| It is somewhat frightening when one considers the unhealthy diet that most Americans have adopted these days. Incidents of obesity and diabetes are drastically on the rise to the point where these two conditions are becoming something most Americans have to look forward to, and all to often it is a condition that manifests itself in children in middle school and high school. Though diabetes can now be controlled pretty well with medical intervention the underlying fact is that it will one day it will kill those with the condition. They may go blind. Circulation problems may one day cause them to lose a leg or two. Their kidneys may eventually fail. Just because you can eat something it doesn’t make it food. Products that are bad for you are priced to encourage those with little money to buy them. Just because you can buy something is a grocery store doesn’t mean they should be eaten. What would happen if certain unhealthy foods that lack useful nutrition to humans were excluded from eligibility for payment with food stamps? If you were on food stamps and suddenly faced with the fact that you can no longer buy snack cakes wouldn’t you consider providing fruit for a snack to your family instead? It is difficult to change the shopping habits of people, but if we were to give a responsible nudge to those on a budget to make better choices, we could help prevent diet based disease down the road which will lessen the burden of the tax payers. It may sound easy on the surface, but you can bet that Hostess and Frito Lay will lobby this action to death. They may even add vitamins to their products to make them more food like, but nothing they can do can possibly turn that stuff into food. If food stamps were only able to buy unprocessed meat, eggs, bread, dairy, fruits and vegetables; an epidemic health crisis among the poor may be stopped and reversed. How about if we take this a little further? How about making it so school lunch rooms are only allowed to vend unprocessed nutritious food. The government runs or subsidizes all sorts of food programs across the country. It’s amazing when you consider just how many there are out there from Head Start to VA Hospitals. Everyone in the military has to eat. It would be to the long term advantage of the government to stop pushing processed foods. I understand that there are those who will say the government should get out of the free meal business, but the fact is that will never happen, and even if it does move food responsibility over to one of the “thousand points of light”, the government still has oversight and control of what is placed into the mouths of recipients. They need to lead the way to get America off junk. | ||||
5 comments:
"If food stamps were only able to buy unprocessed meat, eggs, bread, dairy, fruits and vegetables; an epidemic health crisis among the poor may be stopped and reversed."
If they up those benefits. Unprocessed food costs more. Aint that weird? I can hear Uncle headed over here now! hehe. However, the job of the United States is to economically protect all of us, I think. Economically, it is beneficial to help the poor eat better. It saves money. Our kids are smarter if they eat better. Everyone works more productively, make better decisions, aren't taxing on the health industry and all of our pocket books.
YES! Restrict the way the food stamp program is used, but spend more money on it. The long term benefits will be tremendous.
For $1.19 you can buy 3 apples or a box of one dozen Lil Debby's for your three kids. One will last one day, one will last four days for after school treats. Which one are you going to buy when your budget is $250 for the month for food?
You are right, poor people are fatter, usually, because the processed food is priced cheaply so it moves quicker. Where are the fast food restaurants? Usually in the poorer neighborhoods. 99 cents burgers and a 99 cent fry can fill up a kid a lot more than two dollars worth of carrot sticks.
I'll agree with Syd/Sid on this one. A bargain is short lived, diabetes on the other hand is a lifelong commitment. You aren't doing your children any favors. The cost of good food can be brought down by finding friends in the same situation and buying in bulk with them. A bag of apples is far less expensive than the shinny waxed apples that are sold individually.
It comes down to education.
I truly believe that there is too little education in school as to nutrition and care of a human body.
It is a HUGE undertaking, and too often, the knowledge of such comes too late (in the face of the diagnosis of a disease, etc.).
I am trying to do my best, as a parent, to teach my boys what foods are best for them and why.
My purchases are, for the most part, better quality food in that it is not as processed.
i would rather eat simply than simply eat/push a button to warm my meal.
Whole grains, less processed meat, less meat overall, and good quality proteins as well as fats that are not "added" or replaced by something processed.
Sodium and MSG especially are culprits, I feel.
Thanks for this blog...hopefully it's ok for me to link to you from my blogroll?
A llllloooong time ago I was on foodstamps for a brief time. Recently divorced, just had a major illness, unable to work, children, yada, yada, yada. I shopped late at night because I was embarrassed and hoped I wouldn't run into anyone I knew. In my shopping care were almost ready to expire 50% off steaks and cubed stew meat that were more expensive than cheap hotdogs and canned processed chili and soups, a bag of potatoes that were more expensive than frozen french fries. Fresh veggies and fruit that were more expensive than the canned. As I started paying for the purchases the man standing behind me said, "I guess I should quit my job and go on food stamps so I can afford to eat like you."
I didn't reply.
Even when those on food stamps want to purchase healthier they are often slammed. I like the fact that nowadays they use those cards instead of food stamps. The stigma isn't as harsh. Nootka is correct, education is the answer, and it is a multi-level education.
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