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Self Grown >Local Co-Op>Local Farmers Market>Indie Natural Foods store>Whole Foods>>>Mainstream Grocery Stores>>>>>>>>>>>>Walmart in terms of food quality and freshness. I like to eliminate as many steps as possible when getting the veggie out of the ground and onto my plate.
Nature's Promise Nutritionist#1:
Why is security walking Bob out?!?!?!
Nature's Promise Nutritionist#2:
He's the one who pushed for the F word in the new design of the organic egg box.
Nature's Promise Nutritionist#1:
But what's wrong with omega-3 fatty acid?
Nature's Promise Nutritionist#2:
Well, Whole Foods sent the shipment back. Nobody's buying them anymore.
Anybody who can afford to eat organic is almost certainly covered by medical insurance. So your only financial cost of being sick is your co-pay.
Asssume that switching virtually all your fruits, veggies, grains, meat and dairy from supermarket shelves to organic will cost your family, let's say, $1,000 a year (that would be $3 a day, very conservative). How much would that reduce your co-pay? A thousand dollars a year?
That is the wrong way to think about it. We are going to go broke paying for health care if we don't start taking better care of ourselves. Too many people look at their health insurance premiums as if they are paying the full cost, and they are most definitely not. Government sponsored health insurance is not really going to change the underlying problems of paying for the care of people with expensive, long term, chronic diseases such as: heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. Most of the time, these diseases can be completely prevented, or their onset can be delayed by many years through a healthy diet.
If you're worried about long-term health costs, just run a few miles everyday. It takes 30 minutes or so. If you really don't have time, cut it down to 1 mile. That should take less than 10 minutes. It costs you maybe $200/year in sneakers.... but it will have a noticeable affect on your health.
Actually, swimming, while more expensive, is the healthier activity:
There are many more social constructs other than diet that contribute to the declining health of Americans. Among them are such obvious things as the virtual abolition of the extended family and the near impossibility of living in the same community for a lifetime, with the same family, moving up through the same employer. These militate against support systems that can deflect sources of stress. Similarly, the emotional toll of personal debt and financial insecurity is probably reducing the average lifespan even more than the food we eat.
I think you are very right about our weak family/social structure. The authors of The Longevity Project found that children whose parents divorced generally experienced lower life expectancy. One of the traits the authors found to be a good predictor of a long lifespan was conscientiousness. It makes sense. People who are conscientious pay attention to their weight, to what they eat, etc.
You can buy organic veggies at regular supermarkets. They also have free-range chicken & chicken eggs, they have oatmeal and all sorts of healthy stuff.
Whole Foods is an excuse for rich (white) folks to avoid riffraff who frequent the ghetto markets like Walmart. Admit it, that's part of the allure of these boutique grocery stores. It's socio-economic segregation at the retail level. Not that it's wrong or anything, as I shop at WF occasionally, but it's reality.
The customers at WF would stop going there if WF started attracting the Walmart crowd, if you know what I mean
If you had read all the posts, you would see that one of our posters did admit this was a factor (but not the only one). I suspect that's true for most folks. I'm not all that affluent, but the WalMarts near me can be depressing places to shop (although the Targets are much better).
I posted before in this thread, but to add to it, I think that if you take two people who basically cook from scratch and eat a balanced diet, with little or no "junk food" and maintain a healthy lifestyle (no smoking, good sleep and exercise, etc.) that there will be little difference in health between one who buys conventional products and one who buys organic.
Nothing wrong with buying organic if one can afford it and wants to do it, I buy my share of organic items, but am not a purist. For many items I am satisfied to buy items that have minimal processing or have mostly "natural" ingredients.
I agree. The authors of The Longevity Project said pretty much the same thing.
sometimes the organic/natural/whole foods route is one way for fat people to make themselves feel better about the food they eat. i know my mother would load up on the peanut butter but oh its healthy because its "natural" peanut butter.
sometimes the organic/natural/whole foods route is one way for fat people to make themselves feel better about the food they eat. i know my mother would load up on the peanut butter but oh its healthy because its "natural" peanut butter.
Well, that's understandable. Most fat people don't have food sense. Same applies to lowfat cookies.
Well, that's understandable. Most fat people don't have food sense. Same applies to lowfat cookies.
its funny when you get an overweight person talking about how they eat all these fresh fruits and veggies and criticize you for not doing so. you are tempted to say something like, look at you and then look at me, im not interested in your diet advice.
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