What is Digg?153 Comments
- ZennZero, on 10/12/2007, -7/+161It is a bigger problem for the poor. Sure, I can afford to buy organic or natural foods (and usually I do), but what about the single mother living off food stamps? In the US, the poor are more likely to be overweight than the financially affluent, and it is due (in part) to dirt-cheap unhealthy, often heavily processed foods.
- AJH16, on 10/12/2007, -8/+121I think the point was that you don't have any really good options in the US because of how even the healthy items are prepared. Don't get me wrong, I don't really give a crap because it is certainly more than possible to maintain a healthy lifestyle in the US and I don't buy in to all the health food hog wash that is flying around, but if a tomato in the US provides less nutrition and more fat, it does make it more difficult to eat healthy.
- roosterjm2k2, on 10/12/2007, -24/+82dweeb and wbgo
For the record, i dugg you up, though it seems the popular "im not responsible for my own actions" digg crew it out to bury you, oh well, I tried...
Im a big guy, i weigh around 300 lbs...you know why I do? Because I like steak and potatoes, and fried southern food. I excersise (good blood pressure, good blood sugar, good cholesterol ... healthy for the most part aside from the weight itself). I dont blame anyone for my size. Im a product of my own habits, reaping the seeds ive sewn.
It cracks me up, as a big guy, to hear the stupid ***** other fat guys/ladies say about their weight ... Ok, I'll give you the fact that -some- of it is genetics...and sometimes (even slightly in my case, but I still don't use it as an excuse) low thyroid activitiy can cause weight gain/more difficult weight loss/lower metabolism. But to hear some people's excuses ... just cracks me up. - Cerebral, on 10/12/2007, -5/+59I've had this opinion for years. Anyone can see what this article is describing. Go and take a look. Even if you compare the two items that are the same but one is "Low Fat" then it costs (in some cases) double than the other. Look at the Little Debbie portion of the grocery store, you can purchase one box (12ct.) of fudge rounds for $1.09 and you can't even buy 2 apples for $1.09 for the most part. Obviously there is a problem with this and I've always said that whoever is the first company that can do low fat for the same price as the bad stuff will win the Fat Wars and force a change in the market. I just never knew it had to do with government subsidies.
The issues (aside from the obvious that people need to eat less and exercise more) is the cost of healthy food, time and the cost of unhealthy food. The first one has already been covered however when I refer to the cost of unhealthy food I am referring to the cost of fast food and the like. Unhealthy food costs combined with time are two of the things that is really pushing the consumers over the edge. For instance, as this article points out, lower income families will end up having to purchase the lower costing (crap) food out of a necessity. Well generally people that are lower income often have both parents working and do not have a lot of time at home for home cooking (which often is a healthier choice) so they go to McDonald's and the like to grab a couple of items off of the $1 menu. Not only that but when the cost of purchasing a value meal from McDonald's is about the same cost of a home cooked meal then you run into issues with time again. I know there have been times where I have weighed the costs of each and after a long day at work I just didn't feel like cooking anything and having to deal with the cleanup of said items taking up even more of the precious time at home (essentially 5 minutes for the drive-thru or about 2 hours for cooking).
It's just really hard in this country in this time to eat healthy if on a budget or strapped for time. The system is not made for that kind of thing. - roosterjm2k2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+42cerebral
farmer's market. All that needs to be said.
When you buy from a grocery store you are ...
Paying the famer (with profit)
Paying the original distributer (what he paid the farmer, plus profit)
Paying the shipping company (cost of operation of truck + fuel + profit)
Paying the store (all of the above + store operating costs, + profit)
Or, you can buy direct from the farmer (with profit of course) but for much less than in the stores...and even in big cities like new york, farmers markets arent generally too far away... - grogan, on 10/12/2007, -7/+48Here's the real "secret" to staying fit:
Don't take in more energy through food than you expend in your daily life.
It's really that simple. - catfish182, on 10/12/2007, -0/+39I agree and disagree with you. At one point i was having trouble meeting my monthly bills so we would have to eat what we could afford and go to food pantry's. I shudder every time i think of the crap that we ate during that time but with not having enough money we didn't have any other real way.
during that time we did exercise and go outside (I wasn't on digg at that time) so it wasn't horrible on us all the time.
