aikmann4
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I was in Franklins this evening purchasing the ingredients for the meal I was going to prepare. I bought about 400 grams of green beans, a tin of tomatoes, two fresh tomatoes and a bag of black mustard seeds, some pita bread and two small onions. The total cost I think was about $8.60, and I still have a lot of the spices and the pita bread left over. I made a delicious and healthy meal that could have fed about four people, but because I was so hungry I ate most of it and put the remains in the fridge to be had later as leftovers. As I was leaving with my plastic bags I spied a bunch of waddling collosi loading up the back of their car with a manner of soft drinks, sugary and microwavable foods. As I was walking home, I got to thinking about obesity. Why is it so commonly associated with poverty or low-income nowadays? I am familiar with the lame liberal arguments about it, that those of low socioeconomic status consume a lot of calorie dense foods because they are cheaper; it's ultimately not their fault. It's never their fault. But I eat a lot of really healthy foods and dinners which I prepare myself, and never find myself spending very much on them. Many of the food choices that are associated with obesity aren't exactly cheap; fast food is far more costly than cooking one's self, soft drinks are neither filling nor cheap, and many processed foods and microwave dinners come in small portion sizes and are quite costly. I very much doubt that the obese spend less of their incomes on food than the physically healthy. People of working class backgrounds also have professions that can tend to be more physically demanding and involving than desk-jockies, yet I can attest that very many of them are incredibly fat. Black people, especially black women, also seem to be extremely obese as well. There is a small Sudanese contingent in the town in which I live and it is very rare to see a Sudanese woman that is not packing fourteen layers of McDonalds fat under her clothing. White women are next in line, followed by Asian women, who are almost always petite and shapely.
Why is this?
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