Fat Is the New Black!
By Pat Racimora on November 8, 2009 at 3:00 PM in Current Affairs
You no doubt remember Tina Fey’s Saturday Night Live classic line asserting why more and more women were saying they would vote for Barack Obama. It’s because, Fey opined, Hillary is a bitch. She then declares herself a bitch and gleefully adds, Bitch is the New Black!
Female bashing was disgustingly rampant during the last election, but women (and some good men) took notice, so it’s getting just a little harder to be openly sexist. But another group remains fair game for open ridicule and worse.
Obesity appears to be the only remaining socially acceptable condition to openly deride. Sexism, of course, is still with us, as is racism, ageism, and prejudice against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals as well as the physically disabled. But these groups have been making some pretty powerful strides by getting their concerns heard and changing laws as they go. Whereas we will always have bigots who spew ugly slurs until death shuts them up, even they have to now be more guarded, more aware of where they are when they spit out hate.
As Denise Winterman writes in a BBC News Magazine, “Fattism is an acceptable prejudice.” She reports that overweight people are often taunted as they walk down the street. She relays accounts of women being beaten for taking up two seats on the subway (even when empty seats are available) and having beer cans and stones thrown at them by children. Verbal attacks from complete strangers are part of the daily life of obese people.
A while back I did a toon about heavy individuals earning less than their skinnier colleagues (and being less likely to get the job in the first place). But, there is more. Now it turns out, according to a recent study at Johns Hopkins Medical School published in the November issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, that doctors have less respect for their heavy patients; the higher the BMI (body mass index) the lower the respect. Obesity does carry a higher risk of disease and other health problems, so one has to wonder if this attitude negatively affects the care heavy people are getting.
Ironically, Tina Fey’s now classic line about sexism totally slams heavy women in the very same skit!
So, what’s going on here?
One culprit is surely the media and advertisers that keep women, especially white women, feeling “less than” unless they conform to an unreasonable stereotype of what constitutes attractiveness. (Pulling that off sells lots of stuff!) Heavy characters on TV are usually in more minor and subservient roles and played for laughs (although shows with mostly Black characters can be an exception—Black people seem far more tolerant of those who have some meat on their bones). On the other hand, “Berta” on Two-and-a-Half Men is the potty-mouthed housekeeper who is often the brunt of blowback when she asserts her own sexuality. It is apparently amusing to think that Berta thinks she could actually get laid. “Garcia” on Criminal Minds is brainy and sits in front of a computer all the time, a conduit for the thin ones doing all the action. However, one episode was about a handsome man pursuing Garcia. Alas, his motives were impure, and he ends up shooting her.
The women who recite the news are all slim with the exception of Candy Crowley who stands out like a bright red marble in a gravel pit. (We don’t see her much any more though.) Men have it easier (especially with comedy, and sometimes the news), although no contemporary dramatic main male character I know of is other than svelte (well, except for maybe James Gandolfini ’s eerily likeable portrayal of mob boss, Tony Soprano).
The other big factor is, of course, “control,” or the perceived lack of it. Skinnies think that fat people cannot restrain their eating, don’t care about themselves, and are probably lazy and therefore less competent. However, I have never heard anyone say that their goal was to become fat. Fat creeps up on you, and once there taking it off and keeping it off is extremely difficult. I mentioned to a friend, an endocrinologist specializing in obesity, that I thought I would look better weighing 10 pounds less. He said, “Good luck! That won’t be what your body wants to do. It will want it back again.” Yep, he nailed it. I can’t imagine what it would be like to try to dump 50 or 100 pounds.
But bashing fat people may have a price. John Corzine (soon-to-be-ex Governor of New Jersey), in an unsuccessful attempt to smack down his portly opponent, put out a last minute ad featuring Chris Christie’s girth struggling to get out of a limo. Corzine’s team may have gotten some bad advice because we aren’t talking about a small population of voters here. The Center for Disease Control reports that 68% of non-institutionalized adults over the age of 20 are either overweight or obese. This is not a cohort anyone running for office should want to piss off!
So, what do you think?
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I think you’ve hit on something. I think it speaks to the human tendency to pick on the “other”, and as choices have been “taken away”, they’re left to pick on overweight people. It spells trouble, because we’re likely to have more obese people before we have fewer. Since many children are now obese, they’re likely to be obese adults, as weight gain during the developmental years creates extra fat cells that will never go away (I can’t remember how the experts explain it, but it’s different than weight gain as an adult - as a child it actually alters your make up for life).
I don’t know what happened to human compassion - why have we become so judgmental? And why can’t we look at people as individuals, and stop with the generalizations? I’m sure there are some “lazy fat people”, but there are also hardworking ones - just as with anything else. It’s the same “follow the leader and don’t look at details/facts” that got BO elected, IMO.
