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Seriously, who in western countries does not have availability to "healthy food"? Everybody has basic grocery stores with cheap simple stuff just as available

Seriously, who in western countries does not have availability to "healthy food"? Everybody has basic grocery stores with cheap simple stuff just as available to them as convenience junk shops. It's education about how food affects you that makes all the difference. People literally don't know what they're putting in themselves. There's a lot of food purchasing decisions based on stressors related to your very reasonable 2nd point. Basic food education at a personal level brings people out of that particular negative health cycle.

chiefalchemist 8y ago
Not that I trust the CDC per se but if you query yourself you'll see there are plenty of other sources. https://www.cdc.gov/features/FoodDeserts/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/features/FoodDeserts/index.html Regardless, what you're naively discounting is the effects of poverty on the mind (and the body). Imagine, if you can, a state of permanent stress, fear, worry, etc. The human mind is __not__ wired to make optimal decisions under such circumstances. Now let's just say it's time to eat...You're running from your 2nd job to your 3rd...how do you think that decision is going to go? Poverty is not a lack of wealth. That's a side effect. Poverty is the result of mental, emotional and spiritual starvation; in the face of a world of plenty for everyone else but you and yours.
- white-flame 8y ago
  A main quote from that link is "a small percentage of American consumers are limited in their ability to access" healthier food, seemingly mostly tied to lack of transportation to otherwise close-by stores in densely populated areas. I would posit that's a much smaller percentage than those eating unhealthily in low/poverty income situations. Your post here coincides with mine. Somebody running between jobs does have means of transportation, but is in a highly stressed life situation. The main problem is not one of literal access to healthy food, yet that is always the first supposition made. Healthy food is cheap, and it is not far away. The problems are beyond that.

chiefalchemist 8y ago

Not that I trust the CDC per se but if you query yourself you'll see there are plenty of other sources. https://www.cdc.gov/features/FoodDeserts/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/features/FoodDeserts/index.html Regardless, what you're naively discounting is the effects of poverty on the mind (and the body). Imagine, if you can, a state of permanent stress, fear, worry, etc. The human mind is __not__ wired to make optimal decisions under such circumstances. Now let's just say it's time to eat...You're running from your 2nd job to your 3rd...how do you think that decision is going to go? Poverty is not a lack of wealth. That's a side effect. Poverty is the result of mental, emotional and spiritual starvation; in the face of a world of plenty for everyone else but you and yours.

white-flame 8y ago
A main quote from that link is "a small percentage of American consumers are limited in their ability to access" healthier food, seemingly mostly tied to lack of transportation to otherwise close-by stores in densely populated areas. I would posit that's a much smaller percentage than those eating unhealthily in low/poverty income situations. Your post here coincides with mine. Somebody running between jobs does have means of transportation, but is in a highly stressed life situation. The main problem is not one of literal access to healthy food, yet that is always the first supposition made. Healthy food is cheap, and it is not far away. The problems are beyond that.