Yeah, that's the diet of the vast majority of Americans. Sportscaster Al Michaels has famously never knowingly eaten a vegetable, and I have a friend who claims the same.
People on food stamps make poor food choices for the same reasons they are on welfare, because they are overwhelmingly irresponsible people. Yes, there are exceptions, no doubt. But most people on food stamps are just irresponsible.
There are areas of the country that actually are healthy food deserts.
Local food retail stores can influence what food the local population buys and consumes. It takes more management and equipment to offer a good selection of things like fresh produce than it does to offer processed foods in bags or cans.
People receiving SNAP benefits are less likely to travel a great distance in a car to get a better selection of healthy food than their local mini-mart or gas station offer. And that is if they have access to a car to travel.
The time and energy cost to prepare food must be considered. People value convenience and consider bang for the buck when purchasing food to satiate their hunger. Ready to eat calorie dense foods containing a high percentage of fat fill people up quickly and relatively inexpensively. Yes you can buy lots of healthy rice and beans for $13, but then you need to spend a lot of time cooking those before you can eat them.
Some Medicare Advantage plans provide certain amounts of monthly $ credit on a card that can be used to purchase food. But only certain foods considered "healthy" can be purchased. Candy, ice cream, cookies, soda, many processed snack foods can't be purchased. For example most cookies can't be purchased, but granola cereal (some of which contains more sugar and fat than the cookies) can be purchased.
Liberal here, since the government is paying for this food they should put much greater limits on the types of food that can be purchased. It will be much better for the kids dependent on parent food choices.
I volunteer in our local food pantry and we only give out high quality healthy food. You won't find any potato chips or soda or anything like that being given out by our pantry.
Do you think companies that make Fritos and Coke, etc. are going to agree to let the government make it illegal for people who get food stamps to buy them?
Calorie dense foods. A frozen pizza, a pint of ice cream, and bag of chips is going to leave me feeling full. A bag of broccoli and carrots? Not so much.
Also, have you ever gone grocery shopping while hungry? You make poor choices.
Soda or soad as some of us know it, that has 0 value and should probably be regulated more like cigs or alcohol.
Agree with you on pizza and ice cream, but potato chips definitely don't give me that full feeling.
Also soft drinks should basically be a controlled substance on the level of alcohol drinks at this point.
Calorie dense foods. A frozen pizza, a pint of ice cream, and bag of chips is going to leave me feeling full. A bag of broccoli and carrots? Not so much.
Also, have you ever gone grocery shopping while hungry? You make poor choices.
Soda or soad as some of us know it, that has 0 value and should probably be regulated more like cigs or alcohol.
Agree with you on pizza and ice cream, but potato chips definitely don't give me that full feeling.
Also soft drinks should basically be a controlled substance on the level of alcohol drinks at this point.
The world is getting obese specifically because these calorie dense foods are not filling.
You could 1,000 calories worth of doughnuts in 2 minutes and feel like you never even ate 30m later.
If you ate 1,000 calories worth of broccoli or carrots you would puke because it's so much food. That's over 5 lbs of carrots and over 6 pounds of broccoli.
Liberal here, since the government is paying for this food they should put much greater limits on the types of food that can be purchased. It will be much better for the kids dependent on parent food choices.
I volunteer in our local food pantry and we only give out high quality healthy food. You won't find any potato chips or soda or anything like that being given out by our pantry.
Unfortunately, that's not how our government works. Who do you think are the loudest voices in the food space that the government is listening to? The food lobbies throw $40 million a year at them, topped by Coca-Cola. Junk food makers wouldn't want to get cut out of the spending by consumers on SNAP. That would be a big hit to sales.
Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, AB InBev and 27 other companies spend close to $40 million a year on issues including trade and taxes in an effort to make their voices heard by lawmakers and regulators.
many poor people live in “food deserts”, places without good access to fresh produce. Also, fruits and vegetables cost more than cheap frozen and processed foods. Also, many poor people lack sufficient health education and aren’t brought up in environments and cultures where health, wellness, and exercise are a priority or talked about.
obviously we’d love to have more healthy people. I however would blame it more on these factors than on the individuals for having a moral shortcoming for buying unhealthy food, or even blaming these decades-old problems on our current president hahahaha.
Go open a fresh produce store in a "food desert". Let's see how long you stay in business when there is no interest in what you're selling. There should absolutely be more regulations on what items are SNAP eligible.
There are successful urban farms in many so called food deserts. They do quite well. I wonder if they're equipped to take food stamps.
Why is this a thread. Nobody in America knows how to buy healthy food. + healthy food options are becoming a thing for those who can afford it. Non story: low income people also buy the same junk everyone else buys & is conditioned to buy.
Don't go after them -- go after the education we do & how much power the lobbies for these companies have/how much of their advertisements we're forced to see.
Fruits and vegetables, legumes etc are cheaper than frozen and processed foods. people don't want them because they don't taste good and take time to prepare. Also people are addicted to junk food…not just people on food stamps.
The ‘food desert’ thing is overstated imo. Mainly applies to those in very rural, remote areas that have to drive 1 hr to the grocery store.
Fruits and vegetables, legumes etc are cheaper than frozen and processed foods. people don't want them because they don't taste good and take time to prepare. Also people are addicted to junk food…not just people on food stamps.
The ‘food desert’ thing is overstated imo. Mainly applies to those in very rural, remote areas that have to drive 1 hr to the grocery store.
Fruits taste good, most vegetables do not. Most vegetables have antinitrients that stop the human body from absorbing the nutrients such as phytates, oxalates, lectins, etc.:
Here are 9 things in the top 10 of things bought, and they all are perfectly healthy:
Fluid Milk, Ground Beef, Bag Snacks, Cheese, Baked Breads, Cold Cereal, Fresh Chicken, Frozen Handhelds and Snacks, Lunchmeat.
Why does the right have to hate on the underserved all the time? This whole thing is just another case, and the OP with his user name "fjb" has about as much class as gutter rat.
Coca-Cola, Sprite and other soft drinks are the most commonly-bought items in the $135 billion-a-year Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, new research shows.