Why can’t we worry about ourselves and stop focusing on controlling or demeaning others? Why do we make ourselves feel good by making someone else feel bad? Probably the same reason that people voted for BO because he made them feel good about themselves. Maybe a lot of people need to change themSELVES to start feeling good about themselves, and then they won’t have to demean others or follow a “false god”….
Spot on. There are also some thin, lazy people. That One stands out.
What gets me is that the people who often complain the loudest about prejudice are often the ones who are the most prejudiced themselves. What can I do but just shake my head.
lorac
Thank you for that concise and true comment. We are so used to criticizing others, we are condtioned by the media and the entertainment world. The back and forth between PC and badmouthing is enough to put every American on bipolar meds. Shapespeare was right, “Unkindness is the only true deformity.”
Great toon Pat.
I can’t help thinking a lot of the fingers of blame need to be pointed squarely at our own government and the food industry. Together they have managed to all but force feed the american people unhealthy processed foods.
I don’t know about the Government, but the last time I checked, the “food industry” is still a mostly private enterprise, and they respond to the demands of their customers. I suppose they could concoct some sort of highly nutritious gruel and attempt to market it, but what do you think the public would really want?
The ingredients are clearly labeled on ALL packaged and processed foods, and I’ve not yet had someone holding a gun to my head compelling me to by them. With little effort, I can fill a grocery cart with very healthful foods, that will provide my family and me with a balanced, nutritious, and delicious diet. So, don’t point condemning fingers at the food industry, they’ve done a wonderful job of keeping grocery store shelves stocked, and our pantries full.
Yeah but these purveyors of the crap don’t tell you everything they put in it, especially if it is a patented compound they’re lacing it with.
On the other hand, they’ll tell you their food is “organic”….
WFT? ALL food is ORGANIC with the exception of some items such as sodium chloride (table salt) and the ever present water.
The overall point I was making is that the products on grocery store shelves are the result of free choice, they represent the will of the public in general. If people wish to spend twice as much for an apple because it is labeled “organic”, more power to them. I think they’re silly of course, countless studies have shown over and over that organic products are no safer or nutritious than their regular counter parts. And I never understood the unreasoned fear people have of products that have hard to pronounce chemicals in them. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) might sound really nasty, but it occurs naturally in mushrooms, and helps give them their delicious flavor. ALL natural foods can be broken down into complicated sounding chemicals. Di-hydrogen oxide kills thousands, if not millions, of people annually worldwide, and it’s in most of our foods. And the good/bad classification of various forms of sugar is also mystifying to me. The HCl acid in your stomach makes little distinction between glucose,sucrose,fructose, or dextrose, they all get zapped, and the chemical energy released fuels our bodies.
Monsodium glutamate in naturally-occurring levels is fine for most people although my wife is allergic to it in quantities above that naturally found (I have spent several evenings in the ER with Katmoon because MSG). Where it isn’t natural, e.g., most vegetables and the like, it is an adulterant in any form and should be listed. Added food-grade glutamates are 1.3% impurities by weight, which in chemical terms is quite a lot, especially for someone who is allergic.
As for dihydrogen (mon)oxide (water), it is in everything because of its unique function as both a polar solvent and and hydrogen-bonder.
With respect to sugars, while HCl can destroy sugars, the sugars are only absorbed by the body depending on their chirality. Only right-handed sugars can be used. Left-handed are either passed through or accumulate.
“It’s not necessarily the poison, it’s the dosage”, so the saying goes.
I should have also said in my comment, that I do get where you’re coming from Onofre and understand your POV. I just have my allergies and so does Katmoon so we’re very careful about what we eat and even then, we’ve had some food that was either improperly labeled or not labeled by design. Either way, it ends up the same way–in the ER.
Some people are so violently allergic to peanuts, that producers of manufactured food stuffs label peanuts as an ingredient even though they don’t intentionally add peanuts to the product, they’re being cautious because they realize the possibility of cross contamination of minute quantities of peanut dust from other products is possible.
I guess I’m just generally sensitive to the reflexive hysteria and misconceptions that many people have about food. Alar on apples comes to mind. After very rigorous studies, it was determined that the chance of getting cancer (or ill) from the amount generally used on apples, was 1 in 8 billion, in other words, it MIGHT make one person on the entire planet sick, if you disallow for the margin of error. Coconut oil also had a black eye for a while, but more reasonable studies now show it to be highly beneficial.
Agreed
Me too, Oonofre. I think it is like voting, people are lazy and do not educate themselves, nor take responsibility for what they put into their bodies. I am glad to do those things, and do not put myself into situations where I would eat suspect food. Gatherings with friends or family, I bring my own, behind the scenes, discussed in advance with the host.
