money, no choice”
This radical new plan will force the poor to decide between heating and food this winter, ready for next summer and show off that size 0 beach body…
Is it any surprise when healthy food costs more?
I think it’s a myth that junk food is cheaper than healthier options. You can batch cook healthier food for cheaper. However lots of other things play into it. Like poorer people not having access to cooking materials, not being able to afford electricity/gas. Being too exhausted and worn down compared to better off people etc. Lots of social reasons. And fast food places deliberately target poorer areas
Speaking as someone who eats healthily and isn’t obese I still think its hugely unfair that an entire aspect of the economy is the unregulated large scale food corporations that make accessibility to high sugar, low nutrient snacks and treats that take up several aisles in super markets, they just make whatever they want cashing in on ruining the health of millions. Barring tobacco as the deadliest plant the sugar cane closely follows.
Though self control is imperative to eating better I don’t blame people for finding themselves in a negative feedback loop choosing their favourite dopamine trigger especially when times are as tough as they are. Sugar is addictive and they know it is. Easier to create a product that preys on this rather than something productive and helpful.
If we are wanting to move forward we shouldn’t let the extreme end of capatlism sell products designed to be as ridiculously addictive as possible, their business models highlights that they prefer profit over the health of their consumer. An ideal soceity would be one that promoted health and good nutrition.
Being stressed, sleep deprived, physically exhausted leads to poor food choices.
Ask any parent of a poor sleeping newborn what their diet is like. When I was in that situation, the shocking thing wasn’t that I didn’t have time to cook “good” food. It was that I only desired “crap” food, very strong desire too. High calorie, high fat/sugar etc. It was extremely eye opening to me.
Truly believe kids should do for more PE in school. Literally a lesson a day. Build people into the habit of getting fit.
I think stress and general state of mind play into this alot, speaking ss a person who was obese, lost all the weight then put it back on.
Personally I find it works out around the same cost to either buy fresh ingredients and make healthy meals as it does to just buy cheap frozen food.
Its all down to the effort in making the food.
When I was working retail I was stressy and depressy and ate nothing but fast food and frozen easy meals, started delivery driving where I was happy and all of a sudeen I had the energy to start eating healthy meals….now im a bus driver and after a long day I just cant be arsed anymore. Id rather just yeet a pizza in the oven and chill for the 9 or 10 hours I have before I go back and do it all again.
Good thatour previous Chancellor took funding from the poorer areas and gave to the icher right?
As I’m budgeting more and more I’ve found it really is easier to pack in the calories with cheap, nutrient-light foods.
Dirt cheap oats for breakfast as an example, works out at like 8p per breakfast.
Working hard to throw in cheaper whole foods like carrots and apples as snacks to counteract the problem.
As always it’s a mixture of poor decision-making (perhaps stemming from poor education and role models), and economic pressure.
Edit: Among other factors of course. I’m really not blaming people for thier own hardship here.
I find it interesting that the tools needed to eat a healthy diet are freely available nowadays (there are free recipes online for cheap meals via fresh foods, there are free calorie tracker apps the tell you which nutrients you need) – shouldn’t the proliferation of such free tools have enabled everyone to make better health decisions?
There’s a whole area of research on the impact of stress on cortisol levels which I wish came into these discussions too. If you have high stress, low income, time poor, you’re going to gain weight more easily and also have limited time to think of fixing that through nutrition. It’s a very sad set of patterns.
I just don’t get how vegetables can be more expensive than crap processed/junk food. It’s bullshit. I’ve been a vegetarian for 90% off my life, I buy fruit and veg all the time and it’s the cheapest part of my grocery shop. I wonder what the outlier is on my receipt;
* 2 onions – £0.30
* 1 broccoli – £0.65
* 6 bananas – £0.86
* 4 large carrots – £0.36
* 1 parsnip – £0.36
* 2.5kg of potatoes – £1.59
* 1 cabbage – £0.59
* 1 pizza – £2.75
It’s time that’s the cause not monetary poverty. Being either time poor, skill poor, or just plain lazy are the reasons why people eat shit food. I was a student and lived on ready meals, because I was lazy. It was expensive and I gained a stone in a year.
Because they can’t afford fresh food. Especially in todays financial climate.
Maybe a tangent, but something i’ve noticed recently. Sweets (haribo especially) never goes up in price, but pasta has basically doubled. All my veg is a good chunk more expensive now but haribo has been a quid or less for ages. Surely they are impacted by inflation too, but its all the basics that are getting slapped way harder.
I guess the basics have been kept cheap to bring in customers but i don’t get how sweets are basically unaffected.
