4 ms·

The emphasis on food security is no joke. A shocking large number of families in this country rely on schools meals to assure their children get an adequate num

The emphasis on food security is no joke. A shocking large number of families in this country rely on schools meals to assure their children get an adequate number of calories.

tuna-piano 9y ago
I don't necessarily disagree, but I have a hard time squaring your point with the fact that the poorest children in the US are the most obese. How can they be calorie deficient and obese at the same time? https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/images/databriefs/51-100/db51_fig4.png https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/images/databriefs/51-100/db51_fig4.... [the lower the PIR (poverty income ratio) the poorer]
- tacomonstrous 9y ago
  Because the cheapest food is also the unhealthiest.
  - microcolonel 9y ago
    That's not strictly true. Beans, rice, stewing meat, and cabbages are among the cheapest foods to buy and prepare, and they are definitely cheaper than excessively-saline prepared foods. I believe about half of Oklahoma's agricultural product is cattle, I'm sure prices are somewhat competitive. These children are mostly not malnourished, and in most cases their obesity could be solved (in the direct sense, ignoring why they overeat) by eating the same things in lesser quantities, at no cost to their health.
  - tehwebguy 9y ago
    Probably, if time to shop for & prepare food and cost of having access to a kitchen are included. Or if comparing something like McDonalds value menu with other dining out options. But cooking food at home is cheap as hell compared to paying for prepared food if only looking at the cost of the food or ingredients.
- germinalphrase 9y ago
  Food security is a spectrum of need. Only having access to low-quality, high calorie foods would traditionally fall under this spectrum (they used to call it "food insecurity without hunger").
- teslabox 9y ago
  > [...] I have a hard time squaring your point with the fact that the poorest children in the US are the most obese. How can they be calorie deficient and obese at the same time? There's much more to weight than calories. "Vegetable oils" are extracted from seeds, usually with the assistance of the petroleum distillate hexane. The polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) portion of these oils is very unstable, so the producers use steam to remove the rancid odor from their "food-grade" product. The PUFA's in vegetable oil are cluster bomblets that destroy people's health. IMHO, vegetable oil should only be used as biodiesel. http://swindledandpimped.org/obesity-epidemic/ http://swindledandpimped.org/obesity-epidemic/
mirimir 9y ago
That jumped out at me. When I came to the US, I never imagined that it would come to this. I had heard stuff, but thought that it was just propaganda. Dystopian SF seems more and more prophetic.
- matt_wulfeck 9y ago
  This is exactly why we have our country divided into states. Each one may experiment and/or fail without affecting the others, and the rest can learn lessons.
  - mirimir 9y ago
    Yes, but the initial states existed before the federal government. So "divided" seems off. Anyway, I don't know the history well enough to have an opinion about the importance of experimentation. I thought that it was mostly about freedom.
    - narrowrail 9y ago
      This may seem pedantic, but the nuance here is important: It's about liberty, not freedom. Medical weed is is allowed in half the states and recreational in 8; New York has effectively banned fracking. I've lived in 6 different states, but many people seem scared to move (not on HN I realize).
      - mirimir 9y ago
        Correction appreciated. > One should distinguish between the terms "freedom" and "liberty." Speaking generally, Freedom usually means to be free from something, whereas Liberty usually means to be free to do something, although both refer to the quality or state of being free. Jefferson's use of the terms almost always reflected those meanings. http://eyler.freeservers.com/JeffPers/jefpco26.htm http://eyler.freeservers.com/JeffPers/jefpco26.htm
saboot 9y ago
And even then there are children who don't take food out of embarrassment. Someone I know did this as their school has separate lines for people paying with their own money and those getting discount or free lunch. One easy solution is to just have everyone swipe their school id card regardless of pay, but then we don't get to start shaming govt assistance early.
- rayiner 9y ago
  The easy solution is to just stop charging for school meals. We spend $620 billion on K-12 annually. Giving a free lunch to every kid would cost about $10 billion a year.
  - matt_wulfeck 9y ago
    Why haven't any states taken this up and provides free lunch to students in their state?