The other side is there is a real ugly prejudice against overweight people. Just like any bias some by some has been earned, but as a “group”, wow enough already.(not to you Oonofre just a general statement) I do not believe anyone with extra weight wants it, but I won’t make any excuses for those who insist on killing themselves with food either.
Perhaps you should consider keeping some Epi-pens around, and be familiar with their usage. But you probably already do.
Onofre, the other factor is that I have RA, which believe it or not is related to allergies; as being found out in recent clinical studies. You have two receptors which react when you have an allergic reaction one is the immune system response and the other is in the release of certain stomach histamines as well. Because I am on a study right now, I can’t risk throwing it off by wrong take on any food ingredient on my allergy list. I am literally symptom free of all RA symptoms for the first time.
Curiously there is also pharm grade MSG which is put into vaccines. H1N1 vaccine contains it. Because I have had to become obsessive over food contents, I am equally obsessive about the benefits of a lower body weight, which I work every day at keeping.
For me I see a market of food products and OTC pharms that are not needed but desired. We do not need 18 brands of aspirin at any store IMHO. Same with nearly 100 salad dressing choices. This is product seduction; similar to fashion (have you tasted the latest..etc.)
We are familiar with the Epi-pen,
after taking the 1000 mg of Benadryl at reaction onset.
Sorry. When people walk past celery,carrots, and milk — three relative inexpensive food items — and walk out with coke, chips and cup cakes I’m wondering when we start to talk about personal responsibility? If you press your foot to the floor you get a ticket. If you abuse your body with no exercise and poor dietary choices, you get fat. It’s really not that much of a mystery.
Thanks for reminding me beebop, I gotta run to the store, I’m out of beer.
oooooo, that hurt.
I have sworn off wine until I drop the five pounds I’ll need to have available between Thanksgiving and Christmas!
: )
That isn’t my point, though, beebop. I am practically a vegetarian now because I have a genetic proclivity towards elevated cholesterol. My point is that foods should be completely labeled as to contents. The only reason for not labeling is that they might have to actually change their concoction. I’ve spent too many evenings in the ER because of faulty, nonexistent, or spurious labeling. I’m a chemist–tell me what’s in the g-d stuff and I’ll decide whether I want put it in my body by purchasing it.
Onofre’s arm -
my point is more basic and directed at massive farm subsidies for genetic modified (for higher fat content) corn grown with essentially mandated amounts of insecticides, pesticides, herbicides and hormones - to be made into corn syrup which is given further incentives by the government to be added to everything and anything processed.
There is not much of the farm or food industries that are free enterprise these days. It’s corporatism. Have you seen the movie King Corn? Or Food Inc.?
Sure we each have personal responsibility, but the government and the food industry have big feet on the scale and they don’t need to be there either and I for one, don’t like paying for their added weight.
If they take away every last subsidies, label every single additive whether it is chemical or “natural” and give customers complete information on all possible side effects, then you can talk about customer’s free choice and personal responsibility.
Like Ferd, I have dealt with emergency room visits due to “invisible additives”. EVERYTHING needs to be on the label and should be required so by law. Tell me why “fresh meat” these days are injected with additives, preservatives, hormones, salt and flavor enhancers. “Fresh fruits and vegetables have been sprayed with chemicals to make them shine, hold their color, change their color, preserve their outer skin.
That’s exactly right. If they want to sell me food products, I should be able to know everything they put in said products. For all the whining I hear about a little mercury in shots that are received only once in a lifetime, periodically, or even annually, I don’t hear the same complaints about food labeling, which will kill them a lot quicker.
Wow, my cat got to the keyboard again.
That should say, “For all the whining I hear about a little mercury in shots that are received only once in a lifetime, periodically, or even annually, I don’t hear the same complaints about the lack of knowledge about what is being consumed, due to the lack of labeling, which will kill them a lot quicker.
Bottom line: consumers drive the machinery, nobody COMPELLS them to buy food products that are less than healthful, or are produced in unethical ways. When consumers are willing to pay ten cents more per can for dolphin safe tuna, ALL of the tuna producers will eventually get on board and use dolphin safe tuna fishing methods. When people boycott shrimp provided by fishermen who carelessly slaughter turtles, those fishermen will either go out of business, or use TEDs (turtle escape devices) while trolling for shrimp. If enough people refuse to eat foods sweetened with corn syrup, no amount of subsidies will prevent food producers from modifying their process. If you don’t like the products in the grocery stores, DON’T BLAME THE PRODUCERS, BLAME THE CONSUMERS!!!
