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Yes, but you are a "we". My mother worked full time and raised us, and had to commute by train which added another 90 minutes round trip. She barely had time to do laundry, pay bills, and other normal household things on weekends, let alone spend hours cooking. So we were a Hamburger Helper family, who bought lunch at school.
Indeed, and a "we" that was also without children to care for.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ocnjgirl
In many lower income areas, and most especially inner city areas, there are no supermarkets to be found, and many of the residents don't have cars. What they do have is convenience stores and fast food
People talk about food deserts but studies show they aren't much of a factor in obesity among low-income Americans because:
1. On average the percentage of groceries purchased in supermarkets is about the same whether one lives in a food desert or not.
2. People who live in urban food deserts actually travel slightly less distance to the supermarket than the average across all incomes because of different scale of density.
3. When supermarkets do open in food deserts, it doesn't have much of an affect the buying choices of people in that neighborhood.
It is hard to be healthy, it costs more and takes more time. We live in a society where for many, many people, those 2 factors make it much much easier to just go to KFC and feed your whole family for $20.00
More time = yes, more costly = not necessarily. Apples are cheap. Bananas are cheap. Grains are cheap. Pasta is cheap. Potatoes, beans, eggs, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, etc. there are lots of things that aren't very expensive but can be a part of a healthy diet. Healthy food is a lot broader than salmon and organic berries.
As for KFC, I still believe that's more a flavor choice than anything since there are tons of prepared and semi-prepared options that don't take much time and are much healthier. That $20 your family of four spends on fast food could get them a rotisserie chicken, a precut bag of lettuce, and a side like coleslaw or steam in the bag veggies. People choose fast food because it's easy, cheap, but most of all it tastes good.
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More time = yes, more costly = not necessarily. Apples are cheap. Bananas are cheap. Grains are cheap. Pasta is cheap. Potatoes, beans, eggs, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, etc. there are lots of things that aren't very expensive but can be a part of a healthy diet. Healthy food is a lot broader than salmon and organic berries.
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I agree with this. Lots of healthy foods are very cheap. People just don't enjoy eating them. (This is also why grain-free and low-carb diets are so popular, because they reduce or even eliminate grains, vegetables, legumes, and fruit). Grains, fruits and vegetables can be found at Wal Mart, there is no need to shop at Whole Foods or expensive gourmet grocery stores.
If I ate at KFC every day, my food costs would jump way up. Spending $10 per day at KFC for lunch, that's $70 a week, $240 a month. Just for lunch. They aren't fooling anyone when they claim eating fast food is cheaper.
Time is an issue for many. People are working two jobs, or they are single parents, they rush home from work and one kid has to be at softball at 7 or they have 30 minutes before they are off to the second job, they often don't have time to make lunch or even go shopping.
I make my own lunch, healthy lunches, and I can tell you it is quite time consuming. I leave for work at 8 am and get home at 7:30 at night, if I had kids too I don't see how I would have time to do all that is needed to do every day and make dinner and lunch for a family as well.
Same here..but in the long run, it's worth the extra effort and time. I prep my meals the night before. Some days, I just have fruit plus peanut butter and some wheat bread at work in lieu of a hot meal.
I used to when I got hungry at work go to the nearest fast food joint, but honestly afterwords, I felt awful. Now, I MAY treat myself once in a while to some chicken, but by far since kicking the habit, i feel much better.
I'd be curious if this is actually representative of a significant percentage of low income people who choose to eat fast food. According to this source there is a distinct pattern of lower income people working fewer hours per week on average. If that is true (and I have no idea didn't dig into source data or methodology) then those who can only afford fast food are also those more likely to have time to prepare healthier inexpensive meals from ingredients.
Regarding how time consuming it is, we used to do most of our cooking in huge batches on the weekends. It's easy to freeze and use throughout the work week, which combined with salads or sandwiches (generally fast and easy to make) kept major food prep time to a minimum during the week.
That's always how we've done it. You have to prep for the entire week if you won't have time then. It's always been cheaper to buy food from a store. Plus, one can still eat healthy at fast food. But, people don't want a salad or a grilled sandwich they want deep fried stuff or burgers piled high with mayo.
I agree with this. Lots of healthy foods are very cheap. People just don't enjoy eating them. (This is also why grain-free and low-carb diets are so popular, because they reduce or even eliminate grains, vegetables, legumes, and fruit). Grains, fruits and vegetables can be found at Wal Mart, there is no need to shop at Whole Foods or expensive gourmet grocery stores.