Now that things are better we are eating a lot better BUT we now have to exercise more and that is a challenge.
So i agree but remind you that when you have to decide keeping the lights on or eating healthy lights usually wins. - Cerebral, on 10/12/2007, -3/+40@Mike
That is not true. The price of fruits and vegetables are WAY to much in today's society. I find it very hard to purchase some carrots that will only last a couple of days when I can go purchase a buy one get one free bag of Oreos that will last me a couple of weeks in the same snacking manner. You cannot argue that there is not a price difference. Also think about parents who are purchasing for their children in the same manner as well. Price is a big deal and hopefully companies can work on this even though it may not be as lucrative for them. - Goosemaster, on 10/12/2007, -3/+34This applies to no one here. If you have broadband, just internet, dialup, or hell, even a computer, you probably are not affected by this.
The true victims of this are working or lower-class families that depend on WIC or Food Stamps. NPR recently had a story on a silimar situation where Eggs and Dairy were more amicable to their monthly allotments compared with fresh fruits and vegetables.
I bet none of you think about how you are going to stretch your stamps at your neighborhood Whole Foods or Harris Teeter...I sure as hell don't ( I'm being honest now...)
The fact is that farmers get subsidies, which you can argue about all day, but in addition, lower class familes, no even those bordering poverty, have it tough. - 40-Dan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+26The author of this article, Michael Pollan, has also written an extremely interesting book on the subject of food in America. It's called "The Omnivore's Dilemma," and I highly recommend it.
- scorchedearth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25High fructose corn syrup is not good for you.
It interrupts the signal from your stomach to your brain saying that your stomach is full - thus inducing you to eat more. Anytime, I've eaten food with that crap recently, I have found myself eating more and then getting heartburn as a result. Hence, I have managed to avoid it entirely recently.
It is garbage and ought to be eliminated. If it weren't for all of those subsidies to corporate farms, no one would have ever bothered using this.
Try drinking soda in Europe - that made with sugar. It's much better.
I don't drink soda in the US anymore for that simple reason. - byronm, on 10/12/2007, -2/+25The sad part is the farm system isn't even awashed in real surgars!!! I'd take sugar as in sugar cane all day long over that dealy corn syrup that ruined our sodas over the past 25 years!
- SteelChicken, on 10/12/2007, -6/+29Educate yourself and buy/eat healthy food. None of this knowledge is arcane or hidden.
- dweeb79, on 10/12/2007, -98/+120How typical, its better to blame everyone else rather then point the finger at your own fat ass.
- medeshago, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22Here in Chile, you pay half a dollar for a twinkie and half a dollar for 2.2 pounds of apples, five zuccinis for less than a dollar, etc.
- quickjack, on 10/12/2007, -8/+29Inexpensive Healthy Alternatives:
Tuna fish less than $1/can
Whole Shell Peanuts $1-$2/bag
Water - Free
Cans of Soup $1-$2
Rice/Pasta $2-$3/ bag
Milk $2/gallon - the6thReplicant, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22Gee, there are so many smart people here on digg with there "just eat healthy" and "I lost weight" blah blah. I guess none of you read one of the best articles I've seen in a while.
See this is it: you have a family of 3 and you need to feed them on 70 dollars a week. Here you go. Try and make the food interesting. Make sure there's enough stuff there so your kids don't get picked on for having tuna 5 days a week. Try and see how easy it is to go to the supermarkets without your kids crying every time they pass the rows and rows of snacks that they see advertised by the multi-billion dollar companies on TV and even right in their schools.
This is one of *the* most serious issues in the US (and world) today: who controls what we eat. The current industry is running on barely minimal profits because the food-industry buy their produce through a few middle companies. A hour-glass of companies where on one side they can maximise their profit because there raw ingredients cost so little, while on the other side the producers can only sell to a few, mostly one, company (eg beef market).
