Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Also, I'm not a big salad fan. But it's funny to me whenever people talk about eating healthy, the examples that keep coming up are salad! Same with this thread. I could easily never have another salad again and still eat very healthfully.
The clients in my group home, at first, were like "don't make us eat salad!" I said "No way, I can't stand the stuff." They were much more willing after that. And later some of them ended up eating and liking salad anyway.
I know! there are tons of ways to cook very cheaply and very healthy. We have group homes for disabled adults, and back when I supervised sites directly, I learned that my staff were either taking the clients shopping mostly for prepared foods, or if they were doing any actual cooking, it involved grease or oil. They claimed that they could not stay within the clients' food budgets AND buy healthy food.
Without any prior preparation, I rode along on their shopping trip that day and helped them buy a lot of food, for less money, and a lot of it was stuff that would not go bad and would keep for a long time.
People make fun of rice and beans, but dried beans are very nutritious and versatile, and rice is probably better than lots of breads and pastas. I have a big stock of rice and beans, and the shelf life is several years. They are very healthful staples, as long as you don't glop them up with unhealthy stuff.
The clients were shocked when I showed them how a huge bag of potatoes was cheaper than the boxes of au gratin and "scalloped" potatoes they'd been buying (actually that day, the huge bag of potatoes was cheaper than the smaller bag of potatoes). We then went to the local farmers market and voila! there were lots of very inexpensive veggies and fruits, Even the mentally ill guys were like "hey this is $2 cheaper than it was in the grocery store!" They started using olive oil for cooking instead of butter or corn oil, and it wasn't any more expensive.
I live alone and I don't like to prepare complicated meals, but I can get lots of groceries pretty cheaply and eat relatively healthfully (with the few exceptions like my cheese addiction). Prepared foods have so many additives which I don't really like, and if there are leftovers, they go to waste.
So I don't buy the excuse that eating healthy is too expensive.
I think it's also laziness. It's easier to go through McDonalds than go home and get out pots and pans and actually put something together. I live alone too so I like to make things that freeze well. I made some chili that's pretty healthy...just beans, lean meat, and I put veggies in it like squash and zucchini. It makes enough for several meals now and several meals to freeze for later. People in general are very good at coming up with excuses so they don't have to be personally responsible for their own bad choices.
Also, I'm not a big salad fan. But it's funny to me whenever people talk about eating healthy, the examples that keep coming up are salad! Same with this thread. I could easily never have another salad again and still eat very healthfully.
The clients in my group home, at first, were like "don't make us eat salad!" I said "No way, I can't stand the stuff." They were much more willing after that. And later some of them ended up eating and liking salad anyway.
I love salad. In fact, dh and I have a garden salad for a dinner side almost almost every night.
I think older people (in nursing homes, etc) might have a hard time with their dentures and raw veggies, although I might be wrong about that...
No one wants to hear this answer but it's true, it comes down to money. Lower socioeconomic classes can't afford healthy food. Poor parents typically work long hours for little pay and when they come home, they need to prepare meals that are inexpensive and quick. And for food stamps to go far, you have to purchase unhealthy food as fresh fruit and vegetables are expensive. Wealthier families usually have time to prepare healthy meals. They have the time to grocery shop. They have the money to afford organic food and fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean quality protein. And lastly, the poor are often uneducated about how to eat healthy or fail to recognize how harmful unhealthy foods are.
I'm a physician and have enough money and time to be able to eat healthy but I see what my patients go through and it's easy to blame them for being obese or overweight but if most of us lived their lives, we would be that way too. When you have little money and dealing with multiple life stresses, quick tasty and unhealthy food is one of the few pleasures you can afford.
I feel like healthy eating and living is fashionable and only for the wealthy. Most people can't afford to shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and Fresh Market. The Food Network has cooking shows where the chefs snub their nose at the general public for lacking sophisticated taste buds and if they only knew what regular people go through. They can't afford to buy $200 worth of groceries at one time and take 2 hours to prepare an elaborate meal.
Sure, for wealthy people, it is a choice but for the poor, it's not. Look, I'm not a bleeding heart liberal and I believe in personal responsibility and don't like to blame society for all of our problems. At the same time, I'm a realist and I'm not going to blame a mother who can barely make 25-30K a year for failing to spend a lot of money to prepare healthy meals. Instead of being judgmental we should try to find ways to make healthy food more accessible.
I think it's also laziness. It's easier to go through McDonalds than go home and get out pots and pans and actually put something together. I live alone too so I like to make things that freeze well. I made some chili that's pretty healthy...just beans, lean meat, and I put veggies in it like squash and zucchini. It makes enough for several meals now and several meals to freeze for later. People in general are very good at coming up with excuses so they don't have to be personally responsible for their own bad choices.
Laziness....that depends on what you do for a living and how many hours you work. I'm in a white collar job so when I come home I have no excuse. But I know plenty of blue collar people who work really hard for a living and when they arrive home late in the evening, the last thing they want to do is take 2 hours to prepare, eat and clean up. That doesn't make them lazy. Why don't you work one of those jobs and then come home and say you are lazy for not wanting to cook a meal.
I think it can be hard to cook healthy for lots of reasons. But in the Op's example, that woman does spend time in her kitchen and she does use a variety of ingredients in her cooking. The woman knows how to cook, she evidently has the time to cook and apparently she has access to many types of ingredients. Yet, she makes unhealthy, fattening home cooked meals for her overweight/obese family. "Why?", I guess, is the question.
