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Typically the poor don’t cook at home, they subsist on very cheap junk food available at gas stations and similar. Cooking takes time, some skill, and access to

Typically the poor don’t cook at home, they subsist on very cheap junk food available at gas stations and similar. Cooking takes time, some skill, and access to raw ingredients. This is very hard if you’re overworked and live in a food desert.

dsfyu404ed 8y ago
>Typically the poor don’t cook at home, they subsist on very cheap junk food available at gas stations and similar Typically they do. Poor people aren't idiots. They know that prepared store food is grossly overpriced compared to a similar meal they assemble themselves and seek to avoid it as much as possible without spending too much time/effort on meal prep. They usually manage to drag themselves to Walmart or the local supermarket every 1-2 weeks. Even if you have to drag your ass to some far away supermarket because it's the only one open after you get home from work and get 3hr of sleep that night you'll still do it because of the huge cost reduction compared to prepared food or whatever your local convenience store has. You'll buy the same bunch of things every time because over time you figure out a bunch of relatively low effort and low cost meals and then stick to them. Lunch or breakfast will probably be the same thing every day and you'll skip the other. They buy gas station sandwiches and junk food more than the rich because when your menu is the same boring things on a 2wk cycle so it's a nice, low mental effort, way to shake things up from time to time. The home cooked meals poor people eat are just far less balanced than ideal because they're more skewed toward ease of prep and cost than what rich people eat. Instead of a salad they'll bring a PB&J and a few Oreos to work. Something like (microwave) baked potatoes and chicken nuggets, maybe with a vegetable side (or something similarly imbalanced but cheap) will probably be on the menu at least one night a week. "Food deserts" are a problem but less of a problem than they seem to be because what rich people think poor people should be eating and what poor people think they should be eating are vastly different.
specialist 8y ago
The food desert phenomenon really bugs me. But I do have hope the pendulum will swing back. The whole paleo thing. What I jokingly call the "troglodiet". Beans, wild rice, big leafy greens. Much less meat, dairy, starchy carbs. It's weird that cheaper is more healthy. I really only need a pressure cooker, cutting board, knives, a few bowls, some storage. I've unloaded most everything else. I'm basically camping at home. But I had to get more wealthy to even become aware of these options, choices.

dsfyu404ed 8y ago

>Typically the poor don’t cook at home, they subsist on very cheap junk food available at gas stations and similar Typically they do. Poor people aren't idiots. They know that prepared store food is grossly overpriced compared to a similar meal they assemble themselves and seek to avoid it as much as possible without spending too much time/effort on meal prep. They usually manage to drag themselves to Walmart or the local supermarket every 1-2 weeks. Even if you have to drag your ass to some far away supermarket because it's the only one open after you get home from work and get 3hr of sleep that night you'll still do it because of the huge cost reduction compared to prepared food or whatever your local convenience store has. You'll buy the same bunch of things every time because over time you figure out a bunch of relatively low effort and low cost meals and then stick to them. Lunch or breakfast will probably be the same thing every day and you'll skip the other. They buy gas station sandwiches and junk food more than the rich because when your menu is the same boring things on a 2wk cycle so it's a nice, low mental effort, way to shake things up from time to time. The home cooked meals poor people eat are just far less balanced than ideal because they're more skewed toward ease of prep and cost than what rich people eat. Instead of a salad they'll bring a PB&J and a few Oreos to work. Something like (microwave) baked potatoes and chicken nuggets, maybe with a vegetable side (or something similarly imbalanced but cheap) will probably be on the menu at least one night a week. "Food deserts" are a problem but less of a problem than they seem to be because what rich people think poor people should be eating and what poor people think they should be eating are vastly different.

specialist 8y ago

The food desert phenomenon really bugs me. But I do have hope the pendulum will swing back. The whole paleo thing. What I jokingly call the "troglodiet". Beans, wild rice, big leafy greens. Much less meat, dairy, starchy carbs. It's weird that cheaper is more healthy. I really only need a pressure cooker, cutting board, knives, a few bowls, some storage. I've unloaded most everything else. I'm basically camping at home. But I had to get more wealthy to even become aware of these options, choices.