How long do you think it is before there is simply one company running the whole show and absolutely *no* competition?
Actually there a lot of issues here - not just why we're fat.
Read the book by the author of the piece and also Fast Food Nation. They're a good start to seeing how the agri-business is run.
As a past chef I am absolutely stunned at what we're doing to the food we put into our bodies, how the economies of scale are made so that's it economical to *fly* apples from New Zealand to Europe and yet I can't buy local apples since they're in the deep freeze because they can't sell them in season without losing profit.
Is this healthy? - glmory, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21"Go to a farmers market...and guess what, cheap as hell..."
That chicken I bought at the farmers market was about 3 dollars a pound. I saw one the same day in the store for 79 cents a pound. Of course the one was organic, the other not(and therefore the government paid the corn farmer that fed it), but often the farmers market isn't a whole heck of a lot cheaper.
"Grow your own *****' fruit and vegetables."
I realize this is trolling, but ill bite. Land prices make this a bad idea for anyone who does not have the space already. Of course replacing your lawn if you do have one is probably a good idea.
As for the main issue at hand. Why are we paying billions of dollars to subsidize feedlot beef, twinkies, and ramen noodles, and almost nothing subsidising carrots, onions, grassfed beef, and apples? This is the height of government waste, and really needs to be altered quickly. While I understand the argument that some people will choose more expensive junk food, over cheaper fruits and vegetables. The tax payer should never pay to support those people. - JrGhoull, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16you know, basically all the junk food in america is made from like...4 basic crops, and a bunch of chemicals. candy for instance isnt made using sugar, its made sugar thats found in corn. why? because the sugar in corn can be made alot cheaper than regular sugar, plus, they can preserve corn alot longer/better than they can sugar. this is a huge problem, because if any sort of "plant disease" comes around that can kill off the specific types of crops that we grow, than we're pretty ***** (rest assured though, scientist are working very hard to prevent anything like that from happening). our diet used to consist of all sorts of different types of fruits, grains, and vegitables...and now what? around 4 basic crops, and a bunch of chemicals for taste? this is all because of businesses like mcdonalds that want a specific type of corn, poptatoe, etc. the farmers have to grow what they are told to by mcdonalds and companies like mcdonalds or else they'll go bankrupt (the small farmer is relied upon by a small degree by businesses i believe).
- davesbrain, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16What's ironic is that as little as a hundred years ago it was a sign of great wealth to be obese and pale, while it was a sign of poverty to be lean and tan, hence the derogatory term "red-neck." Today, however, it is a sign of wealth and leisure to be lean and tan, while it is a sign of poverty to be obese and pale.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+20"Here's the real "secret" to staying fit:
Don't take in more energy through food than you expend in your daily life.
It's really that simple."
Your voodoo crazy talk has no place on the tubes of the interweb. - MindStalker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15I've always been in the bandwagon of fix your own damn problems.
BUT! When our government is
1) Having to foot the cost of overweight unhealthy population.
2) Providing food subsidies that encourage 1)
Something is wrong. And possibly needs fixing. This isn't about blaming the government for the fact that I am fat, its about the government wasting our tax dollars to encourage more tax dollar wastage. - sovereign3, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15I'm sure your congressman (or woman) is far more interested in the dollars being sent to their campaign by Monsanto, Sysco, et. al. and not some e-mail news clipping from you.
- davesbrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14@mike17032
The problem with these subsidies is that they go predominantly to huge corporate farms, and not the little mom & pop farms we all like to think of when we hear about the government Farm Bill. If you feel safe eating GMO food, have at it, but I think everything should be clearly labeled so those people who wish to abstain from consuming GMO products can do so without worry. Cane sugar is grown in Florida and is also highly subsidized by our government, it's just the corn syrup is far cheaper and abundant. - codesuidae, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15"Ok, I'll give you the fact that -some- of it is genetics...and sometimes (even slightly in my case, but I still don't use it as an excuse) low thyroid activitiy can cause weight gain/more difficult weight loss/lower metabolism"
Add to that that recent research shows that some people's gut bacteria are more efficient at extracting calories from food, so they can eat the same quantities of the same foods as others and they will be more likely to gain weight.
