That's okay -- based on your comments I expect this is the least of what is incomprehensible to you.

Lots of kids
+ McMansions
+ SUV's
+ "W" stickers
= ENTITLEMENT (at least in a symbolic sense)

How could anyone not find this to be nauseating? These are the same folks who are pro-war, anti-choice. These are the same reasons why Americans are no longer respected or esteemed in the rest of the world. Because a particular sector of the population covets a particular lifestyle with particular elements in it, some idiot in Washington thinks he has a mandate to go fight wars to bring "Democracy" to the places where fossil fuels come from.
________________________

With all due respect, people have a right to as many or as few kids as they feel like having and feel like they can care for. You cannot hold poor people responsible for our ills because they're victims. Trans-generational trauma is a reality. And trauma always revisits traumatized people. Look what happened after Katrina. But people with means and education must hold themselves to different standards. It is irresponsible and profoundly narcissistic to think the world exists only to make the latest version of the "American Dream" possible.

As for the recent statistics on population growth in the US, I know enough about how statistics are arrived at to understand that one set of results can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. You'd actually be surprised if you knew what my qualifications are...

Folks, just a reminder that political debate is not permitted here on this forum. Please take some time to review this sticky since the thread seems to be drifting off topic. Thanks!

OOOPS, my bad...

Yes, poverty and obesity do seem to be correlated... But poverty is implicitly a political issue. Hence, obesity is a political issue...

But anyhow...

Few here can deny that many of the foods which make this WOE work are expensive, at least much more so than the HC junk. Meat costs much more than Cheetos. Plus, dollar for dollar, you get a lot more Cheetos for the buck!

But it's more than that, IMHO. It has to do with tastes -- HC food tastes good. While I certainly enjoy my LC food, I admit that many HC foods, both "healthy" (bread, rice, pasta) and junk foods (Cheetos, potato chips, sweets) are tasty and appealing.

By being cheaper, that leads people on tight budgets (the poor) to make quanitity and taste choices, as opposed to quality.

It will take a concerted effort by government to turn people's minds, since the government is responsible for the notorious food pyramid.

But that won't happen because to do so would mean the ruin of many grain farmers and processed food companies.

According to Gary Taubes poverty and obesity are correlated in almost every culture. I know this from my own relatives in the Middle East, who didn't have access to cheetos or any such junk foods, but since they couldn't afford meat and other animal sources of protein, they ate lots of grains, beans, and lentils. And while they weren't obese, they certainly were overweight and struggled with all the other complications that overweight brings.

Some time ago, Regina Wiltshire (her blog is "Weight of the Evidence" demonstrated that it's possible, at least where she lives, to feed a family nutritious low-carb food on $3 a day. HOWEVER, and this is a big however, she has a lot of advantages many others don't have: a car, time to plan menus and shop, knowledge, motivation, and many available grocery stores.

Despite Regina's success, I strongly believe that most poor people, in North America or elsewhere, would find it difficult or impossible to eat low carb on a strictly limited budget. Where I live, I certainly couldn't manage on $3 a day, I know that. I'm lucky I don't have to.

Rachel

I routinely binged on >$10/day of junkfood when I was becoming and staying obese, but now spend an average of $3/day on nutritious food and have no desire to buy pounds of M&Ms, gallons of icecream, family sized packages of double-stuff oreos and chips, or commercial cereals, all of which cost >10X what their ingredients are worth. My cart looked a lot like those of the people with food stamps in line with me. I'm not saying all obese poor people eat like this, but many do. I grew chubby on the standard american diet, but did not actually grow obese until I could afford to binge on the crap that the SAD made me crave.

I think I've mentioned this before, but it's worth mentioning again esp during this season, with so many food drives going on.

My dad left at the start of my first year of high school. My mum made under poverty wages, and we didn't have much. Luckily, my mum was well-loved in the school system (she was a teacher's aide and worked with behavioural problem kids - her wages are a whole other dicussion). One of her friends brought us bags of bread, buns etc from a bakery where her friend worked - all the stuff they'd throw out at the end of the day. We had a freezer full of bread. That year, my divorce support group at school made my family the recipient of their xmas food drive - I was called out of class and given huge boxes full of cereal, canned pasta, dried pasta, macaroni. I'd been a skinny kid until then - I started chubbing up once the money ran out (we'd been a very meat-centric family until then - dad loved his meat and loved to cook!)

People tend to forget that non-perishable food items can include canned veggies and meats. Tuna is dirt cheap. Please, please when you give, give those types of foods. Peanut butter, mayo, salad dressing, tomato sauce, parmesan cheese, olives, pickles, vaccuum-sealed deli meats...lots of options. If it's not refrigerated in the grocery store, it can be donated. If you have a Sally Ann, you can give homemade stews and soups (or at least, you used to be able to - one of my teen BF's lived off of Sally Ann food banks in high school and got lots of homemade stuff).

Thanks for that reminder! I've been buying extra cans of meat and fish products for donating, rather than just accepting the stores idea of what is a "good donation grocery bag" but I'd forgotten about things like peanut butter and mayo. I sure know I feel guilty if I just give them cash 'cause I KNOW they'll spend it on grain-based stuff, and if it's not good enough for me, why is it good enough for people less fortunate that I am??!!!!
Merry Christmas all!!!!

Have you noticed those "good donation grocery bag"s are ~90% carbage? I make a point to donate only protein, good fats & low carb veggies so that they get some real nutrition.

I thought I would add my two cents to the discussion. I made decent money for our area, $11.57 an hour till a shoulder injury forced me to change jobs. I was a nurse aide and can no longer do the lifting required for that job. I am now a resident care worker in a group home for mentally retarded women. They are all ambulatory, so no lifting. I now make $7.80 an hour. I have also gone back to college to try and better my situation in life. My husband was laid off last February due to downsizing, and has been looking for work every since. Thankfully he has finally found work, but for the last year we have survived on my wages, and his unemployment checks. We have a 16 year old son with us full time, and his 16 year old daughter part time. We applied for foodstamps, and I was told that we make $30.00 over the cut off limit!!! I was also told that if we wanted the assistance the best thing for me would be to not work. We can't afford that, our bills didn't stop coming in when the hubby got laid off, and I can't see losing everything we worked so hard for. So the long and short of it is that we struggle to put food on the table, and there are times I have had to resort to those high carb processed foods just to ensure that there would be something in the house that they could eat. Thankfully I can eat at work, but thanks to our learned "nutritionist" the meals served at work are high carb, low fat crap! I usually try to stick to meats and cheese but that isn't alway possible. Sorry for the long rant, but I am one of those working class poor, who can't get an ounce of help for my family despite the fact that 22% of my wages go to taxes.

Saffron, I find it so sad that you are advised to give up work to get food stamps. A friend was in a similar situation. He was advised he had to sell his car if he wanted food stamps. He needed the car to help him find work!

Thread closed as many (posts deleted) failed to observe the warnings not to change topic into unrelated political issues.