No one wants to hear this answer but it's true, it comes down to money. Lower socioeconomic classes can't afford healthy food. Poor parents typically work long hours for little pay and when they come home, they need to prepare meals that are inexpensive and quick. And for food stamps to go far, you have to purchase unhealthy food as fresh fruit and vegetables are expensive. Wealthier families usually have time to prepare healthy meals. They have the time to grocery shop. They have the money to afford organic food and fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean quality protein. And lastly, the poor are often uneducated about how to eat healthy or fail to recognize how harmful unhealthy foods are.
I'm a physician and have enough money and time to be able to eat healthy but I see what my patients go through and it's easy to blame them for being obese or overweight but if most of us lived their lives, we would be that way too. When you have little money and dealing with multiple life stresses, quick tasty and unhealthy food is one of the few pleasures you can afford.
I feel like healthy eating and living is fashionable and only for the wealthy. Most people can't afford to shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and Fresh Market. The Food Network has cooking shows where the chefs snub their nose at the general public for lacking sophisticated taste buds and if they only knew what regular people go through. They can't afford to buy $200 worth of groceries at one time and take 2 hours to prepare an elaborate meal.
Sure, for wealthy people, it is a choice but for the poor, it's not. Look, I'm not a bleeding heart liberal and I believe in personal responsibility and don't like to blame society for all of our problems. At the same time, I'm a realist and I'm not going to blame a mother who can barely make 25-30K a year for failing to spend a lot of money to prepare healthy meals. Instead of being judgmental we should try to find ways to make healthy food more accessible.
If I could have given you double-reputation, I would. Poverty can severely affect a healthy diet, even if it happened in the past.
When my husband was unemployed and his benefits ended, because of a ridiculous provision in my state, we did not quality for food stamps. And money was scarce. And yes, both of us worked as department-store clerks ("associates", my patootie) just to make the mortgage and a couple of bills. Sometimes, I did without meals, or ate bread just to fill me up, so the kids would at least have something nutritious in their lunch bags. Even then, it was all I could do to give them yogurt and store-brand applesauce or, if they were on sale (one could sometimes get them for a dollar), baby carrots.
Some people have room or time to grow a garden. The last time we were on a tight budget, in my other house, I grew many vegetables. But here, I was unable to do so. And no, a parent working a full day and suffering from adverse depression from working a minimum-wage job may not be inclined to cook for an hour or more at home, or dig in a garden for hours.
And yes, those dollar items on the value menu or BOGOs can be tempting to an exhausted parent on a tight budget. Just go to the take-out and pick it up. Easy. I tried to avoid it, but occasionally succumbed, I confess.
I was able to find marked-down specials in the supermarket, so that helped back then. But back then, stores marked them down at least 50%. Nowadays, some stores barely mark them down 15%. Stores are seeing that people flock to manager or store specials, and they see an opportunity to cash in at the opportunity, even if the merchandise will expire soon and be thrown away, or the cans are dented. I shudder at what the working poor have to contend with today.
One needs to do what one must to survive.
Some of diet is learned, and no, not all those on an unhealthy diet are poor. But many dishes derive from leftovers that thrifty parents would utilize in the past, rather than throw away, as well as cultural norms. And re cultural norms .. in the 50's and 60's, veggies were frequently boiled to mush in many households, or plopped in a salad covered with Italian or French dressing, or the family frequently ate hot dogs or like types of meat, or fried food. This is bit of a sweeping generalization, I admit, but a look at my vintage cookbooks (which I keep for entertainment value) back in the 50's and 60's usually show veggies or fruits slathered in sauce or dressing, or in aspic, with meat as the star of the table. And I remember eating stuff like this as a child! (I'm not a young pup, but certainly not THAT old!) This can pass down to future generations, as well.
Combine cultural "comfort" or "economy" food and poverty, and you can have a dietary mess on your hands. Even one can be a nutritional time bomb.
It's not a case of preaching at the poor or the unaware and telling them, "This is what you must do". It's a case of understanding where they come from, and maybe taking things step by step, a little at a time. Thank you again, doctor.
EDIT .... I was addressing the title, by the way ... that unhealthy diet is a choice. Not always.
Laziness....that depends on what you do for a living and how many hours you work. I'm in a white collar job so when I come home I have no excuse. But I know plenty of blue collar people who work really hard for a living and when they arrive home late in the evening, the last thing they want to do is take 2 hours to prepare, eat and clean up. That doesn't make them lazy. Why don't you work one of those jobs and then come home and say you are lazy for not wanting to cook a meal.
Very true, and some are unable after a hard day; I have chronic pain, and while I do cook most days, there are days like today that I can barely walk. Yesterday I had to climb way too many stairs, plus 3 hours in the car, so today I'm also struggling with exhaustion. That means that tonight was $5 pizza night, because DH was busy with our home business. But if one of our healthy eating advocates saw fat me with two pizzas (one for my in laws), they'd assume I was lazy, cane or no.
Now, nobody would argue that takeout pizza is healthy. However, many of the foods that are bandied about as being "healthy eating" might not be good for the substantial percentage of the populace that has metabolic problems (rice, potatoes, beans, "whole grains"), so the definition of healthy eating should also be considered as a more individualized concept, rather than generalizing that we all should be eating the same foods to be healthy.
I wonder ... is the mother in the OP's story severely depressed, or does she have an undiagnosed condition, such as depression or even a thyroid malfunction? As one who has a bum thyroid, it can REALLY mess you up if your levels are off ... fatigue, depression, etc.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