As for eating local in the US, check out http://www.localharvest.org/ they provide a national map of farmers markets as well as local farms and coops that you can use. I was surprised at how many are available. - GarySZ, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14"Meets/poultry/milk are so packed with hormones girls are growing up with boobs before they should."
So I'm NOT crazy when I think they look like they have 'em bigger and sooner than when I was a kid? - shablinky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13You can't compare life expectancy in this argument. You have to look at how people are dying. No one dies from "Oregon Trail" style diseases anymore. It's all heart attacks and cancer which (if you buy into hippie food science) is the argument here.
- amahler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Here's both a digg and a reply to support your comment. Read this book, people... it's pretty stunning.
- sovereign3, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Fruit that comes in cans are packed with the very products that benefit heavily from farming subsidies; they contain HFCS and other preservatives. They aren't nearly as wholesome as fresher alternatives. The same goes for vegetables in a can. They are cheaper because they contain a high amount of preservatives, especially sodium, and probably contain HFCS or some other derivative of processed corn.
I'm not sure where you buy your Twinkies, but I do doubt they're very expensive. Especially when put in a relative sense. Twinkies are far cheaper than say, purchasing flour, sugar, eggs, cream, and other products and producing your Twinkies sans preservatives and processed sugars. If you're relatively poorer, buying snacks such as Twinkies is far more economical than purchasing apples for snacks because gram for gram Twinkies provide more calories. - evcarforum, on 10/12/2007, -0/+122 billion dollars to iowa to support their corn and soy harvest. nice...thats more than they spend on education
- darkstar949, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11@mike17032 - HFCS is safe, however, it contains enzymes that block the production of the stomachs "I'm full" enzyme so you are likely to eat more than is actually needed. Plus the body breaks down fructose and other sugars before it does the complex carbohydrates that healthier for your body and provide longer term energy than sugars.
- roosterjm2k2, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14Actually brlittle, you're the jackass...
Go to a farmers market...and guess what, cheap as hell...
Even on a low low low budget...and whats even better, get to know the people at the farmers market...most of them are good people, and if they know your face, and know that you're on hard times, they will likely push a little more your way for no extra cash... - darkstar949, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10@brlittle - Not true, it just requires some more careful planning and a willingness likely eat a lot of the same foods instead of a varied diet. Case and point would be the various red beans and rice or gumbo recipes that are cheap to make, make a lot, and the recipes can be modified to include healthy food.
- codesuidae, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I live in Nebraska, my congressman is more interested in sending corn to all these corn ethanol plants they are building. Unfortunately, they don't care to provide any incentives to reduce the amount of fuel we think we need.
- codesuidae, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9$280 to feed a family of 3 isn't bad, but I feed a family of 7 on about $300 a month (about 75 a week) with no trouble and no complaints. I could easily chop another 50 out of that by getting rid of the processed snacks, sodas and drink boxes.
Generally pancakes, eggs, oatmeal or cream of wheat for breakfast, sack lunches (sandwiches or cheese on flour tortillas, a couple of cookies and maybe a water bottle), then either a simple one-course dinner, or something more elaborate. Plenty of dried beans and rice, plus fresh veggies and fruit. $5 worth of 15 bean soup with fresh veggies easily provides 16 servings. Add fresh bread from the bread maker, a good dessert or something else to change it up and it really isn't hard to keep things from being boring.
Also, make mealtimes about more than just eating the food. Give each person a job in meal prep and cleanup, make the meal at least as much about socializing as it is about eating food. Start a small herb garden (most herbs are quite happy in window boxes or small pots) and make tending, harvesting and preparing herbs part of the event. This is great for kids because it's much more interesting to grow and harvest a bit of your own food than it is to shake it out of a bottle. I'm starting a vegetable garden this year, and the kids are quite interested in keeping track of the vegetables and getting to eat the stuff they grew, plus it saves a bit of cash on veggies (provided you compost/verimpost your waste rather than doing soil maintenance with commercial chemicals).
