6 ms·

How does cheap food cause obesity? You gain weight if you eat more calories than you burn, if you are gaining weight from cheap food it just means you are eatin

How does cheap food cause obesity? You gain weight if you eat more calories than you burn, if you are gaining weight from cheap food it just means you are eating too much of it. And regardless I'm pretty sure foods like rice and potatoes are much cheaper than fast food, and are healthy. They are more expensive in terms of the time it takes to prepare them though.

stouset 7y ago
“More expensive in the time it takes to prepare” is more expensive for large numbers of working class families, and it’s often a worse kind of expensive than a strictly monetary difference.
- bobbydroptables 7y ago
  Sure but couldn't a person just serve smaller portions? Like if your kid is getting fat just take what your normally serve him and throw part of it in the trash (or refrigerator). If he's still getting fat take a bigger part from it next week and so on. I don't understand how this technique could elude anyone rich or poor.
  - ssivark 7y ago
    Are you serious? And leave the child hungry? Oversimplifying somewhat, you do realize that the body feels satiated not by calories but by quantity? I can’t imagine the astounding disconnect it would take for someone to post a comment like that.
    - bobbydroptables 7y ago
      Are you serious? And leave a child to suffer from the many thoroughly documented problems of obesity? I'm not sure what you're getting at. Your proposal is that you should keep stuffing a fat kid with unhealthy food because he wants more? Plenty of poor people living in food deserts manage to raise kids of a healthy weight. I can’t imagine the astounding disconnect it would take for someone to post a comment like that.
    - ThrowawayR2 7y ago
      Ever read up about controlling obesity in pets? Most of it involves restricting how much and what type of foods they eat. (https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/fat-dogs-and-dog-obesity/ https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/fat-dogs-and-dog-ob...) You might not like the analogy but children, like pets, have not learned the value of self-restraint (yet).
    - namibj 7y ago
      That's literally what I do to myself though. I'm limited to empty calories because of money and digestion/insulin-spiking reasons. Because the latter is hard, I went keto again since yesterday, and literally starve my body into accepting ketogenesis and glucogenesis as the primary energy pathways for the brain cells. The hard part is a near total shunning of (metabolically useful) carbohydrates. This is however rewarded by a near total lack of importance regarding meal timing. Aminoacids and electrolytes are the only macronutrients I have to balance needs with intake on a timescale of less than a week. After that there are vitamins, and calories in the shape of triglycerides only need to balance enough to prevent structural fat from being fed to brain and muscles and to prevent irreversible tissue stretching from gaining weight too fast (and practically also to ensure jeans etc. fit properly).
    - dTal 7y ago
      >you do realize that the body feels satiated not by calories but by quantity? Not really. It's common sense that your body can tell the difference between a pound of boiled cabbage and a pound of steak. You're satiated when you have all the nutrients you need - calories, yes, but also fats and other essentials. If the food you eat is deficient in some nutrients, you might eat more of it to compensate. Anecdotally, if I make a vegetarian chili, and forget to fortify it with some form of fat, I can eat two whole plates of it and feel bloated but unsatisfied.
- armenarmen 7y ago
  A rice cooker at goodwill is maybe $10.00. A slow cooker let’s say another $10.00. Throw another 20 at a bag of rice and dried beans then you have a minimal effort super cheap “won’t make you fat” meal. I think its that people don’t know how to cook even these basic staples anymore. And when you work a shit job, a large soda is a welcomed mini vacation
  - gtirloni 7y ago
    > And when you work a shit job, a large soda is a welcomed mini vacation Exactly.
Scoundreller 7y ago
I regularly use potatoes to bulk up my lunch glass dish mix. Skip the peeling, rinse, dice, throw in microwave for some minutes in glass lunch container, then throw in the rest into same glass container. Can season and add oil if desired (just toss around in said glass container). My biggest problem is going through 10lb bags without wasting, but they’re so much more expensive when you help yourself.
pcdoodle 7y ago
Hey bro, go pick on someone else's calories, getting calories from cake is the same as avocados. It's all cals in cals our right?
dTal 7y ago
Cheap food is calorie-dense but nutrient-poor. In order to avoid deficiencies, you have to eat a lot of it.
TheOperator 7y ago
I remember reading Orwell's "Road to Wigan Pier" (a bit dated) and one of his observations was that a lower class supermarket would have nothing but white bread. However a middle class supermarket would have brown bread and healthier foods as well. His conclusion was, very roughly, that eating healthy was a luxury of those who were well off. Whereas the poor were struggling so much day to day that they needed short-term gratification just to get through. Cheap food causes obesity insofar that if you have money you can buy nutrient dense food that tastes good and spend zero time preparing it. With cheap food you're constantly expending willpower to eat food that tastes like crap, expending more time making it, or are sacrificing health value. Eating pots of unappetizing starches (which really aren't as healthy as you make them out to be relative to smart fast food picks) takes time and willpower. Those are actually limited resources. Attempting to do difficult unpleasant things one after another does actually wear you down and cause negative mental health effects which unravel your plans. A starch heavy diet means you're going to get rocked by insulin spikes regularly for your troubles. Whereas if you can afford to eat leafy greens and a big hunk of fish your mental stamina will increase. In my mind the key to a healthy diet isn't buying potatoes and rice in bulk. It's $$$. FWIW my favorite poverty meal was chili... Good mix of time effiency/cost efficiency/taste.

