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> People is overweight because they can not afford healthy food. Fruits and other healthier food is more expensive than junk food. While I agree with the senti

> People is overweight because they can not afford healthy food. Fruits and other healthier food is more expensive than junk food. While I agree with the sentiment of your post, the meme quoted above needs to stop. Two bags of Doritos cost as much as a package of raw chicken that can feed a family, not to mention mass quantities of rice, beans, or even potatoes. Fruits and vegetables are very often <1 USD per pound. A single fast food combo meal can hit $10 USD, which can be groceries for one person for a week. The problem with bad diets emerge from high stress, transportation issues, and lack of food education; not price tags.

orthecreedence 8y ago
I just had Burger King at the airport the other day. I could have easily gotten away with spending $3 for an entire meal, with sugar water included. For a meal, that's pretty cheap. Especially if I work a 12 hours shift and don't have time to cook. Also, I grew up in the midwest, and often fruits and veggies look like they were picked up off the side of a freeway. Not saying that you're entirely wrong, but neither is the "it's cheaper to eat shitty food" camp. There's probably a happy medium: less sugar, less meat, less stress, better education, better prices...all things that would help.
- white-flame 8y ago
  Yes, when I eat fast food, it's always from the value menu. But if you're strapped for cash, $3 per meal on a consistent basis still adds up, compared to <$1 meals prepared at home and ready to grab from the fridge. Certainly convenience & taste is a factor in these decisions as well, but if the primary pain point is raw cost for your baseline consumption because you have no money to spare, you really should be kitchen-based. Of course, all of this assumes that one is being financially sensitive, and not just impulse spending without realizing how much is trickling out. Too many people I know who struggle with their meager finances (even if they make similar or more than I do) are entirely too flippant and just go for the $10 combo meal, not realizing how often they're "treating themselves" and how it's adding up against their monthly balance.
  - s73v3r_ 8y ago
    "compared to <$1 meals prepared at home and ready to grab from the fridge." They're never "ready to grab". They take time and effort, and do require knowledge to prepare. They also require you to then do the dishes after. For someone who's working multiple jobs, that may be time they just plain don't have.
    - white-flame 8y ago
      They're ready to grab if you sensibly prepare a bunch of food ahead of time, once or twice a week. Nobody who's strapped for time starts from scratch every meal, and our American fridges are plenty large. Besides, if I may rant a bit: If you have no money, then time, effort, knowledge, and social currency is what you have to spend to get by. Either you're going to spend those things, or spend money you don't have which will make your immediate future immediately worse. This is a situation that sucks to be in, and the only way to have any sense of even partially managing this is discipline. Many of us have grown up in and/or lived through these sorts of situations as adults, and you simply do what you have to and try to be smart about it. Obviously you need to put in time and effort, and do the dishes. But you can buffer things a bit to match your schedule, or establish specific routines, and any little lessening or organization of crunch is a huge affirming step. If you step back for a bit you also see that maintaining your health (including having mental and physical energy) is super important when you have no money and are working hard, and so making food at home hits multiple critically important facets. It does not matter that it takes effort, what matters is that you put forth effort commensurate to what you're facing. And to position this back to the initial contentious point, it reaffirms my position that it is not an issue of healthy groceries being somehow priced higher, but rather that of stressful life situations that people turn to convenience food (with the time sink of shopping/shorter-prep/cleanup or driving/ordering/waiting at restaurants still intact).
      - s73v3r_ 8y ago
        "They're ready to grab if you sensibly prepare a bunch of food ahead of time" Families with parents who work multiple jobs are laughing their asses off at this idea of having time to do that. "Besides, if I may rant a bit:" Only if you want to show how out of touch you are.
- TACIXAT 8y ago
  You can eat shitty food and still be healthy. It won't be optimal, but just because you're eating burger king does not mean you have to eat to excess.
tomjakubowski 8y ago
You aren't accounting for the time and focus investment required to turn raw groceries into a meal that your children will actually eat. In a family where all adults are working (perhaps even several jobs) out of necessity, time and focus are awfully scarce.
- white-flame 8y ago
  I intended all that be lumped under "high stress".

orthecreedence 8y ago

I just had Burger King at the airport the other day. I could have easily gotten away with spending $3 for an entire meal, with sugar water included. For a meal, that's pretty cheap. Especially if I work a 12 hours shift and don't have time to cook. Also, I grew up in the midwest, and often fruits and veggies look like they were picked up off the side of a freeway. Not saying that you're entirely wrong, but neither is the "it's cheaper to eat shitty food" camp. There's probably a happy medium: less sugar, less meat, less stress, better education, better prices...all things that would help.

white-flame 8y ago
Yes, when I eat fast food, it's always from the value menu. But if you're strapped for cash, $3 per meal on a consistent basis still adds up, compared to <$1 meals prepared at home and ready to grab from the fridge. Certainly convenience & taste is a factor in these decisions as well, but if the primary pain point is raw cost for your baseline consumption because you have no money to spare, you really should be kitchen-based. Of course, all of this assumes that one is being financially sensitive, and not just impulse spending without realizing how much is trickling out. Too many people I know who struggle with their meager finances (even if they make similar or more than I do) are entirely too flippant and just go for the $10 combo meal, not realizing how often they're "treating themselves" and how it's adding up against their monthly balance.
- s73v3r_ 8y ago
  "compared to <$1 meals prepared at home and ready to grab from the fridge." They're never "ready to grab". They take time and effort, and do require knowledge to prepare. They also require you to then do the dishes after. For someone who's working multiple jobs, that may be time they just plain don't have.
  - white-flame 8y ago
    They're ready to grab if you sensibly prepare a bunch of food ahead of time, once or twice a week. Nobody who's strapped for time starts from scratch every meal, and our American fridges are plenty large. Besides, if I may rant a bit: If you have no money, then time, effort, knowledge, and social currency is what you have to spend to get by. Either you're going to spend those things, or spend money you don't have which will make your immediate future immediately worse. This is a situation that sucks to be in, and the only way to have any sense of even partially managing this is discipline. Many of us have grown up in and/or lived through these sorts of situations as adults, and you simply do what you have to and try to be smart about it. Obviously you need to put in time and effort, and do the dishes. But you can buffer things a bit to match your schedule, or establish specific routines, and any little lessening or organization of crunch is a huge affirming step. If you step back for a bit you also see that maintaining your health (including having mental and physical energy) is super important when you have no money and are working hard, and so making food at home hits multiple critically important facets. It does not matter that it takes effort, what matters is that you put forth effort commensurate to what you're facing. And to position this back to the initial contentious point, it reaffirms my position that it is not an issue of healthy groceries being somehow priced higher, but rather that of stressful life situations that people turn to convenience food (with the time sink of shopping/shorter-prep/cleanup or driving/ordering/waiting at restaurants still intact).
    - s73v3r_ 8y ago
      "They're ready to grab if you sensibly prepare a bunch of food ahead of time" Families with parents who work multiple jobs are laughing their asses off at this idea of having time to do that. "Besides, if I may rant a bit:" Only if you want to show how out of touch you are.
TACIXAT 8y ago
You can eat shitty food and still be healthy. It won't be optimal, but just because you're eating burger king does not mean you have to eat to excess.

tomjakubowski 8y ago

You aren't accounting for the time and focus investment required to turn raw groceries into a meal that your children will actually eat. In a family where all adults are working (perhaps even several jobs) out of necessity, time and focus are awfully scarce.

white-flame 8y ago
I intended all that be lumped under "high stress".