Comment on YSK tricks for one of the cheapest meals: beans and rice
Apepollo11@lemmy.world 2 days agoLet them eat cake?
Believe it or not, there are other countries that the US on the internet.
Also (and I suspect an even more difficult concept to grasp) even within the US there are people with barely enough money to eat anything, let alone junk food.
Look at the data - 47 million people in the US face food insecurity. Do you think these people are trapsing down to the food bank only when they fancy a change from McDonald’s?
It’s good to be sceptical when you hear stuff that surprises you, but so a bit of research before dismissing it.
JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It doesn’t “surprise” me, it’s a common talking point. I’ve been to America, including the poorer bits. I know the statistics about obesity and social class - do you?
Apepollo11@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Of course, and it’s a common trend around the developed world.
What’s important to realise, though is that there are huge swathes of people who are poorer than that. People who need to choose between eating and heating. People who go without just so their kids can eat.
The obese poor people are not the ones who are starving (obviously). They’re not the ones in abject poverty.
faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
I was one of them when I was a kid. There were many times the only food I got was the free lunch provided at school, and I helped my mother scavenge dumpsters behind grocery stores for food. I’m fat now because it’s the most shelf-stable and accessible calorie reserve available, and with the looming cuts, I’m glad it’s there for me. This guy doesn’t know jack about shit.
JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 1 day ago
How can there be “huge swathes” of Americans who are “poorer than” the Americans who are so poor that they can only afford junk food and thus explain America’s obesity statistics. This whole talking point makes no sense.
Apepollo11@lemmy.world 1 day ago
How are you not getting it?
You’re right in claiming there is a link between obesity and poverty. However the difference in obesity rates between the upper quintile and lower quintile is still less than 10%.
Obesity is a problem across every single wealth bracket.
There is a problematically high number of people in America who are both poor and obese. But there are about twice as many people in poverty who are not obese.