Not long ago I read a great article about the ridiculous perspective people have regarding food. The author was in a line at a deli in an airport that was being held up by a young woman who was peppering the guy preparing her vegetarian sandwich with questions like “Is the lettuce genetically modified?. Could it have been irradiated? Is it organic?”. This is a woman who more than likely would soon enter without hesitation or fear, a pressurized aluminum tube designed by complete strangers, propelled by highly explosive liquid fuel, that will blast off to altitudes greater than 30,000 feet, at speeds greater than 500 mph, driven by pilots for all she knows had been drinking Margaritas! And she’s deeply concerned that her lettuce is genetically modified??? PLEASE! You don’t think twice about jumping into your car and driving to the store for a lottery ticket, but you’ll have a better chance of being killed by that short trip in your car, than you’ll EVER have from eating ANYTHING available at your local grocery store. KEEP THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE!
I received a mass-mailer from Taylor Marsh complaining about how 64 democrats in the House sold women out Although I agree with the “sell-out” message, I still resent her for her sell-out of Hillary during the primaries–how she flipped so quickly to the BO camp.
Yes Pat! Right message–Great art as usual. I am depressingly wondering how many more earth ages before women become the next black?
Taylor Marsh is a hypocrite and has no room to bitch about anything. She made her lumpy bed and can sleep in it–she can shut up, too.
I got the same email from TM, and it made me laugh out loud. I followed her regularly until she herself started to drink the kool-aid. How’s that
beverage tasting now, Taylor? What really kills is how surprized she and others sound when they have to face the truth about President Pinnochio himself. BARF!!
I got the same email. Guess it’s a hold over from registering on her site when she was in the Hillary camp.
I got the hand out fund raiser from 0bama. I have never ever ever sent one damn thing to his website. He could only have gotten my email from HRC. If he has her list and is using it, I am more than a little annoyed. My support for her campaign did not transfer just cause he styled himself a “democrat.”
I never get anything from That One, and I was on Hillary’s list, too, so I don’t think that was the source.
Pat, you’ve really touched a nerve with this one. Fat jokes are not funny, but we still hear them all the time on TV and in the movies. They get me sick.
There is a new heart-rending movie called Precious about a very fat black girl who is impregnated by her father. It could just as easily have been a very fat white girl. Imagine how horrible, to be loved by nobody because you are fat. How unthinkable, for a young girl (or boy) to be ridiculed from an early age for being fat and unattractive. Enough! It’s time to forcefully reject this kind of abuse pretending to be humor.
I concur 100%.
I don’t think we have to wait to become the new black along with the obese……as we know from the 2008 campaign ,right now its okay to be a woman in these “new” enlightened times. It is okay, to be a woman now, as long as you represent the right values and support the right administration views or the right network. I can remember when i called the MSNBC and CNN and told them they were hypocrites because when OB became the choice you saw alot of new black faces on the news programming ,I asked them where all these people were before. the same with women only thing is they are still treated as less than the others and if you are overweight than too bad for you!{maybe they are waiting for pelosi to run for Pres.} As a society we are a disgrace ,we do not value others as equals unless we meet the standards , set by the ones put out there for people to absorb! They do not respect older citizens, as other societies do,and as far as women , we have seen how this goes,just look how the Obama and the media treated women supporters that didn’t tow their line and they used sexism all the time. I believe we see the discrimination of overweight daily and the media is guilty in their smirky condensation and mockery… especially of women .Maybe obama should talk to some of the corn lobbyists that put many versions of corn syrup in our foods along with the rest of our altered food.
In the real world, we all vary in size, shape, and physique. I see attractive people all the time who are not razor thin.
It does bother me though, to see people, perhaps in their early thirties, who are so heavy that they are using the handicapped buggies while shopping. They are in for a difficult old age.
In politics, didn’t Huckabee lose a lot of weight? It sure is hard to drop the pounds, but it can lead to healthy benefits.
“Judging people by outward appearances makes as much sense as trying to judge which eggs are going to be rotten inside based on their color.”
—Old Triskelian proverb
Something like 62% of adults and 34% of American children are now overweight or obese. Prejudice based on weight is a bad thing. On the other hand, it bothers me that we seem to be turning into a nation of overweight hamsters. I do think the food industry should take a big part of the blame.
Take a look at the percentage of fat displayed on your average box of frozen fish sticks. Look at the sodium content, while you’re at it. It takes either a special effort or a sad degree of neglect to screw up a naturally healthy food that badly.
What’s the problem? If people can’t read or are too lazy to look at the listed ingredients, that’s their problem. My concern is that everything in the particular foodstuff be labeled. It is the unknown stuff that can put one in the hospital. Once labeled, it is up to the consumer to due their own due diligence.
If you purchase a bag of chips that has salt listed in the second position, you shouldn’t buy it. How difficult is that to understand?
Rats–got ahead of myself. That should read, “it is up to the consumer to do their own due diligence.
I know that this is going to go over like a fart in church with some people, but unchecked obesity is a real problem.
The taking of medication for diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea, joint issues, impaired breathing and on and on by people younger and younger when losing weight will solve these problems is empidemic. I know from having been married to someone who could not “say no.”
