Posted on 02/11/2014 6:49:46 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It turns out that you can bring produce sections to poor neighborhoods, but you can't get poor people to eat healthier food. This comes as a shock to liberals who believe in the comprehensive theory of victimology -- that all problems afflicting people who fall into ethnic, sexual, or other identities regarded as victims are due to external factors, not to their own choices.
Patti Neighmond writes for NPR:
In inner cities and poor rural areas across the country, public health advocates have been working hard to turn around food deserts - neighborhoods where fresh produce is scarce, and greasy fast food abounds. In many cases, they're converting dingy, cramped corner markets into lighter, brighter venues that offer fresh fruits and vegetables. In some cases, they're building brand new stores.
"The presumption is, if you build a store, people are going to come," says Stephen Matthews, professor in the departments of sociology, anthropology and demography at Penn State University. To check that notion, he and colleagues from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine recently surveyed residents of one low-income community in Philadelphia before and after the opening of a glistening new supermarket brimming with fresh produce.
What they're finding, Matthews says, is a bit surprising: "We don't find any difference at all. ... We see no effect of the store on fruit and vegetable consumption."
The deranged premise behind the entire "food desert" theory was that crass corporations were bypassing the opportunity to sell healthy foods to poor people out of malice, or at best ignorance. The idea that local people weren't interested in buying healthy food, and that led to low demand, and hence low supply, was unworthy of consideration. These people did not understand that demand creates supply in a free economy
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Ditto food: "successful" eating requires putting sensible things in your mouth. You can give someone a no-limit spending card to Whole Foods, you can teach them everything about nutritious eating, and some will just eat nigh unto garbage anyway.
Well, being someone who relishes domesticity as a high mark of sophisticated comfort...I am not happy with the gay-ification of what I believe is my province and turf! rush is always talking about “chickification” — that’s absurd. What is ruining his NFL clubhouse is not chicks or femininity, but effeminate men and lawyers. Now when I turn on HGTV and the food channels, it’s all gay all the time. I only record my favorites. Just have gotten weary with all the wrist flapping— I want the ladies back.
Then don’t buy asparagus, that’s not the only veggie. Fruit can be found cheaply if you watch the ads and buy in season.
Even what isn’t “excellent” at Walmart is certainly good enough at very affordable prices.
Loaf of bread: $0.88
10 pounds of chicken: $6.40
Frozen veggies: $0.98/lb
Cheese: $0.16/oz
and so on. There’s way more decent cheap food there than you think, if only you’ll actually go pricetag by pricetag (marketing works, making it hard to see the low prices amid the attractive alternatives). Yeah it ain’t premium, but it’s better than the majority of people on this planet get by on.
I was watching the news yesterday and starting flipping channels to get away from the news regarding gay marriage fights and that gross football player. I went through 4 channels then turned the tv to recorded pawn stars.
I can explain exactly where they’re coming from and why they are “shocked” by this.
The base assumption underlying all “liberalism” is that Man is basically good and only behaves in negative ways (not eating healthy) because of external influences (like vegetable availability).
Since this is an ASSUMPTION that is the BASIS of their belief system, it is not subject to examination.
And they indeed are SHOCKED that people don’t respond to the changing environment in the way that they logically think they should, based on this assumption.
That sounds wonderful but for the people that can’t afford asparagus, your recipe would also be good with fresh or frozen broccoli.
If tgey weren’t so powerful it would be humorous watching examples of liberal idiocy. Black communities have chosen how they want to live.
The first thing most people want to do when they find themselves in a desert is LEAVE. It’s a desert - it can’t sustain life which isn’t willing to resort to violence to survive (even the _grass_ is out to kill you). There’s a reason life is hard there, and whatever that reason is, you’re not going to change it without expending enormous resources.
A “food desert” is, as named, a desert. OK so it rains - there’s nothing to grow, nothing producing sustenance. What little food does appear is fought over by pretty much everything capable of moving. Unless you’re willing to buy up large swaths of the area and expend enormous resources making it productive and beating off those resorting to violence to acquire it, you have but one choice: MOVE.
Healthy food is so expensive. Looks at the cost of Asparagus. I pay $4.99 and fruit is also very expensive.
Try some carrots, celery, root vegetables, apples, bananas, broccoli, and the all-time under-appreciated *cabbage*.
They’d live differently (ie, better), if they had to actually experience the full consequences of their lifestyle choices.
I have sort of a hobby of keeping track of how long various chores actually take. Preparing a simple meal, say chicken soup, where I am planning on using the majority of the meat in other dishes, takes roughly 15 minutes. That includes prepping the food and having all my ingredients measured and ready to use to washing up. The actual cooking time may be 2 hours, but if I turn down the heat, use a pot cover or, even better, use a thermal cooker, all I have to do in that 2 hours is check on the pot once every 20-30 minutes for a total of 1 minute each time. Thermal cooker means no checking and it is done in 6-8 hours while I work. Makes 1 gallon of soup plus meat for several more meals. Add 5 minutes for a green salad and 15-25 minutes (includes baking time) for biscuits, depending on whether they are scratch, mix or pre-made and frozen. Parchment paper or foil cuts down on clean up time. Foil can be washed and reused to save money.