This shouldn’t be shocking. Income inequality impacts food health in a number of ways. Middle income families are more able to support stay at home mothers or fathers who can dedicate the necessary time to making healthy meals, or at least keep them on part time. Culinary skills are also cut across class lines, with many working class families relying on pre-made, heavily processed foods in that they both cost less and save time. It’s cheaper and faster to make a meal with some cheap frozen chicken nuggets than to make a meal with fresh chicken breasts.
And this is to say nothing of the kinds of problems in mental health those in poverty face, and the impact on diet that that can have.
This correlation has been known about for decades. It’s as though people suddenly wake up when there is a crisis rather than preventing them in the first place.
I see a lot of debate about the cost of frozen Vs fresh food, but think about this:
You live paycheck to paycheck, if cost was the same, would you prefer a fridge full of fresh food that will be expired by next week, or would you rather stock your freezer?
The psychology of food scarcity is overlooked, even if fruits and vegetables are cheap, they’re not dependable and won’t last
Fatty unhealthy food is a lot cheaper as well which shouldn’t that shit be reversed. Healthy food should be cheap
Likely down to education, predatory junk food advertising, money, and stress.
The state of health in the UK is dismal. It’s one of many areas that are deeply disappointing in this country because we could be doing so incredibly much better with good governance and a more positive culture.
I believe we should all be working no more than 20 hours a week and a culture of self care (exercise, rest, good food, etc) in free time should be strongly promoted.
Healthier food generally does cost a bit more, so it is a barrier, but there’s also a level of personal responsibility parents have to ensure their child gets enough exercise and has a reasonable diet. The government can certainly do more to readdress the balance between cost of healthy and unhealthy food. Families can also educate themselves to make better life choices, especially the parents. Having an obese, young child isn’t acceptable and is bordering on abusive.
People who is arguing cheap food vs “healthy food” is looking in the wrong direction. The true reason is the time and money cost of entertainment or leisure is way too high for the poor. Ask a person that earn low what they would do in the weekend, most will answer you “just chill at home and order pizza maybe”. And takeaway isn’t exactly cheap is it? These people works 12 hours a day and you cannot expect them to have any free time to plan any outdoor activities. They are physically and mentally tired, unlike the riches who only work 2 hours a day, if at all.
One thing that I don’t often see mentioned are the issues you have if you have to live in a shared house.
If your housemates don’t bother cleaning up after themselves, take their expired food out of the fridge etc your food goes off quicker. Or you’ll come back after a busy day to no clean pots and pans. There’s less room to store food, especially if the freezer gets rammed and no one but you ever defrosts it either. Some people even get people using their food and not replacing it (thankfully that’s never happened to me though).
Yes, you can talk to people but it doesn’t reliably solve the issue a lot of the time.
Not to mention if you don’t like your housemates, you’re not going to be wanting to spend much time in the kitchen in the first place.
These comments… always a excuse. Some people just lack self control, and no that’s not a hot new mental illness.
Why people shouldn’t take statistics as fact: plentyof rich folk around my area are lumps of lard. Some are athletic and some are average.
But… hunger and poverty.
Well yeah. For the price of four apples I could buy two frozen pizzas. Food prices are a disgrace. It’s expensive to eat remotely healthy.
Because shopping in Iceland is soooo healthy.. Food manufacturers are not trying do do anyone any favours we need to go back to home economics at school teach cooking and basic health.
If it’s cheap and prepared it’s like that for a reason.
As a trained chef it sometimes amazes me how little people understand what they consume.
Queue the Tories launching an investigation into how they have enough money left to keep the weight on.
In Africa it’s the other way round.
Stop eating the rich
[deleted]
Obesity is a feature of life for both rich and poor, but the rich are in a better financial position to deal with it.
If you have the money you can have private bariatric surgery long before you hit the NHS criteria.
Liposuction, personal trainers, weightloss camps/health spa stays, and the opportunity to spend time recovering all abound for those who can pay.
Then there are the countless social opportunities that come with having money/being rich like being able to have your own pool, tennis court, home gym, work out room, Yoga shrine.
The rich dig in to the doughnuts just as much as the poor but they are far better placed in society to be able to negate the results.
Anna Wintor begins every day by getting up between 4 and 5 am and playing a game of Tennis.
Me, I make a cup of tea and if its a Thursday put the bins out.
Higher stress
Food banks working then!😄
How can this be!?!?!?!?!
A bag of pasta is only 32p!!!!!!
Why are they eating more pasta when they have less money!?!?!????
The government ought to just hand out bland and tasteless salad dishes laced with small dose protein pills for those on a low economic income, set the price of normal food to 10000x more expensive than what they currently are, and force those same people to spend 3 hours per day running on a giant hamster wheel. I’m sure that’ll solve the problem of poor people being fat in no time(!)