Wheel chairs, gurneys and other medical equipment has had to be made wider, larger and better reinforced. These costs are being passed along to consumers.
Smokers, drug users, alcohol abusers, and yes — people who abuse food — do need our sympathy and understanding, but they also need to understand that they are pursuing a course of action that is dangerous to them, has the potential to deprive their families by an early death, affects their earning power and so forth. It should not be a source of amusement, but they should not expect to be coddled. They need to get with a program.
Oooooh beebop - if you’re eating meat/dairy, you’re throwing stones while living in a glass house….. high cholesterol, heart attacks, strokes…. just a thought….
I should have added a
- It reads tougher than it was in my head!
No offense taken.
I just think we all could use a little bit of “everything in moderation, nothing to excess.” Don’t know where I read that, but it seemed sensible.
17 years ago, I gained 25 pounds, and then I got pregnant. None of it was planned, but there you have it. I cannot begin to tell you the abusive and dismissive remarks and treatment I got from some of the doctors. Not the nurses, but the doctors. I knew several women who were heavier than I who had gone through pregnancies who seemed, from what they said, to have been treated well by their doctors, so I didn’t feel I had anyone to talk to. I felt ashamed. I honestly wasn’t obese, but I was overweight, and I was treated like I had committed a crime. I’m so glad you wrote this post. I’m sure it’s more commonplace than people would like to admit.
beebop, You should know that if a person feels they are going to be treated badly by their doctor, they won’t go to their doctor until there is no other option. By that time, treatment will cost more if it isn’t too late for treatment. I have no problem with a doctor pointing out an issue with weight. As a matter of fact, if I’ve gained a few pounds and I go to a doctor, I expect her to mention it and if she doesn’t I don’t think much of her as a doctor, but there is a difference between giving medical advice in a professional manner and being denigrating and dismissive towards overweight patients. If someone has an eating disorder, I would think we would want to encourage them to seek help from a doctor, not avoid doctors for fear of ridicule and derision.
Fighting obesity with all kinds of weight loss drugs, exercise programs, diet pills, and special diets is a big lucrative business. Fat people are featured on many TV programs, even though they are the butt of many crude jokes. Formerly fat movie stars and high profile people are frequently featured in before and after ads to sell weight loss programs. For example, Valerie Bertinelli, Kirstie Alley, Oprah who struggle with keeping weight off. Many are also featured in news reports because they regained the pounds they lost. The media make big money by publicizing the obesity problem among children and adults. Shows like The Biggest Loser have large followings. Dozens of publications and scandal sheets sell their magazines by using cover pages that advertise new diet, weight loss and exercise program. These are prominently displayed at almost every grocery store checkout counter for you to thumb through while waiting your turn in line. A number of high profile people also try to make the case that “fat is beautiful.” Some develop clothing lines that cater to the portly or well endowed woman. So, although many people laugh at fat kids and fat adults and poke fun at them, many other people are exploiting the desire to be slim and are lining their own fat wallets as they laugh all the way to the bank.
The cost of paying for obesity related medical problems is around 70 billion a year. Two thirds of the US is overweight or obese. It is a serious and growing problem. I would guess that 90% of it could be avoided if people would change their eating habits and get more exercise. The black and white food label didn’t even exist in 1980 and yet obesity was half of what it was in 2002 among adults and a third as prevelent in children.
So, yes, there should be a penalty for bad life style choices and I’m actually not in the least prejudiced against fat people as long they are placed in a more expensive health care insurance plan.
I am in basic agreement with the need to be healthy (which is not synonymous with thin, by the way). But abuse and ridicule are not going to be of any help to anyone struggling with food.
People can choose not to drink alcihol or smoke. But no one can choose not to eat. And we are biologically programmed to crave fat. It’s tough.
Obesity is a willpower problem.
One can either eat the right amount of healthy food and get adequate exercise or not.
Certainly there are people whose course is harder than others’ and there are exceptions for some physical conditions and certain medications. But in the main, people are overweight because they eat too much, often of poor quality food, and exercise too little. Denial of this basic fact is imo the greater part of the problem.
I do not make remarks upon others’ appearance and do not condone or tolerate remarks made about others’ appearance. Nor in fact, do I think weight is an overarching quality in attractiveness.
But it is certainly a factor in health, health care cost, and insurance cost, and I don’t appreciate either the increased costs to Medicaid and Medicare I must pay despite being ineligible for either or having been priced out of the insurance market in part by people who refuse to control themselves.
Yeah, I mean after all that 45 degree bend to put stuff back on the bottom shelf after you shop is a genetic default. We shouldn’t fault them for it.
In general I believe in personal responsibility and making educated choices then being responsible for their consequences. That being said, one of the reasons why I’ve been concerned with the executive branch over the last few years culminating with the current administration is that what happens behind closed doors in Washington really does affect the kitchen table, bread and butter issues we all deal with on a daily basis.
