Its cheaper to feed kids Fruit Loops than fruit.

[ohmwrecker]

Fruits and veggies may be cheap relatively speaking, but they are more expensive than unhealthier foods, and have a shorter shelf-life.

And your plan might not be valid in a rural area; heck up until a few years back my folks would have to drive an hour or so away to go grocery shopping.

Most rural areas have farmer's markets. I mean, what did people do 35-40 years ago when there were more people populating rural/undeveloped areas and there were less supermarkets and processed foods available? Eat dirt? Everyone seems to have forgotten that people used to eat a lot healthier with less conveniences than we have now. It's ignorance and laziness. There's no getting around that.

[coyotes_geek]

Just out of curiousity, anyone know how much a box of an unhealthy cereal like fruit loops costs compared to a box of healthy cereal like cheerios?

I'm having a really hard time believing that healthy foods are simply unaffordable.

[ohmwrecker]

Just out of curiousity, anyone know how much a box of an unhealthy cereal like fruit loops costs compared to a box of healthy cereal like cheerios?

I'm having a really hard time believing that healthy foods are simply unaffordable.

They are relatively the same price and healthy foods aren't unaffordable, people are just fat, dumb and lazy.

[LnGrrrR]

Most rural areas have farmer's markets. I mean, what did people do 35-40 years ago when there were more people populating rural/undeveloped areas and there were less supermarkets and processed foods available? Eat dirt? Everyone seems to have forgotten that people used to eat a lot healthier with less conveniences than we have now. It's ignorance and laziness. There's no getting around that.

Back then, wage equality was much more prevalent.

And due to big supermarkets, I'm sure there's a lot less farmers markets, no?

Just playing Devils Advocate a bit here.

[lefty]

I know a few people who got serious health problems because of aspartame

A few days after they got off diet sodas, they got much much better

I thought the whole aspartame paranoia was BS, but apparently it's not


Stay away from that

[ohmwrecker]

Back then, wage equality was much more prevalent.

And due to big supermarkets, I'm sure there's a lot less farmers markets, no?

Just playing Devils Advocate a bit here.

There are a -ton of small farm's and farmer's markets where I live. I don't think it's that much more expensive for people to eat healthier, or at least start to add some healthier food choices to their diets. I've been reading a lot about it since becoming a father and it really boils down to the minor inconveniences of seeking out healthier options and making smaller, more frequent trips to the market for fresh (preferably locally grown) foods.

[SnakeBoy]

It is cheaper to cook fresh food at home than to buy out food anywhere. I see lots of people who claim to have no money going out to eat all the time.

I also see people with food stamps buying all kinds of processed pre-fab meals that are more expensive than buying a whole chicken and baking it.

I grew up in a large family and saw first hand the amount of people you can feed for not much when you actually cook every day. We ate meals with roast and fresh potatoes and carrots.

This is what I think is the basic cause of our nations health epidemic (obesity, diatbetes, etc.). It amazes me at how most everyone I know is feeding their kids fast food and pre-fab meals all week long and the healthy home cooked meal is left for a special occasion. Exactly opposite of how I grew up. The claim that it's too expensive to eat healthy is pure bs.

[byrontx]

froot loops are actually filled with nutrients.

It's like crushing up a box of oreos then sprinkling a cheap multi-vitamin over them-it doesn't make it really nutricious or even food for that matter. Moreover, the forms of the vitamins and minerals that they add are not the ones that actually benefit a human body.

[Winehole23]

They are relatively the same price and healthy foods aren't unaffordable, people are just fat, dumb and lazy.

Too bad progressive middle-brow disdain for more lumpen predilections isn't meliorative -- there seems to be an endless supply.



"Oh well, what you cannot correct you can at least insult." (Barry Hannah, I think)

[Winehole23]

I sympathize with the "free will" position, however, how do you reconcile that against a system where the one person exercizing his free will to choose an unhealthy lifestyle isn't the only one who has to suffer the financial consequences of his decision?

Eminently reasonable. Practically irresistible from the standpoint of actuarial common sense.