Also supplement your meals with food from local growers, farmers market and road-side stands. The food is generally very good and cheaper than the store. You can find local producers using websites like http://www.localharvest.org/ - ICSU, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Farm subsidies are bad for economy inside your country and for the world as a whole and for your health.
Too bad economics is not in every high school's curriculum so people would understand this instead of accepting lies from politicians talking about saving "poor" farmers all the time.
Evolution of man:
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/887/obesitydiabetespage04ex3.jpg - byronm, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13Some of it is.. in a day an age where we can't even label our foods correctly its hard to make the best distinctions. We still fight to find out if our fruits/veggies/produces we're genetically modified. Meets/poultry/milk are so packed with hormones girls are growing up with boobs before they should. The food problems we face as our country aren't necessarily because of the poor choices but the fact food is marketing/hyped and controlled by so few. Its ironic that our food supply is controlled by the very same people who control our oil supply since the two are highly tied together from seed companies to fertilizer producers and those whoare patenting away our rights to eat goold ol' healthy foods as mother nature meant it to be.
our food system is not only pathetic, its downright scary. As usually you can find the bush administration cronies in the middle of it. Lots of great documentaries on farmers being pushed into patented crops and tax payers fitting the bill for it and people questioning the integrity of it but our farmers being under gag orders from talking about it.
Needless to save i shop local markets for what i can't grow myself and i've learned to be a decent gardner and cook and rely less upon corporate america mass produced chemical agents err "foods" - sovereign3, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9The current trend suggests otherwise. Baby boomers may be living as long-- even, longer-- than their parents, but they are facing health consequences that their parents did not face. It could possibly be attributed to lifestyle and dietary differences.
Also, the rampant rise in childhood obesity and inactivity certainly does not bode well for children's life expectancy in the future. - sovereign3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Actually the reverse is true.
Agronomics is a peculiar science. The farm subsidies benefits large-scale farming operations because farming is hardly a profitable business today. The more farmers grow, the more they can sell and thus attempt to increase profits. While this makes sense from a conventional economic sense, in farming economics it is a contradiction. The greater the supply, the lower the selling price for farmed products, and the more farmers must produce. It creates an interminable cycle of produce more, sell for less, produce for more... Small-scale farming operations struggle to keep up because they're incapable of keeping up with the the huge farming operations and are at a huge disadvantage. - kelbear, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8It is indeed quite a bit more to eat healthy. My weekly grocery bill pretty much doubled. It's totally worth it, but I can easily see why it'd be a problem for folks on a tighter budget. I'm only buying food for one person too.
Oh, and Rold Gold Honey Wheat Twisted Pretzels are healthy and taste /amazing/. ***** chips, you gotta try these bad boys. - fooplex, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Great article. I never thought about why in American supermarkets a pound of tomatoes costs a lot more than a pound of Twinkies, even though the Twinkies cost more to produce. That's the effect of the farm bill. A really interesting read. Thanks for posting it.
- strabes, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9The real problem is that the US actually HAS a farm policy. The fact that a few white farmers in the US are subsidized because they have lobbying power is absurd. If other countries can grow food cheaper than we can, why can't we buy it from them? Our policy just raises prices for Americans.
- TrippWest, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Please send this article to your Congressmen. I did.
- ArmandoM, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Smiths' ad had Milk at 3 gallons for $6 last week. Normally it's like $2.50
Did I pay too much or not enough? What's do you people think it's supposed to cost?
And to the people screaming FARMERS MARKETS OMG!!! By the time I drive the 100 or so miles to the nearest one, I've burned more in gasoline than I save at the farmers market.
So I'm stuck paying more for fruit and veggies if I want to eat healthier. - jamin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I'm somewhat confused by all the people saying that unhealthy, processed foods are more expensive than healthy, fresh foods. I buy fresh vegetables and fruits from my local farmer's market precisely because it's cheaper than buying the pre-processed, in-a-can or frozen version. I buy huge bags of rice and potatoes for cheap. I buy a large bag of frozen fish fillets at less than a dollar/fillet. I can eat a meal of steamed fresh vegetables, brown rice, and broiled fish for about a $1.25. That's less than the price of most frozen dinners or that mac-n-cheese dinner, and certainly less than a combo from McDonalds.