Here’s some food for thought….
What is our subsidy structure in this country as set by Congress and the USDA? It is the exact opposite of the food pyramid that is promoted by HHS - fruits and vegetables barely get any promotion by our government compared to meats and grains (corn). Humans crave fat, sugar and salt because they were harder to come by in the past and our ancestors were driven to seek them out. We have this drive because in appropriate amounts they are essential for life. But what happens when subsidies make things that used to be more difficult to attain (because of availability and cost) now easily attainable and affordable? We still have the drive but not the previous constraints. Then through the miracle of science yet another use for corn is created - that of a sweetener, and at the same time artificial sweeteners are created that are hundreds of times more sweet than sugar. Our natural sweet tooth beast is encouraged to crave even sweeter things.
So what’s worse, what’s the order of the sin…greed (by private companies and government “FAT” cats wanting to win elections) at the expense of human health, sloth (by some not fully embracing personal responsibility for their own health), or gluttony (overindulging deep seeded cravings)? My gut tells me that what we are seeing today is a dangerous emulsion of all of these things.
On a side note, some years back a major grocery chain got in trouble because it was taking it’s old and in some cases almost rotten produce from suburban stores and then sending it to it’s inner city stores - and charging more for it to boot. There’s something to chew on….
You make good points: and the BHO administration is filled with ag lobbyists, notably Monsanto stooges Vilsack as Secy Agriculture and Taylor as senior advisor to the FDA.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/10/10/Obama-Monsanto-Alliance-Too-Close-for-Comfort.aspx
Also the IMF reports that food costs have risen 43% since 2007 (pet food has risen more than that); produce certainly costs more than Mcmuffins. One can only expect this will get worse as transnationals increase their global landgrabs of other countries’ farmlands to ensure “food security” for wealthier nations and bioengineering firms design ever more sterile crops.
I remember discussing agricultural practices back in the 90’s when I was getting my Anthropology degree. This was the time when slash and burn practices came to the attention of the US. I think there were smoke clouds coming across the Pacific or something like that. Before then I had no idea of the business potential for engineered crops in the global marketplace - it was eye opening and I can’t even imagine what it is like now.
The discussion centered on how in some ways it was great to have crops that had all these consistent benefits and genetic protection from disease, environmental fluctuations and pests but it had the potential to drive small farmers around the world out of the marketplace. The engineered (hybrid) seed was more expensive and because of the wonders of genetics if it could produce some seed to be used for the next year’s crops farmers had no idea what genetic traits they’d get. There was just no way they could continue to buy engineered seed every year. Seed costs along with other issues meant that farmers weren’t practicing as much crop rotation or letting land to go fallow for a set time for the soil to recharge, and the long used practice of burning seemed to get out of hand. It was a vicious cycle.
There is an interesting show on PBS called “The Botany of Desire” that speaks to human impacts on plant evolution – and in some cases how we have greatly impacted (negatively) genetic diversity, potentially leading to the continued and increased need for pesticides and fertilizers.
It might be helpful if people read Anglachel’s posts on October 6 and October 7 where she analyzes and explains that people who live at the poverty line in this country literally cannot afford to eat a healthy diet. They must eat, to survive, but a healthy diet which will not lead to obesity is out of reach for them. Critiques of peoples’ “personal responsibility” can be an oversimplification.
Well said janicen!
The most ubiquitous and easily solved problem with the American diet is the basic over consumption of calories, period. People are mostly unaware that they don’t need to consume as much as they do and still be healthy. Multiple studies show conclusively that animals that are given a basic minimum of calories and nutrients, are far more healthy in the long run than are animals that are given lavish diets.
janicen, you claim that poverty is a cause for an unhealthy diet, but I disagree. The poor disproportionally represent the obese not because they’re forced to eat foods that are unhealthy, but because it is more likely they simply eat too much food, too often, and lead lethargic lives. An extremely healthy and quite inexpensive diet can be easily obtained from any grocery store. I know, I’ve been a poverty stricken, yet successfully athletic standout, while living off a cheapo diet from the local Winn-Dixie.
While you were poverty stricken, did you have kids to feed? People living at the poverty line have families to feed, and spending a couple of dollars on hamburger meat goes a lot farther than trying to sustain your kids with enough calories to survive on fruits and vegetables. Calory for calory, fruit is much more expensive than hamburger meat. Hamburger meat goes a lot further when there are many little tummies to fill.