Not a social miscreant. Just someone engaging in a behavior likely to result in an avoidable expense to the healthcare system.

Based on the probabilities, an extra premium is attached to certain commodities/activities likely to result in avoidable expense to the healthcare system. Like junk food.

[2centsworth]

.... how do you reconcile that against a system where the one person exercizing his free will to choose an unhealthy lifestyle isn't the only one who has to suffer the financial consequences of his decision?

we voted for that system from our own free will.

freedom is not the enemy.

[Winehole23]

^^^out of step with the paternalistic administration of everyday life by a caring and professional bureaucracy.

We've been voting for an activist state in the USA for a long time -- about 75 years.

[Winehole23]

We voted for that system too, though as you pointed out that is very much at odds with certain first principles.

[boutons_deux]

I know a few people who got serious health problems because of aspartame

Stuff happens.

http://www.naturalnews.com/z026849_a..._Rumsfeld.html

[LnGrrrR]

This is what I think is the basic cause of our nations health epidemic (obesity, diatbetes, etc.). It amazes me at how most everyone I know is feeding their kids fast food and pre-fab meals all week long and the healthy home cooked meal is left for a special occasion. Exactly opposite of how I grew up. The claim that it's too expensive to eat healthy is pure bs.

Well, there's a big change in demographics from even a few decades ago. Alot more households now have both parents working, so it's easier for the parents to grab something quick.

Again, not saying it's right, but looking at the different factors involved. Another factor might be to see if the average worker puts in more hours at work now than they did a decade or two ago.

[MiamiHeat]

In 1968, indexed by inflation, the minimum wage was $9.00 / hour.

In Denmark, the min wage is $18 / hour.

If the country had kept the min wage in a static increase since 1968, the min wage today would be $24 / hour.


you see, the less you pay workers, they less they can buy. If everyone is "cutting costs" as a way to be "successful", then the population cannot afford as much products anymore. This hurts everyone in every industry.

tbh, this country should be ashamed of itself.

[Winehole23]

you see, the less you pay workers, they less they can buy. If everyone is "cutting costs" as a way to be "successful", then the population cannot afford as much products anymore. This hurts everyone in every industry.

Rates of compensation are not calibrated to international norms, but to the custom and moral feeling of the country. That's as it should be in my view.

[boutons_deux]

"If everyone is "cutting costs" as a way to be "successful""

The cost cutting is brutal because the savings go to the low-taxed mgmt, not into investment in USA.

Low-taxes encourages mgmt to take the corporate money and run. High taxes, corporate and personal, encourage investment to benefit from investment tax breaks. Real growth and wealth creation comes from investment, not from the mgmt pocketing 250x the average wage

[BlairForceDejuan]

Other than Meat and blueberries, healthy food is cheap. Bishes just too lazy and ignorant to know how to cook.

Knocking out 4k calories in fast food in one hour is easy.Stomaching 4k calories worth of healthy food in a day is torture.

[BlairForceDejuan]

double post

[sickdsm]

Well... that is the whole point of the thread, isn't it?

If its the cheapest food in the world, why do we act like its too expensive then?

[sickdsm]

@LNGR: It's a fair point, but what sickdsm was talking about sounded much more like price controls.

I even started the next sentence with "But seriously...." and you're too stupid to catch that?

[sickdsm]

what about granting farmers the same subsidies for growing fruits?

bring the price of both down?

Maybe we should just give all food away? I'm sure someone would be ing about how much it costs to go to the store.

[sickdsm]

Corn is fine. Subsidizing it so that every single thing in the supermarket is loaded with corn syrup is ridiculous. Even ignoring the health effects, it tastes like .

BS. You mean to tell me you can instantly taste the difference between something sweetened with corn syrup and other forms of sugar?

[Blake]

Just out of curiousity, anyone know how much a box of an unhealthy cereal like fruit loops costs compared to a box of healthy cereal like cheerios?

I'm having a really hard time believing that healthy foods are simply unaffordable.

what's the definition of a unhealthy cereal?