Food Stamps as a Reason for Obesity

[erpowers]

It seems that a number of people, for different reasons, blame food stamps for obesity rates in America. Those on the right tend to claim that people with food stamps are eating too much. Some others tend to claim that people with food stamps end up buying unhealthy food in that food stamps do not give these people the ability to buy healthy meals. I will say that I completely reject the first talking point. I do not believe people who are on food stamps are eating too much. However, I question whether people on food stamps cannot afford to buy healthy food. Trust me I understand it cost a great deal of money to buy food these days. Sometimes I buy things, look at the total, and think it is just crazy how little you get for you money these days. However, it seems that people getting about $100 a month could buy some fairly healthy foods. I know it is expensive to buy fruits and vegetables, but it seems that other healthy foods can be bought. So, what do others think?

[Enrique]

1. if eating healthy costs more money

then it would seem that food stamps help people eat more healthy. How would food stamps cause people to eat worse?

[izquierdista]

2. Cause and effect

Before you start blaming one thing as the proximate cause of another thing you should consider that:
1) Both healthy and unhealthy food can be cheap or expensive.
2) There are unhealthy food choices available at all price levels.
3) It requires a lot of knowledge to make a tasty, healthy, well-balanced meal.
4) It is easy to scarf down too much unhealthy food.
5) Obesity requires many food calories taken in AS WELL AS too little exercise.
6) In a culture where everyone drives, most people will not get 2 miles or more of walking in per day.

It is easy to toss off blame on a particular group, especially if it coincides with the world view you are trying to push (poor people are lazy, therefore giving them food is what makes them obese). If you look at it as a public health problem (which it is), then you come up with multiple recommendations to improve the situation: cut fat and total calorie intake, walk more, eat more fresh fruits and vegetables in season, etc. You know, things that people living around the Mediterranean do as second nature.

[rucky]

3. Cheap processed shit and Agribusiness are responsible.

With no local farms supplying cheap, fresh produce anymore (it's all centralized and redistributed by big agribusiness), the only affordable choice most people have left is cheap processed shit.

I'm so sick of the myth of the welfare queen. If we slashed a tenth of our defense budget, we could invest in family farms and communities would be less hungry and more healthy.

[SpiralHawk]

4. ...and food prices are going to go up...

depend on it. The 'surge' that Republicon Homelander 'decidership' engineered has not yet hit its target: the American people.

Grow your own. As best you can.

[Lost in CT]

5. Honestly food stamps are irrelevant to whether people eat healthy or not.

It's what the buy with the stamps that is the bottom line cause.

[Vinca]

6. You can only eat beans and rice so many days in a row.

That's about it for cheap, healthy food. Throw in a box of oatmeal for breakfast maybe. This week, at our local store, grapefruit $1 each, oranges $1 each, lettuce $2.79, tomatoes on sale $2.99 lb., large can of tuna $4.59, milk $4.79 gallon, plain yogurt $3.79 for a large container, etc., etc., etc. Double the prices for organic. $100 doesn't go far and if you're a person trying to feed a family you'll gravitate toward the mile long loaves of white bread that are cheap, house brand mac and cheese, mystery meat hot dogs and other low cost items. What this story is really about is the only "acceptable" group to discriminate against now: the obese. It pisses me off.

[JNelson6563]

7. A case I see up close and personal

My daughter shares an apartment with a few friends. One of them gets food stamps "bridge card". She gets her monthly replenishment and goes shopping, loading up on all sorts of crap that is processed and ready to eat. She and her boyfriend proceed to eat endlessly for about 10 days, until the food runs out. My daughter, who grew up w/regular food that required actual cooking, marvels at the shortsightedness and stupidity. The roomie who gets the food stamps blows it in that fashion because "it's free money" so what does she care? This girl was raised in the system, everything paid for like utilities and such. She eats a lot, takes 1 hour showers and keeps the heat at 80 degrees all cause it doesn't cost her personally (the utilities at the apt are included in the rent).

So while there are certainly those who use such benefits wisely (no one is forcing anyone to buy nutritionally worthless food with the food stamps) there are those who have no clue and do not care.

Julie

[Le Taz Hot]

8. If you take into consideration

NUTRITIONAL value of the junk food vs. healthy food, there really is no comparison. One can eat an entire bag of potato chips and drink a 2-liter bottle of soda and STILL be hungry. Why? Because the body craves NUTRITION -- virtually non-existent in junk food. In the long run, it is more economical to purchase the healthy stuff in the first place.

[greenbird]

9. I'm a market farmer

and I accept food stamp certificates that are distributed to recipients solely for the purpose of buying fresh, local produce at farmer's markets. This is a great program.