It’s way to simple to smuggly declare that we with higher incomes and smaller waistlines are just smarter and better and care more about our health than the lowly poor people with their paunches. When you break it down, as Anglachel did in her October 7 post titled, “Do The Math” you realize that it’s mathematically impossible for people living at the poverty line to eat a healthy diet. Link below…
http://www.anglachelg.blogspot.com/
I meant to say, “…to eat a healthy diet and be able to maintain a calory level for themselves and their families that will provide them with the energy to survive…”
The obesity epidemic globally is more likely a complex product of rising incomes, economic growth, urbanization etc coupled with a shift towards less physically demanding work and diets with a higher proportion of fats, saturated fats and sugars.
It doesn’t explain the massive rise since 1980 in the US. Poverty has gone up a few percentage points. The number of overweight and obese adults has more than doubled.
I agree again with janicen.
My family made a commitment to eat health only about a year ago. Organics and good protein, low fat. It is VERY expensive, enough so to cause to us have to cut back in other ways. Organic fruits and veggies are wonderful, at least a third again as much. Organic milk and butter are far superior tasting, but almost twice as much. Fish, organic chicken, free range and organic eggs, grain-fed beef, good quality nuts, are twice the amount of their less healthy counterparts.
I would also toss in the factor of being so busy–coming home from work exhausted. To start a meal from scratch is really more than one can face sometimes, especially if you pass a great pizza place on the way home or have a couple of pot pies to stick into the microwave.
Having said that, one can learn to become more creative–e.g., crock pot meals started in the morning, more use of high protein less expensive stuff (beans). But, still, you can’t live on just beans.
Another inhibiting factor of fresh fruits and vegetables - they are highly perishable. If they are not eaten within days, they go bad. For a family on a limited budget it doesn’t seem to make economic sense to weekly toss a chunk of the food budget in the garbage.
Using hamburger as your only example of cheap protein helps to support my point. Pound for pound, chicken has just as much protein, and much less fat if you remove the skin, and I could buy boneless, skinless chicken thighs for 1/3 the cost of lean ground beef. Eggs are also cheap protein. And as far as fruit is concerned, bananas are excellent food, and they’ve always been ridiculously inexpensive.
I remember an incident at the Winn-Dixie years ago when I was a proverbial “starving student”. I was waiting in line behind a group of people who were obviously–and very vocally–stocking up for a bar-b-q/picnic. They must have slapped two dozen steaks, a half dozen tubs of potato salad, a couple of bags of sirloin burgers, buns, ketchup, and mustard on the conveyor belt. When it was rung up, one of the picnickers pulled out food stamps to pay for it all. I looked down at my cart full of bananas, chicken, rice-a-roni, ramen noodles, tomatoes, milk, eggs, onions, carrots, and canned beans, and did the math. I almost filled my cart with food that cost as much as only three of the steaks going into the bags of the “poverty” party ahead of me, and I of course would have to pay for mine with the money I earned from the almost full time job I had while taking a full load at the university. It gets worse. They did some quick counting and realized that they were one steak short (cousin Jim wanted a steak also) so they sent someone back to get another steak. Still worse, when all of the “food” was paid for with the food stamps, they pushed forward the cart that was full of beer, pop, and cartons of cigaretts that were purchased with the cash that was obviously freed up by the food stamps.
This is one of the most graghic examples I’ve witnessed of the lousy and unethical choices made by the those supposedly living below the poverty line, but it is certainly not the only time I’ve seen this type of abuse.
For a little more than the $8.50 that one super-sized double quarter pounder meal costs, I can crock pot a pork roast with carrots, potatoes, onions, and string beans that will feed me and my two boys two night’s worth of filling dinners. We RARELY eat out, I can’t bear the thought of paying for one meal the amount of money that will feed my family for a week. So, don’t lecture me on the impossibility of the poor affording adequate diets. I’ll bet that 9 out of 10 of the adults in this catagory also drink alcohol, or smoke, or both, and just one parent will devote enough resources to these habits that could more appropriately feed several kids.
You hit on something here that is rarely discussed, Onofre, cooking. Many people buy prepared food; frozen dinners and the like. I think the ability to cook is waning fast. I don’t consider bbq cooking, and have never purchased a prepared potato salad or any other type of salad from a grocery store in my life. We don’t eat out that often either, and only order something we normally wouldn’t have at home. You can eat very well paring the knowledge of as you explain chicken without the skin and cooking skills. A fresh head of cauliflower goes a lot further than a tiny little frozen package. I make at least one homemade large pot of soup a week in the winter, with left over chicken, fish or pork; beef is eaten rarely.
Not cooking in the traditional sense also takes away from a certain family tradition of waiting for dinner to cook, not heat up, the aroma of the meal sets the stage for a good dinner. Along with tobacco and alcohol, I would have to add, soda or pop or pepsi or whatever it is called. Koolaid, twinkies, chips..nasty food, that should be eaten sparingly and as a treat not daily as a food item.
