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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I teach in a high poverty school and by 5th-6th grade, nearly every student is overweight. It's sad. Some of them stayed overweight as they grew but some of them were a normal weight and then just packed on the pounds.[/quote]

Schools are a huge part of the problem.  Our high poverty school has free breakfast and lunch for all. It’s all garbage food. Considering the high obesity rate-kids aren’t starving, they are overfed. Schools need to keep it simple, have a couple heathy options and that is it. White milk, apples, peanut butter/cold cut sandwich. And no chips/candy as prizes and incentives for everything 
 [/quote]

You just made it clear you don't actually understand what food insecurity is like.  It is not wasting away into thinness.  It is the inability to afford healthy food.  That can come with a lack of TIME as well.  Shopping, cooking and food prep takes time, which many struggling families don't have.  Have you ever thought about what the food in your house would look like if you have to take public transportation to collect it?

It is not simply "lazy poor parents feed their kids chips and soda all the time".  It's much more complicated than that.  But it gets you all off the hook to vote for people who might actually HELP these children if you can just blame their lazy, fat parents.

[/quote]

No, sorry, that is BS. Basics are cheap.  Eggs, milk, oatmeal, beans are cheap. Immigrants and poor people in less developed countries manage to cook basic simple food on a tight budget.  But American poor people can’t manage this.  Easier to hit up the drive thru. It’s easy to eat a lot of junk when using the government money and free school food[/quote]

I think eating healthy requires either $ OR time. I fully agree with what you’ve said (eating healthy is MUCH cheaper if you know what you are doing) but a lot of times lower income homes also have a lot of family problems/instability and other issues such as lack of a car to transport groceries home, no fully functioning kitchen/storage, cooking knowledge etc. So, it is easier to just get frozen pizza, microwave stuff, snack food or whatever. [/quote]

Everyone has time to cook simple meals. People are just lazy and look for the easiest possible way to feed themselves and their kids. With so many options, most people will pick the junk convenience foods[/quote]

What a clueless and judgmental comment.  Do you work multiple jobs? Cooking from scratch requires meal planning and shopping ahead, and then cooking and dishes.  It’s not simple laziness.  [/quote]

News flash, most people aren’t working multiple jobs, regardless of how low their income is. If you think every poor person is out there huslting three jobs..well…

But anyhow, yes, no matter what your work schedule is, you can make a simple meal.  Maybe that means scrambled eggs and toast with an orange. Or a bowl of cherrios with a banana and fried egg, or a tuna sandwich, or rice and beans.  There are so many cheap foods, people just don’t care though.  It is pure laziness, from all income levels, why people have become so overweight.  [/quote]

I don’t think it’s laziness in the sense you mean. I think people are physically and mentally exhausted and it seems easier to do the fast food or processed food thing. If you grow up on it you think it tastes better or if you watch advertising you think it’s a treat. So you think “I’m out of the house all day and don’t have enough time with my kids but at least I can make them a dinner they enjoy.” Without really appreciating how terrible it is for them.

And eggs are expensive these days by the way.

You’ll say “everyone knows how bad this food is for you” but they don’t. I know college-educated professional people who think a taco from a box or canned soup or boxed Mac and cheese are just as nutritious as homemade versions. They aren’t bothered by the million fake ingredients because in this country it is normal to buy such foods. Totally normal. It’s a failure of policy and messaging first. Individuals operate within that context. You’re expecting people to make food choices that countermand what advertising tells them and what their wallet tells them - there are always sales and bargains on crap food but when’s the last time you saw a 2 for 1 deal on romaine?

I’m sure there are some people who just don’t care or are lazy but most are just trying to do the best they can, and don’t know or can’t swim against the tide that says highly processed food is fine, or better, or a treat and we all deserve a treat. [/quote]

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