I'm also convinced that the prevalence of high fructose corn syrup in so many cheap, convenience foods is contributing to this obesity trend. The more I look into it, the scarier it looks, and I don't tend towards the tinfoil side at al . . .

[CrispyQ]

12. I highly recommend the movie "King Corn."

A very enlightening documentary about a part of our food industry & how perverted it is.

http://www.kingcorn.net/

How do you convert your food stamps to cash?

[greenbird]

13. Yes I was going to mention the documentary 'King Corn'.

Well worth watching.

I submit the certificates to the state and they issue a check to me. I sell at a market in a rural town that has a pretty high low-income population. My experience (certainly limited) tells me that when people have access to fresh, beautiful food, they prefer it. It speaks to something else besides just the nutritive value that it provides to the body. It speaks to the soul.

[spinbaby]

10. It's possible, but not easy

Eating a healthy diet on an extremely limited budget is possible if you have access to decent food at low prices and the time to prepare it.

Poor people often lack transportation and are stuck buying food where they live. On my way home from work, I often stop for gas at a station with a convenience store that has a big sign in the front window saying that they accept food stamps. There are people in that neighborhood who shop for food at the gas-station convenience store because the nearest grocery store is a mile away down a busy road with no sidewalks. And even that grocery store is a teeny Foodland with limited selection. They'd probably love to shop at Walmart and the farmers market for good deals, but they can't afford to get there.

Also, remember that the poor often have multiple jobs--they can't hang around all day baking bread and cooking beans.

[Arkansas Granny]

11. This article suggests that obesity rates are growing faster among higher

income people. That kind of shoots down the food stamp theory, I would think.

(WebMD) Obesity is on the rise across America, and earning a lot of money doesn't necessarily protect against it.

Previously, obesity was associated more with poverty than wealth, say University of Iowa researchers including Nidhi Maheshwari, MBBS, a graduate research assistant in epidemiology.

But during the past 30 years, obesity has grown at all income levels — especially among the richest Americans, say the researchers, who reported their findings in Washington at the American Heart Association's 45th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

"There has been a perception that poor people are more likely to be fat," says Maheshwari, in a news release. "However, obesity is growing at a much faster rate in those with the highest incomes."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/02/health/webmd/main692444.shtml

[Paladin]

14. Pork & Beans Are A Lot Cheaper Than Chicken Breasts.

Remember, it was that sub-human Phil Gramm who made that ugly comment about how many poor people in this country are fat....as if being poverty-stricken means you should look like a concentration camp victim......

(Edited to get the spelling of that asshole Gramm's last name right.)

[tabbycat31]

15. I think the problem is lack of good grocery stores

in the lower income neighborhoods. While the wealthier suburban neighborhooods have a good grocery store, where healthy eating is possible, the urban areas have a convenience store instead.

THe foods that a convenience store typically offers are not something a nutritionist would like. Many people who live in such neighborhoods have no access to a car and can't get to a good grocery store.

[havocmom]

16. Look to the mind rather than the wallet. Obesity higher in most economic brackets

Look to the mind. We have SOME control over what we put in our mouths. Not much else that we really get a say in.

Power, or lack of, more than food stamps.

[demokatgurrl]

17. "Healthy" eating is overrated.

While I agree that if you eat junk all the time you are probably missing out on some key nutrients, I do not buy that "healthy" (meaning, what, low fat? no sugar?) foods have any magical powers to ensure health.

Where I live, there are farmers' markets that take food stamps. The problem is accessibility. People go to the stores that are near them.

There was book out about 10 years ago called "The Poor Pay More". for example, in many neighborhoods there are no real supermarkets, just small grocery stores that overchage for basic foods. I think that's what bites them.

[Mamacrat]

18. Lack of physical activity, too.

I agree with the other posts about the inaccessibility of good foods to many, not knowing what to buy, and needing to buy quantity (e.g. big loaf of white bread) over quality. I also think that the lack of physical activity must play into this equation. Children are no longer given physical education like they used to have. And children whose parents are working multiple jobs and who spend more time traveling by public transportation probably do no have the opportunity to engage in sports even if they are free. Our son has playtime at school and engages in at least one other activity aside from preschool. Parents with the work and travel schedule I mentioned above also don't have the time or energy to take their children someplace safe to play, either. So, these children are stuck inside watching television or playing video games and snacking at the same time. Of course, that problem is not limited to the poor, though. I just think that they have greater impediments to getting the sort of activity that they need. And you can't snack on junk while you're playing, either. It's just a confluence of problems, really.