Anectdotal evidence is meaningless. It’s the same evidence the right wingers present to justify their opposition to social programs like Medicare. “Medicare is bad because some people cheat!” I’m not saying all poor people are virtuous and are mereley victims, but evidence (as in the post I directed you to earlier) suggests that there may be more going on than simply that some people are just better and smarter and care more about their health than others. Whole Foods type supermarkets don’t locate in poor neighborhoods, not because they hate poor people, but because they don’t do enough business there because poor people cannot afford to shop at Whole Foods. There’s a reason why the Whole Foods type markets are located in affluent neighborhoods. Affluent people can afford to shop at Whole Foods. You and Michelle Obama can lecture all day long on how all people need to do is “…eat like I do…” but that really is an oversimplification. There are other factors.
The numbers in the article you refer to aren’t even anecdotal, they’re fictional, and utter bullshit, like the rest of the article and it’s conclusions.
1. The incomes don’t even come close to minimum wage. If they were truly that poor, and had kids, they would qualify for any number of assistance programs.
2. After they paid for rent, food, and utilities, they earmark $600/mo for child support!? That’s $7200 a year! How many freakin’ kids do they have, 12?
3. Subtract the $3 jar of salsa, and the $1 green pepper (green peppers are tasty, but not a great value) from her “anecdotal” $6.61 pot of vegetarian chili for four, and the price becomes $2.61, or 65 cents per serving instead of $1.65 per serving. Since she used her anecdotal pot of chili as a representative multiplier for an entire grocery budget, there would be a 253% greater difference between her grocerey bill with the souped up chili, and the basic chili meal, assuming that’s all they ate.
4. Essentially, ALL of the numbers in her fictional example are skewed in the desired direction (down for income, up for expenditures) to prove her dubious point.
5. ALL of the figures in the article are fictional, the conclusions are based on that fiction, so the the claims that it is impossible for the poor to get adequate diets is in no way logically proven by this nonsense.
And you chide me for presenting anecdotes and over-simplifications? Puh-leeze!
Great cartoon Pat. And it triggered such a great debate. Dr. David Kessler( FDA Clinton Adminstration) has a fascinating book out now about the intentional “engineering” of super palatable food by the fast and chain food industry. The layering upon layering of different fats, sugars, and salts that can actually change the chemistry in the brain, release pleasure nuerotransmitters and cause cravings. Basically Buffalo wings with blue cheese= crack! Makes sense to me. Right now the thought of a spinach salad does nothing for me. But just the memory of gooey cheese-y spinach dip with salty pita chips has me salivating at 8AM.
I don’t know if that analogy works.
Probably 90 percent of the people I know I would consider somewhat fat. But the “black population” is supposedly only what? 12 or 13 percent?
how about FAT is New American?
I too need to lose some FAT! Little by little, day by day.
LadyD, I right there with you on needing to drop a few pounds.
Up until my late forties, I could drop 3 to 5 pounds in a good workout or ballgame.
Since then, I struggle to lose those pounds unless it is 90 degrees when I do yardwork.
As some discussed upthread, I do think that lower income people have a harder time, for many of the filling, larger quantity dishes are very high calorie and fat content.
The most expensive items we purchase are fresh fruits and vegetables.
When they killed off my thyroid finally my weight started to go up - I’ve managed to stop it and decrease it somewhat but you are sooo correct - at 53 and being disabled it’s really hard to find the energy to work out. Thank GOD I take the dog out 50 TIMES A DAY (lol it seems) or I’d become a potted plant. (snicker) taking a lot of meds doesn’t help either.
Based on the discussions here I did a little searching on things like “produce in the inner city” and “grocery stores in the inner city.” What is interesting is that there are a lot of articles about the dearth of grocery stores offering healthy choices in many inner cities - within relatively easy commuting and transportation distance. Convenience stores and fast food seem to be much more prevalent. Finally, there was a statistical study done of childhood obesity and proximity to convenience stores and fast food restaurants - there appears to be a statistical link.
This doesn’t absolve people of personal responsibility and putting their lives in the appropriate perspective (focusing the most on health and well-being of themselves and their children - not that most people don’t but this sometimes means giving up other pleasures or making an extra effort) but it would be nice if we as a people stopped the blame game and focused more on making better choices more easily available to everyone. Identifying problems is important but I’m kind of old school - I’d rather fix the problem than fix the blame on someone.
Childhood Obesity and Neighborhood Food-Store Availability in an Inner-City Community
http://www.academicpedsjnl.net/article/S1876-2859(09)00121-1/abstract
Survey: Healthy Foods Absent from City Convenience Stores
http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/index.cfm?id=1636
My fingers slipped and I didn’t complete the first link so here it is.
Childhood Obesity and Neighborhood Food-Store Availability in an Inner-City Community
http://www.academicpedsjnl.net/article/S1876-2859(09)00121-1/abstract