Get dried beans, whole grain rice, fresh vegetables and fruit, cans of tuna/sardines, frozen fish/chicken breasts, generic whole grain breakfast cereal and oatmeal and then tell me it's expensive to eat healthy. It just isn't true. - drdank, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@quickjack: you had me until the "can of soup". You can pickle a corpse with the amount of sodium they put in those soups.
- XIsntComingBack, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Agri-business is a huge problem on so many levels and yet most articles never dig deep enough. Eating organic is a good start, but if you really want good food for your family, eat locally grown organic food only. That is the ultimate practice of democracy. Better than a vote, you'll help clean the air, water and land in one simple action.
Fast Food Nation was awesome. See the Future of Food for something even scarier. - pyromouse, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Alright, I don't know why he chose to do the dollar/calorie ratio, it doesn't really make sense if people are getting a surplus of calories (most people get well over the 2000-2500 DV, I know I do). That is nonsense. You can eat healthier for cheaper IF you have time to cook it. It's not about whether a single mother can afford to feed her kids broccoli instead of Doritos. The issue is whether she has time to make a proper meal after working two jobs and doing all other necessary chores. A lot of children eat badly because they have to make their own instant meals like ramen or microwavable burritos (I know I did, not because I was poor, but because my parents weren't home). The bit on school lunches is right on the issue. Poor kids don't bring bag lunches, kids with parents that have time to make a good meal bring bag lunches. Poor kids with busy parents usually get a discounted meal plan from the school. They're almost doomed to eat ***** food for the entirety of their academic career.
Subsides are a part of the problem. According to the national corn growers association:
"In the U.S., the number of bushels of corn produced measures more than double that of any other grain crop."
Most of that corn is "dent corn" (different breed from sweet corn) used to feed livestock, largely to feed those big beef farms. Modern beef has way more fat than it once did which is part of the cause of heart disease and obesity in the US. Among numerous other benefits from cutting corn subsidies, beef would be more expensive (I know, it sounds bad), which would benefit the American diet, and encourage consumption of healthier food like fish, more veggies, or grass fed beef. Among other reasons, corn requires a lot of nutrients (I worked in a garden take my word, or look it up). It is one of the most heavily fertilized crops, which leads to water contamination. Furthermore it's fed with petroleum based fertilizers, so growing corn actually consumes oil (not exactly a small political issue). - ignisfts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6About poor people having bad diets...here's an interesting observation I've made:
I've been living in this typical blue-collar city neighborhood (cheap rent) for the past 4 months after I got married. Last night, as the wife and I were loading up our car with the last few boxes (we're moving...), I noticed something that i haven't paid any attention to before- the ice cream truck. I know, what can be so interesting about an ice-cream truck? It's colorful, it plays annoying music, it blocks traffic and it's just annoying. Don't all neighborhoods have them, rich or poor? Well, this wasn't just any ice cream truck. This ice-cream truck would come around everyday at 10:30pm. And people, adults included, are running out of their homes like mammoths to buy ice cream at 11 o'clock in the evening (I don't have to explain why this is an unhealthy habit). Then they go back inside to watch television. Everyone does this.
Guys, I'm not exaggerating here. Every household in this area does this; typically it's the mom that runs out to get ice-cream for herself and the kids, while the dad is drinking beer in front of the tv. I wish this was just a story, but it's all true. This is in Bridesburg-Philadelphia on Lefevre street. The kids here are fat, the women are fat and their husbands are fat as well. I was saddened. - XIsntComingBack, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Subsidies reward bad farm practice. It's bad for the land to have the same crop year in year out, which requires even more pesticides to produce the same yield. Forget "the market". No such thing exists - it's the same as "liberal media", a non-entity so you don't find out the identities of the people who make the actual decisions about our food supplies: corporations. It's a business and if poison yields a greater profit, then that is just a nice consequence enabled by the consequentialists who worship the almighty metric of money.
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