If I ate at KFC every day, my food costs would jump way up. Spending $10 per day at KFC for lunch, that's $70 a week, $240 a month. Just for lunch. They aren't fooling anyone when they claim eating fast food is cheaper.
It's expensive in more ways than one..over time, the habit will catch up, that's why I stopped. Once in a while I will indulge, but if I don't, i'm not upset. Trust me, I used to love KFC, Popeye's, Mc D's, BK and such..now, with the exception of Royal Farms chicken once in a blue moon, I'm repulsed by fast food, even the mere smell.
I agree that healthy foods can be found at Wal-Mart, as well as Giant and others...
Indeed, and a "we" that was also without children to care for.
People talk about food deserts but studies show they aren't much of a factor in obesity among low-income Americans because:
1. On average the percentage of groceries purchased in supermarkets is about the same whether one lives in a food desert or not.
2. People who live in urban food deserts actually travel slightly less distance to the supermarket than the average across all incomes because of different scale of density.
3. When supermarkets do open in food deserts, it doesn't have much of an affect the buying choices of people in that neighborhood.
More time = yes, more costly = not necessarily. Apples are cheap. Bananas are cheap. Grains are cheap. Pasta is cheap. Potatoes, beans, eggs, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, etc. there are lots of things that aren't very expensive but can be a part of a healthy diet. Healthy food is a lot broader than salmon and organic berries.
As for KFC, I still believe that's more a flavor choice than anything since there are tons of prepared and semi-prepared options that don't take much time and are much healthier. That $20 your family of four spends on fast food could get them a rotisserie chicken, a precut bag of lettuce, and a side like coleslaw or steam in the bag veggies. People choose fast food because it's easy, cheap, but most of all it tastes good.
Again though, we are back to the food deserts. If you don't have a market near you, you can't get the rotisserie chicken, the veggies, etc. It's not about distance, its about time. You might live 15 miles from a market, but you might have to take 2 busses to get there. It could take a couple of hours to do that 15 miles to shop depending how the busses run. Again, it is the two factors, cost and time, that result in people making the easier choice a lot of the time.
That's always how we've done it. You have to prep for the entire week if you won't have time then. It's always been cheaper to buy food from a store. Plus, one can still eat healthy at fast food. But, people don't want a salad or a grilled sandwich they want deep fried stuff or burgers piled high with mayo.
Agree. I get tired of hearing that poor people can only afford fast food or junk food. It's simple enough to do the math and see that they are lying.
Agree. I get tired of hearing that poor people can only afford fast food or junk food. It's simple enough to do the math and see that they are lying.
Although we're far from poor, if we bought fast food for dinner regularly it would really eat into our budget. "It's cheap to buy one burger off the dollar menu" - yeah, and who eats one regular McD's hamburger and that's it? It has to be the whole meal which for us I think is 7 bucks a person or something...$28 plus tax for just dinner...no thank you. I'm making baked drumsticks, yellow rice and broccoli for dinner tonight, $9 total for four people with a couple of drumsticks and some of the rice as leftovers.
When I worked full time I threw big batches of chicken in the oven on Sunday afternoon, walked away to watch the tube with my son for an hour which I would have done anyway, or played outside with him, voila, dinner for several weekdays to come. Rice or pasta: 20 minutes. Probably the same amount of time it would have taken to go to a drive through, sit there waiting, then return home.
It's the taste. We all know it. Fast food is hyperpalatable. Loads of money is spent in R&D and marketing to make it that way. But people hate to admit that. I will, though. I'll be the first, I'm not proud. If I could afford it and I would somehow not gain weight, I'd eat fast food every single day. I have no class, it tastes awesome to me. But I don't want to spend the money and I don't want to make my kids huge or get huge myself. It's not about being morally superior but to an extent it IS a choice.
Interesting article about how fast food is one indulgence that "poor people" can afford to buy for their kids on any kind of regular basis. It makes sense -- they can't buy them the latest toys and devices, but they can get them a Happy Meal now and then.
Next to all the things poor parents truly couldn't afford, junk food was something they could often say "yes" to. Poor parents told me they could almost always scrounge up a dollar to buy their kids a can of soda or a bag of chips. So when poor parents could afford to oblige such requests, they did.
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