The emphasis on food security is no joke. A shocking large number of families in this country rely on schools meals to assure their children get an adequate number of calories.

tuna-piano 9y ago

I don't necessarily disagree, but I have a hard time squaring your point with the fact that the poorest children in the US are the most obese. How can they be calorie deficient and obese at the same time? https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/images/databriefs/51-100/db51_fig4.png https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/images/databriefs/51-100/db51_fig4.... [the lower the PIR (poverty income ratio) the poorer]

tacomonstrous 9y ago
Because the cheapest food is also the unhealthiest.
- microcolonel 9y ago
  That's not strictly true. Beans, rice, stewing meat, and cabbages are among the cheapest foods to buy and prepare, and they are definitely cheaper than excessively-saline prepared foods. I believe about half of Oklahoma's agricultural product is cattle, I'm sure prices are somewhat competitive. These children are mostly not malnourished, and in most cases their obesity could be solved (in the direct sense, ignoring why they overeat) by eating the same things in lesser quantities, at no cost to their health.
- tehwebguy 9y ago
  Probably, if time to shop for & prepare food and cost of having access to a kitchen are included. Or if comparing something like McDonalds value menu with other dining out options. But cooking food at home is cheap as hell compared to paying for prepared food if only looking at the cost of the food or ingredients.
germinalphrase 9y ago
Food security is a spectrum of need. Only having access to low-quality, high calorie foods would traditionally fall under this spectrum (they used to call it "food insecurity without hunger").
teslabox 9y ago
> [...] I have a hard time squaring your point with the fact that the poorest children in the US are the most obese. How can they be calorie deficient and obese at the same time? There's much more to weight than calories. "Vegetable oils" are extracted from seeds, usually with the assistance of the petroleum distillate hexane. The polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) portion of these oils is very unstable, so the producers use steam to remove the rancid odor from their "food-grade" product. The PUFA's in vegetable oil are cluster bomblets that destroy people's health. IMHO, vegetable oil should only be used as biodiesel. http://swindledandpimped.org/obesity-epidemic/ http://swindledandpimped.org/obesity-epidemic/

mirimir 9y ago

That jumped out at me. When I came to the US, I never imagined that it would come to this. I had heard stuff, but thought that it was just propaganda. Dystopian SF seems more and more prophetic.

matt_wulfeck 9y ago
This is exactly why we have our country divided into states. Each one may experiment and/or fail without affecting the others, and the rest can learn lessons.
- mirimir 9y ago
  Yes, but the initial states existed before the federal government. So "divided" seems off. Anyway, I don't know the history well enough to have an opinion about the importance of experimentation. I thought that it was mostly about freedom.
  - narrowrail 9y ago
    This may seem pedantic, but the nuance here is important: It's about liberty, not freedom. Medical weed is is allowed in half the states and recreational in 8; New York has effectively banned fracking. I've lived in 6 different states, but many people seem scared to move (not on HN I realize).
    - mirimir 9y ago
      Correction appreciated. > One should distinguish between the terms "freedom" and "liberty." Speaking generally, Freedom usually means to be free from something, whereas Liberty usually means to be free to do something, although both refer to the quality or state of being free. Jefferson's use of the terms almost always reflected those meanings. http://eyler.freeservers.com/JeffPers/jefpco26.htm http://eyler.freeservers.com/JeffPers/jefpco26.htm

saboot 9y ago

And even then there are children who don't take food out of embarrassment. Someone I know did this as their school has separate lines for people paying with their own money and those getting discount or free lunch. One easy solution is to just have everyone swipe their school id card regardless of pay, but then we don't get to start shaming govt assistance early.

rayiner 9y ago
The easy solution is to just stop charging for school meals. We spend $620 billion on K-12 annually. Giving a free lunch to every kid would cost about $10 billion a year.
- matt_wulfeck 9y ago
  Why haven't any states taken this up and provides free lunch to students in their state?