stouset 7y ago

“More expensive in the time it takes to prepare” is more expensive for large numbers of working class families, and it’s often a worse kind of expensive than a strictly monetary difference.

bobbydroptables 7y ago
Sure but couldn't a person just serve smaller portions? Like if your kid is getting fat just take what your normally serve him and throw part of it in the trash (or refrigerator). If he's still getting fat take a bigger part from it next week and so on. I don't understand how this technique could elude anyone rich or poor.
- ssivark 7y ago
  Are you serious? And leave the child hungry? Oversimplifying somewhat, you do realize that the body feels satiated not by calories but by quantity? I can’t imagine the astounding disconnect it would take for someone to post a comment like that.
  - bobbydroptables 7y ago
    Are you serious? And leave a child to suffer from the many thoroughly documented problems of obesity? I'm not sure what you're getting at. Your proposal is that you should keep stuffing a fat kid with unhealthy food because he wants more? Plenty of poor people living in food deserts manage to raise kids of a healthy weight. I can’t imagine the astounding disconnect it would take for someone to post a comment like that.
  - ThrowawayR2 7y ago
    Ever read up about controlling obesity in pets? Most of it involves restricting how much and what type of foods they eat. (https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/fat-dogs-and-dog-obesity/ https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/fat-dogs-and-dog-ob...) You might not like the analogy but children, like pets, have not learned the value of self-restraint (yet).
  - namibj 7y ago
    That's literally what I do to myself though. I'm limited to empty calories because of money and digestion/insulin-spiking reasons. Because the latter is hard, I went keto again since yesterday, and literally starve my body into accepting ketogenesis and glucogenesis as the primary energy pathways for the brain cells. The hard part is a near total shunning of (metabolically useful) carbohydrates. This is however rewarded by a near total lack of importance regarding meal timing. Aminoacids and electrolytes are the only macronutrients I have to balance needs with intake on a timescale of less than a week. After that there are vitamins, and calories in the shape of triglycerides only need to balance enough to prevent structural fat from being fed to brain and muscles and to prevent irreversible tissue stretching from gaining weight too fast (and practically also to ensure jeans etc. fit properly).
  - dTal 7y ago
    >you do realize that the body feels satiated not by calories but by quantity? Not really. It's common sense that your body can tell the difference between a pound of boiled cabbage and a pound of steak. You're satiated when you have all the nutrients you need - calories, yes, but also fats and other essentials. If the food you eat is deficient in some nutrients, you might eat more of it to compensate. Anecdotally, if I make a vegetarian chili, and forget to fortify it with some form of fat, I can eat two whole plates of it and feel bloated but unsatisfied.
armenarmen 7y ago
A rice cooker at goodwill is maybe $10.00. A slow cooker let’s say another $10.00. Throw another 20 at a bag of rice and dried beans then you have a minimal effort super cheap “won’t make you fat” meal. I think its that people don’t know how to cook even these basic staples anymore. And when you work a shit job, a large soda is a welcomed mini vacation
- gtirloni 7y ago
  > And when you work a shit job, a large soda is a welcomed mini vacation Exactly.

Scoundreller 7y ago

I regularly use potatoes to bulk up my lunch glass dish mix. Skip the peeling, rinse, dice, throw in microwave for some minutes in glass lunch container, then throw in the rest into same glass container. Can season and add oil if desired (just toss around in said glass container). My biggest problem is going through 10lb bags without wasting, but they’re so much more expensive when you help yourself.

pcdoodle 7y ago

Hey bro, go pick on someone else's calories, getting calories from cake is the same as avocados. It's all cals in cals our right?

dTal 7y ago

Cheap food is calorie-dense but nutrient-poor. In order to avoid deficiencies, you have to eat a lot of it.

TheOperator 7y ago

I remember reading Orwell's "Road to Wigan Pier" (a bit dated) and one of his observations was that a lower class supermarket would have nothing but white bread. However a middle class supermarket would have brown bread and healthier foods as well. His conclusion was, very roughly, that eating healthy was a luxury of those who were well off. Whereas the poor were struggling so much day to day that they needed short-term gratification just to get through. Cheap food causes obesity insofar that if you have money you can buy nutrient dense food that tastes good and spend zero time preparing it. With cheap food you're constantly expending willpower to eat food that tastes like crap, expending more time making it, or are sacrificing health value. Eating pots of unappetizing starches (which really aren't as healthy as you make them out to be relative to smart fast food picks) takes time and willpower. Those are actually limited resources. Attempting to do difficult unpleasant things one after another does actually wear you down and cause negative mental health effects which unravel your plans. A starch heavy diet means you're going to get rocked by insulin spikes regularly for your troubles. Whereas if you can afford to eat leafy greens and a big hunk of fish your mental stamina will increase. In my mind the key to a healthy diet isn't buying potatoes and rice in bulk. It's $$$. FWIW my favorite poverty meal was chili... Good mix of time effiency/cost efficiency/taste.