I’m sick as a dog and running a 101.3 fever with chills, so I haven’t been up to my normal energy levels, nor am I feeling as rational as I might like. But earlier my attention was drawn again to the so-called “obesity epidemic.” Yeah, it’s in quotes because although I may think that voluntary behavior cannot be considered in the same category as transmissble diseases, the fact is that government scientists call it that, so what I think is pretty much inconsequential.
Obesity is said to be a huge problem, and as I pointed out the other day, public policy experts are calling for overweight people to be stigmatized. Never mind that such stigmatization flies in the face of official policies, or that the stigma would fall heaviest on racial minorities.
But that’s old stuff. We are being ruled by emotional activists who cannot seem to make up their minds, so their whims are subject to change depending on how they feel.
What intrigued me today was the claim that I keep seeing over and over again, that a major reason poor people are fat is because regular food costs more than fast food.
It often costs money to eat healthily. Cheap calories tend to come in the form of fast food, candies, cakes, processed foods and the like. Other experts have postulated that poorer Americans tend to be more sedentary than their wealthier counterparts. If you’re worried about putting any food on the table or making next month’s rent, there may not be much in the way of disposable income or time to join or use a gym or health club.
I disagree completely. It costs me nothing to do my 120 pushups, my 40-50 chinups, or to run, and that (plus a reasonably heart-healthy diet) is how I keep more or less in shape. As to the idea that fast food is cheaper than regular food, this claim has been repeatedly debunked. Rather than quote from the piece, I thought I’d let the graphics speak for themselves:
Another claim the lefties like to make is that regular food is not available where poor people live. Not only is this not the case in most cities, but even in Detroit (where you would expect stores to have been abandoned), there are in fact full service grocery stores all over the place. This claim that they are not there was also debunked in detail at the Huffington Post.
Unfortunately, no amount of debunking will kill popular narratives that people want to believe, because such is the nature of the human beast. I certainly can’t say much that others haven’t.
But on the issue of fast food, I did stumble onto a fascinating factoid. Under the Obama administration, those EBT cards (you know, the electronic debit cards that have replaced food stamps are being increasingly allowed in the same evil fast food restaurants said to be responsible for the obesity epidemic!
I kid you not. Here’s a remarkable graphic from the piece about Detroit:
There has been opposition to this (largely unreported) new trend mainly among natural food types, and this article is downright angry in tone:
(NaturalNews) Soviet-style government food distribution is quickly becoming standard practice in the rapidly decaying United States of America, with more than 20 percent of Americans now participating in the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. And if the fast food industry gets its way, food stamps may soon cover buckets of fried chicken at KFC and Meximelts at Taco Bell.
Food stamp benefits have more than doubled within the past six years, skyrocketing from $28.5 billion in 2005 to $64.7 billion in 2010. With this rise came the addition of 53,000 newly eligible businesses as well, which included convenience stores, dollar discount stores, and even gas stations. And now the fast food industry wants a piece of the pie, too.
According to a recent report in USA Today, Louisville, Ky. based Yum! Brands, which owns Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silver restaurant, and Pizza Hut, is lobbying the federal government to permit SNAP enrollees to use food stamps at their restaurants. And they claim doing so will help prevent hunger.
But many in opposition are decrying the proposition as ridiculous, and a blatant misuse of public funds in support of junk foods rather than health foods.
This is almost comical. It would be downright funny but for the fact that the country is going broke, and the same people who are pushing fast food on the poor are also subjecting everyone else to a major ongoing national harangue.
So much as I try to be rational, rationality is wasted on people who believe that “Emotions are what really count in this world.”
If only there were a way to get them to just shut up.
Comments
4 responses to “Must they condemn what they also subsidize?”
Sure, it takes hours to cook those beans and rice, and the kids don’t want to eat them…
But who cares, when we can scold poor people for not making the choices we think they should?
(As for calories, um… 571 is a little low for an adult man for dinner, isn’t it?)
When I was just starting my second hitch in the AF, I was living in base housing with my 2-year old daughter, and my food budget (I swear) was $25 dollars every two weeks, for the two of us. (for food items, another $10 for sundries like disposable diapers) The kidlet had two meals a day at the day care center, and I made just about everything from scratch, otherwise – including bread and yoghurt. Lots of beans and rice, very little meat, and certainly no fast-foods. I’d finish out the end of the pay-period with a dollar or two in the bank account and some small change in my purse.
The graphic is, alas, not a valid comparison. If you’ll excuse the pun, you’re comparing apples to oranges (or Macs to rice).
First up is the question of beverages. Breaking the Mac meal into four separate servings exaggerates the price. A more appropriate comparison would be a 2-liter (perhaps 1-liter might be better) of soda, which would cost much less.
After that the Mac meal is prepared and served, while the other two meals are not. For a valid comparison, one would have to price each of those two sets of meals when purchased at a local eatery. I promise you it will cost more than $9.27 or $13.78.
Still the main point is fairly valid; we (at least I) buy fast food for the speed & convenience. I spend a lot less time grabbing a sausage muffin, hash brown & drink via drive thru than if I cooked & ate it at home.
Blaming this “epidemic” on fast food is just like blaming guns for murderers. As for buying fast food with EBT cards, I’m more concerned with the moochers who use them to buy expensive luxury meals such as lobster. At least a Big Mac is cheap. Compared to lobster. 🙂
Some other suggestions for easy-cooked stuff; buy a food steamer or rice cooker, then pick up some Knorr rice sides. Add water, some butter (or margarine) and thirty minutes later a meal. They cost $1 each with a Krogers card, and go well with Krogers brand fresh-frozen veggies. $1 for a 12-oz bag.
Ditto for Krogers Mac’n’cheese. If you want to get fancy, stir in 4 or 6 oz of shredded cheese plus a bag of those veggies (peas in this case) and you have a very nice casserole.
Buying Krogers brands instead of name brands saves me money as well. About the only thing I don’t like are their snacks, which is no tragedy.
Sigvald
Sure, it takes hours to cook those beans and rice, and the kids don’t want to eat them…
With a pressure cooker, it doesn’t take that long. Soak the beans overnight.
With the electric Presto pressure cooker I have, it takes 20 minutes to get up to pressure, and then 3 minutes of cooking at pressure to cook the beans. Turn off the power. The rice could be cooked at the same time in the pressure cooker.
There are hundreds of millions of kids in Latin America who get buy just fine on rice and beans, or tortillas and beans. Over the years I have eaten quite a lot of rice and beans. I have yet to see any kid who wouldn’t eat rice and beans, or tortillas and beans.
But who cares, when we can scold poor people for not making the choices we think they should?
That is rather patronizing. Rice and beans have been the choice of many poor people over the centuries because they provide good nutritional value.
Certainly rice and beans are tastier with some seasoning. Garlic, dried or fresh chilies, spices, etc. The Cajuns do red beans and rice rather well.
Periodically there are some ignorant Congresscritters or do-gooders who complain that it is not possible to eat well on the $4-5/day that food stamps provide. If you cook your own food, it is very easy to eat very well at or below that expenditure.
I suppose it is asking too much to expect ordinary people to know how to cook. Only the one percenters know how to cook- a skill taught only in the Ivy League- and it is elitist to expect the rest of us to know how to cook. Wait- don’t the one percent have their own personal cooks – or eat out all the time? 🙂