4 ms·

There are food deserts in the USA, where you literally can't buy high quality food like vegetables in a large area, and have to resort to only eating the highly

by est31 5y ago

There are food deserts in the USA, where you literally can't buy high quality food like vegetables in a large area, and have to resort to only eating the highly processed and highly unhealthy food. These food deserts usually are located in the poorer neighbourhoods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert

andrewnicolalde 5y ago
TIL, thank you!
gadders 5y ago
Then eat less of it?
- ratww 5y ago
  Eating healthy is not just about eating less, it's also about eating the right things. If eating was just about quantity then nobody would eat salads, there would be no Keto diet, and nobody would complain about McDonalds.
  - gadders 5y ago
    Calories In/Calories Out is 90% of it. You're better off being relatively slim on junk food than being fat on good quality good.
    - istjohn 5y ago
      But junk food is less filling and satiating than real food and much more dense calorically. You can eat lettuce all day and never consume the number of calories in a fast food burger.
    - teachingassist 5y ago
      > You're better off being relatively slim on junk food than being fat on good quality good. This has consistently proved false. Being 'underweight' is associated with significant excess death; being 'overweight' is associated with a lower death rate than 'normal' BMI: e.g. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/200731 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/20073... (many other sources are available)
      - albedoa 5y ago
        Can you help me reconcile the apparent contradiction between the title and the results? Title: > Excess Deaths Associated With [...] Overweight Results: > Overweight was not associated with excess mortality (−86 094 deaths; 95% CI, −161 223 to −10 966).
        teachingassist 5y ago
        I'd translate this title into non-academic English as: "Are excess deaths associated with being overweight?" (The result is: no - or actually yes, but negatively).
      - proxyon 5y ago
        > Being 'underweight' is associated with significant excess death; being 'overweight' is associated with a lower death rate than 'normal' BMI: This is nonsense. In many medical deaths such as cancer (and especially since euthanasia isn't available) the person dies by slowly withering away. One of the first things that happens is that they become skinny and frail. That doesn't associate underweightedness with mortality. It intentionally draws a false correlation.
        teachingassist 5y ago
        This criticism is apparently quite reasonable. You can also observe that being underweight is correlated with smoking. [Edited to add: this article explicitly considers the link to cancer, and rejects it, https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-14-371 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1... ] However, it doesn't explain why being 'overweight' BMI consistently proves to be protective against death, despite it being so stigmatised that it affects quality of medical care.
        proxyon 5y ago
        > However, it doesn't explain why being 'overweight' BMI consistently proves to be protective against death I don't see how the "protective of death" conclusion is able to be maintained when it was determined by comparing the mortality of overweight people to frail and dying old people and cancer patients. The reality is that it's the opposite. It's well known that being overweight damages the organs and makes a person more susceptible to dozens of diseases.
monoideism 5y ago
Food deserts are a big problem. Most of the urban food deserts developed after major riots burned down existing grocery stores in the late 60s (and then again in the 80s in LA). New food deserts now exist in Minneapolis (and likely other cities as well) after the recent rioting and burning there: https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-longfellow-neighborhood-almost-food-desert-after-riots/570928442/ https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-longfellow-neighborh... https://www.marketplace.org/2020/06/04/neighborhoods-where-stores-were-destroyed-become-food-deserts-overnight/ https://www.marketplace.org/2020/06/04/neighborhoods-where-s... Ironically, in the most recent riots, many - perhaps most - of the destructive rioters were middle-class "activist" kids who don't have to live with the results of their actions.
Kharvok 5y ago
Food deserts mostly myth. I'm looking for the study in my notes but there is only a very slight difference in diets between tax brackets.
CountDrewku 5y ago
Which supermarket chains in the US do not provide vegetables, fruit, meat and only offer processed food? Please find us a 'food desert' where there are no supermarkets nearby. This is a myth that's easily refuted. There's an argument to be made that poorer people aren't educated on healthy food choices but the idea that they don't have access to anything but processed food is just silly.

by est31 5y ago

andrewnicolalde 5y ago

TIL, thank you!

gadders 5y ago

Then eat less of it?

ratww 5y ago
Eating healthy is not just about eating less, it's also about eating the right things. If eating was just about quantity then nobody would eat salads, there would be no Keto diet, and nobody would complain about McDonalds.
- gadders 5y ago
  Calories In/Calories Out is 90% of it. You're better off being relatively slim on junk food than being fat on good quality good.
  - istjohn 5y ago
    But junk food is less filling and satiating than real food and much more dense calorically. You can eat lettuce all day and never consume the number of calories in a fast food burger.
  - teachingassist 5y ago
    > You're better off being relatively slim on junk food than being fat on good quality good. This has consistently proved false. Being 'underweight' is associated with significant excess death; being 'overweight' is associated with a lower death rate than 'normal' BMI: e.g. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/200731 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/20073... (many other sources are available)
    - albedoa 5y ago
      Can you help me reconcile the apparent contradiction between the title and the results? Title: > Excess Deaths Associated With [...] Overweight Results: > Overweight was not associated with excess mortality (−86 094 deaths; 95% CI, −161 223 to −10 966).
      - teachingassist 5y ago
        I'd translate this title into non-academic English as: "Are excess deaths associated with being overweight?" (The result is: no - or actually yes, but negatively).
    - proxyon 5y ago
      > Being 'underweight' is associated with significant excess death; being 'overweight' is associated with a lower death rate than 'normal' BMI: This is nonsense. In many medical deaths such as cancer (and especially since euthanasia isn't available) the person dies by slowly withering away. One of the first things that happens is that they become skinny and frail. That doesn't associate underweightedness with mortality. It intentionally draws a false correlation.
      - teachingassist 5y ago
        This criticism is apparently quite reasonable. You can also observe that being underweight is correlated with smoking. [Edited to add: this article explicitly considers the link to cancer, and rejects it, https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-14-371 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1... ] However, it doesn't explain why being 'overweight' BMI consistently proves to be protective against death, despite it being so stigmatised that it affects quality of medical care.
        proxyon 5y ago
        > However, it doesn't explain why being 'overweight' BMI consistently proves to be protective against death I don't see how the "protective of death" conclusion is able to be maintained when it was determined by comparing the mortality of overweight people to frail and dying old people and cancer patients. The reality is that it's the opposite. It's well known that being overweight damages the organs and makes a person more susceptible to dozens of diseases.

monoideism 5y ago

Food deserts are a big problem. Most of the urban food deserts developed after major riots burned down existing grocery stores in the late 60s (and then again in the 80s in LA). New food deserts now exist in Minneapolis (and likely other cities as well) after the recent rioting and burning there: https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-longfellow-neighborhood-almost-food-desert-after-riots/570928442/ https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-longfellow-neighborh... https://www.marketplace.org/2020/06/04/neighborhoods-where-stores-were-destroyed-become-food-deserts-overnight/ https://www.marketplace.org/2020/06/04/neighborhoods-where-s... Ironically, in the most recent riots, many - perhaps most - of the destructive rioters were middle-class "activist" kids who don't have to live with the results of their actions.

Kharvok 5y ago

Food deserts mostly myth. I'm looking for the study in my notes but there is only a very slight difference in diets between tax brackets.

CountDrewku 5y ago

Which supermarket chains in the US do not provide vegetables, fruit, meat and only offer processed food? Please find us a 'food desert' where there are no supermarkets nearby. This is a myth that's easily refuted. There's an argument to be made that poorer people aren't educated on healthy food choices but the idea that they don't have access to anything but processed food is just silly.