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> Low income = lower quality diet I don't buy it. Most of Europe has lower income than the US but the quality of their food is just vastly superior. Just watc

> Low income = lower quality diet I don't buy it. Most of Europe has lower income than the US but the quality of their food is just vastly superior. Just watch this video https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtzaSnGMIEN/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtzaSnGMIEN/?igshid=MzRlODBiN... I suspect it's a combination of low quality food and not walking.

mym1990 3y ago
You really can’t compare the income levels without factoring the actual system that Europeans live in. Most Europeans don’t have a car, healthcare is subsidized, food is cheaper, +50 other things that are different. A European coming to the US on a European salary would not thrive.
- deleted 3y ago
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- seanmcdirmid 3y ago
  I’ve never seen food being cheaper in Europe. Maybe eating out, but grocery store prices in France and Germany always seemed a bit high to me, though a bargain compared to Switzerland.
SimplyUnknown 3y ago
Most Europeans also have a lower cost of living. So maybe the correct metric is average purchasing power, which goes down if the wages go down (that said, maybe only when viewed for lower or middle class incomes. It could be that rich become as much richer as the poor are becoming poorer, yielding zero change in purchasing power on average)
rascul 3y ago
> > Low income = lower quality diet > I don't buy it. Most of Europe has lower income than the US but the quality of their food is just vastly superior. I don't buy it either. I don't know about the Europe comparison, but there's plenty of high quality food available for low cost in the US. I notice many people just fill up with crappy box goods or fast food though.
tzs 3y ago
It's a bit counterintuitive but is probably kind of correct. Low income does not per se mean lower quality diet in the US. In fact, a healthy diet based on high quality food can be less expensive than a less health lower quality food based diet. However sources of high quality inexpensive foods are not evenly distributed. Many a low income neighborhood does not have a grocery store that caries such things. Many only have convenience stores like 7-11. Often those neighborhoods also don't have good and affordable public transit making it had for many residents to get to a real grocery store. And so there will be a tendency for lower income to result in a lower quality diet. These places where people have food access limits inside of countries that mostly have pretty good distribution are called "food deserts", and they are not just in the US [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_deserts_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_deserts_by_country
- Auracle 3y ago
  While you didn’t touch on this, it’s usually somehow blamed on grocery stores, the government, etc. The problem is that the people in those areas simply don’t want real grocery stores. I’m not sure how you’d go about fixing that. Maybe, and I stress the maybe, a better home economics class? Ours was a joke, but it’s hard to actually teach kids how to cook (and other things) with a limited class time. Combining with lunchtime for those taking it might make sense. My parents cooked but kids out there without that - it’s probably hard to turn it around. Laziness is a hard nut to crack, especially combined with ignorance.

mym1990 3y ago

You really can’t compare the income levels without factoring the actual system that Europeans live in. Most Europeans don’t have a car, healthcare is subsidized, food is cheaper, +50 other things that are different. A European coming to the US on a European salary would not thrive.

deleted 3y ago
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seanmcdirmid 3y ago
I’ve never seen food being cheaper in Europe. Maybe eating out, but grocery store prices in France and Germany always seemed a bit high to me, though a bargain compared to Switzerland.

SimplyUnknown 3y ago

Most Europeans also have a lower cost of living. So maybe the correct metric is average purchasing power, which goes down if the wages go down (that said, maybe only when viewed for lower or middle class incomes. It could be that rich become as much richer as the poor are becoming poorer, yielding zero change in purchasing power on average)

rascul 3y ago

> > Low income = lower quality diet > I don't buy it. Most of Europe has lower income than the US but the quality of their food is just vastly superior. I don't buy it either. I don't know about the Europe comparison, but there's plenty of high quality food available for low cost in the US. I notice many people just fill up with crappy box goods or fast food though.

tzs 3y ago

It's a bit counterintuitive but is probably kind of correct. Low income does not per se mean lower quality diet in the US. In fact, a healthy diet based on high quality food can be less expensive than a less health lower quality food based diet. However sources of high quality inexpensive foods are not evenly distributed. Many a low income neighborhood does not have a grocery store that caries such things. Many only have convenience stores like 7-11. Often those neighborhoods also don't have good and affordable public transit making it had for many residents to get to a real grocery store. And so there will be a tendency for lower income to result in a lower quality diet. These places where people have food access limits inside of countries that mostly have pretty good distribution are called "food deserts", and they are not just in the US [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_deserts_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_deserts_by_country

Auracle 3y ago
While you didn’t touch on this, it’s usually somehow blamed on grocery stores, the government, etc. The problem is that the people in those areas simply don’t want real grocery stores. I’m not sure how you’d go about fixing that. Maybe, and I stress the maybe, a better home economics class? Ours was a joke, but it’s hard to actually teach kids how to cook (and other things) with a limited class time. Combining with lunchtime for those taking it might make sense. My parents cooked but kids out there without that - it’s probably hard to turn it around. Laziness is a hard nut to crack, especially combined with ignorance.