Aug 21, 2011 -- 5:31PM, Wanderingal wrote:

To be blunt about it--when you cut open a fat person during an autopsy there is no sign on their large amounts of fat that says--"Expensive fat" or "Cheap fat"

It's just really large compartments of greasy ugly FAT.

 

Well, that just made me want to go get a big bowl of ice cream...

Not to sound totally random here, but...

I wonder if part of the reason we hear of poor people eating more fast food has to do with the amout of poorer people who *work* in fast food? In the time I've worked in the restaurant industry (about 15 years until I had to stop in 2008), I've met a lot of people who work in restaurants-especially fast food-because that's the only jobs they can get. That's been me, especially when I was still a student. For people who have to work two jobs to make ends meet (that's also been me), it's often restaurants that will give someone the kind of hours that will let them work more than one job or be home with their children (in the case of single parents). This is true in 'regular' restaurants as well as fast food. Grocery store jobs are pretty much the same thing.

My point is that people who work in fast food probably eat fast food because that's what they're around...most 'food jobs' I've had will let employees take leftovers home, or eat on premises for free or cheap. If you're working the insane amount of hours some do, you don't always have a whole lot of 'down time' to go get something to eat, and it's just so much easier to eat where you are and then go right back to work.  'Affording the better stuff' doesn't help much if you never have time to go to the store!

Anyway, I hope I've made sense here. Sometimes things sound better in my head than they look 'on paper'. :)

Social services are at a minimum in the US today and those who prevuiously worked in them promoted decent nutrition.

All of my children as teens worked in the food service industry at one time and none gained weight. My son, one summer in college worked as a waiter at Pizza Hut and made much more by charm than his male friends who worked as cooks--he always knew how it worked. My older daughter worked one summer in high school servicing a salad bar at a steak house. She went on to co-op with IBM in college. Our younger daughter worked as a waitress and later as  junior manager in a local restaurant chain--even introduced menu items; she loved catering as a waitress to business clients who knew how to tip a cute coed well. All graduated from GA TECH.

There is so much more at play here than what has been presented. Over-worked and not decently paid parents comes to mind, among many things. Why not discuss what is really afoot in our country where profit controls too much? I' ve never been against reasonable profit.

Eating a bit of fast food at a fast food eatery is not the probem. Knowing how to choose  is a problem.

Right now the State of Georgia is running an ad campaign about overweight children and Georgia is NOT a vangard state, but I appalud the campaign.

saying the poor are fat for economic reasons is about as puddin headed as saying that

 drug addicton is confined mainly to the rich because only they have the income

to sustain the high cost of such a lifestyle.

The cash spent on just booze , sugary drinks, and cigarettes alone could provide as healthy

a diet as you would like to have.

Most choose not to have it.

Actually this is just more proof that the death spiral this world is in has nothing to do with a lack

of money.

It's true the under educated and the disadvantaged might have a higher proclivity to eat more junk food, like dollar meals. They may not gain a lot of weight, but certainly are under nourished, and the possibility of losing weight under these circumstances are not as good as if you ate organic, healthy whole foods. I think we need to educate the poor.