"Well, whaddya expect me to do... WORK?"
Posted on 08/18/2009 12:04:51 PM PDT by Renkluaf
Packing on the pounds may be an unintended consequence of the U.S. Food Stamp Program, according to research that shows that getting food stamps may help contribute to obesity, at least among women. "We can't prove that the Food Stamp Program causes weight gain, but this study suggests a strong linkage," Jay Zagorsky, a research scientist at Ohio State University's Center for Human Resource Research, Columbus, noted in a university-issued statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Gosh, didn't any of these rocket scientists wonder if it there's a correlation between income, decision-making skills, personal responsibility and weight?
the solution for obesity and many other health related is to just abolish food stamps and welfare then.
They've never heard of "comfort foods" and can't understand why someone poor enough to need food stamps would eat them?
I'd bet dollars to (low-calorie) donuts that there is also a very strong correlation between receiving food stamps and achieving low SAT scores.
Well, that may well be part of it, but I think another contributing factor is the fact that it's much easier to spend someone else's money on junk/processed food than to make a budget, shop the sales, and learn to cook well enough to eat economically. Besides, if the State is picking up the tab for one's jumbo-pack of t-bone steak, why not eat it every day??
I wonder how many of those demanding free health care actually abuse their bodies? How many of those diabetics don’t follow the diet, how many of these poor widdle victims are overweight? How many binge drink and take other health risks that they want the rest of us to pay for? I’m all for people doing what they want with their bodies but don’t expect the public to pay for the consequences of known abusive behavior.
How about some of that good ole fashioned:
L-A-Z-I-N-E-S-S
That wouldn’t be the root of a host of problems this same demographic shares, would it?
"Well, whaddya expect me to do... WORK?"
I hate standing in line behind someone using food stamps. Not only do they buy mostly name brand junk food, but they buy a lot of it.
“They found that the typical female user of food stamps was heavier than the non-user, after taking into account a variety of factors that might influence body weight.”
Did they take “doesn’t work” and “gets free food” into account?
Yup!
And tons of expensive name brand pre-prepared stuff too.
Nah, clearly they’re all just being kept down by The Man.
The other day I saw a heavyset woman with a FAT WAD of cash in her purse flip through a stack of 20s to get her WIC card out.
“Gosh, didn’t any of these rocket scientists wonder if it there’s a correlation between income, decision-making skills, personal responsibility and weight? “
how about a correlation between a federal incentive to eat and more eating?
If you’ve stood behind someone at the supermarket who’s paying with food stamps, you know that they aren’t opting for fruits and vegetables. it’s snack foods, pop tarts, soda, white bread, peanut butter, jelly and an inordinate amount of sugary cereals. sd
The sanctimonious comments in reference to this article are extremely disturbing to me.
There are a host of changes to the program that really should be made, no doubt about that. Return it to its origins of a hand UP, not a hand out. Make a course in budgeting and another in cooking requirements to receive them, and for crying out loud eliminate the majority of prepackaged frozen meals.
But some of the comments I’ve read on this thread are appalling.
With the number of folks being regular posters and members, did it cross the minds of the judgmental that they are most likely insulting a fellow FReeper or 2??????
Change the abuses, but don’t heap abuse upon those that do need a bit of a hand of occassion.
These pinheads are so out of touch it's not even funny. I spend around $80/week for DH and me combined ($40 each) and we have an ample supply of nutritious food. It's not a matter of money, it's a matter of choices. Lack of activity plays a large part as well.
Such blanket generalizations are, or at least should be, beneath FReepers.
I followed a lady out after she paid with her state food card and watched her load her groceries into a very nice new car.
In 2002, the average recipient received $81 in food stamps per month. "That figure was shocking to me," Zagorsky said. "I think it would be very difficult for a shopper to regularly buy healthy, nutritious food on that budget."
First off, this number is misleading: while those stats may be true for 2002, according to http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/faqs.htm#9 the average 2008 benefit was $101 per person and $227 per household. I've stuck to a lower grocery budget than that (living by myself) for three years, and have not been "forced" to buy the kind of junk that I see welfare recipients buy almost exclusively. It's way cheaper, for instance, to buy bulk macaroni and spices than it is to fill one's pantry with Hamburger Helper. And second, the article (though perhaps not the actual researcher) assumes that this is all the money that a given person gets to spend on food, while in fact I'd bet nearly 100% of food stamp recipients are also on some other form of welfare. And all this, of course, assumes that everyone is faithfully and honestly reporting income and claiming the proper benefits, which I somehow doubt is true.
The only welfare program that I'd consider retaining is WIC (http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/), because last I knew it not only selected healthy foods for recipients, but very explicitly and stringently limits purchases to those foods. So instead of a credit card, you get a series of coupons with restrictions. Yes, it's still federally funded, but at least it funds a relatively sane system.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.