Fried rice takes 20 minutes with an additional 20 minutes needed for the sauteed rice to absorb the liquid. Makes about 4-6 servings depending on what is added to the rice. Roast meals are quickest, all of it cooking time, most take 1-3 hours total. Meals requiring a lot of prep and clean up plus constant attention, such as eggrolls, take longer, but then I end up with enough food for 3 meals. Two of those meals only require removing frozen product from freezer, inserting in preheated oven and clock watching. Takes exactly as long as heating frozen eggrolls.
I clean up as I go, including washing prep utensils/containers, keeping the prep area wiped down.I use weekends or other free time, such as evenings, to cook for the entire week. It is as convenient, better tasting and cheaper than the equivalent precooked microwaved food.
There is enough room in a regular refrigerator freezer to accommodate cooked, portioned and frozen dinners for 1-2 weeks, along with stored frozen meat and veggies.
The main part of cooking is planning and the most essential skill is experience. The Internet is full of detailed instructions with pics for cooking and prepping anything at all. copycat recipes for most packaged/fast food dishes are also available, with instructions.
There are no excuses. I have always worked and spent years taking care of a disabled husband and raising a child and fed them both healthy food on a limited income with no government help. This is true of a lot of women, many of whom have either spent some period of time single with children or married to a man with a demanding schedule who was not always home to help.
Considering that today there is Wii for virtual exercise inside the home if the neighborhood is iffy, that TV can be used to fight obesity. Back in the day, there were exercise programs on TV.
I know folks who purchase frozen mashed potatoes and who do no regular exercise and they are not necessarily obese. That $2.50 for 1 bag of chips will buy a head of lettuce, some whole, unpeeled carrots and a green pepper or a small bag of apples or an entire head of cabbage and some carrots. The cause is the choices made.
The very harsh truth is that a very large pct. of the Dem constituency are nothing but huge drags on the American economy. They commit staggering levels of crime and suck multi-billions from tax-payers to keep them breathing (and spreading). If they vote, they all vote for Dems to keep the gravy train chugging on.
/Sarcasm/ It’s clear you don’t understand the romantic,tragic drama of ‘deserts’ in cities. Common sense says-move, leave, go where you can thrive-BUT PC and politics and the media says ‘SAVE IT!’ revitalize it, honor the hardship and suffering it takes to slog away with the criminals and drug addicts, outlast the thieves and arsonists. Suffer nobly and show them a better way and they will suddenly ‘get it’. We are LOVED, people care, they are here to feel our pain. Brad Pitt did it in the Lower Ninth ward, media gushed and you know what? The Lower Ninth is still a blighted ghetto. The ‘green’ houses he built are falling apart. It was a ghetto before, its a destroyed one now. And the people who returned to ‘their’ neighborhood are moaning that its not the same, everyone didn’t come back, its a plot to drive them from their generational neighborhood. They want investments, stores, malls, etc...but they DON’T want to lose the ‘character’ and funkiness. Translation- we want white money, not white people. New stores, luxury items, cheap prices-because they’re victims! Forever./sarc
As I said before, it’s amazing that the mentality of the subculture is the same whatever the city. Now poverty and decay isn’t something to escape, its something to honor and celebrate and romanticize. We’re supposed to subsidize it, not change it.
Another common liberal pile of bovine excrement is the idea that outside forces i.e. big bad business, white racists, determine how people act rather than the people themselves being responsible for their condition. What Americans haven't been bombarded with ads on tv and elsewhere about eating the proper foods? I assume schools might do this as well. For the last fifty years there's been a huge, national effort to discourage people from smoking, and I still see hordes of young people lighting up.
Liberals never seem to be able to grasp the fact that many people fail under their own merits. Outside influences many times have little to do with their behavior.
I have three lib sisters. None of them can cook beyond opening a can of soup and turning on the heat. Their husbands (two of them), however, are excellent cooks.
slackards....I like that....and in the future I will steal uh use your word as my own.
I agree with you 1000%. There's no reason why basic cooking skills can't be taught. While we're at it why not basic financial skills (budgeting , balancing a checkbook maybe even the basics on banking & credit) , and simple resume writing. IMHO this would be far more useful than the agenda driven common core crap being pushed. Back in the early 20th century , kids rarely went past 8th grade , and they were expected to get a job and contribute to the family. For the most part, they went on to build the greatest economy in world history.
Ha, ha..I remember when I went back to college twenty years ago talking to some of my college profs. a number who weren’t much older than me (early forties). A few of them confided in me about how disgusted they were with some of their (mostly young) students who would hand in shoddy term papers that had little or no corrective work done to them despite having computers, spell-check, and all the other new gizmos available to them. After typing term papers with an old manual typewriter, I was stunned how easy it was with computers or the Brothers word processor I used.
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