I visit family in other states and I get comments like “I can’t believe you are so thin.” For context I am a healthy weight and I eat what I consider a reasonable diet. I sit and smile while I watch them drink soda and eat pure sugar and salt. I don’t care about your life choices but don’t act surprised by someone that’s a normal weight.
I would reject that statement on the basis that preparing a decent meal does NOT have to be time or energy intensive.
For example, you can make overnight oats with about 10 to 15 seconds of effort. It would be filling, healthy, cheaper than packaged cereal, and can be done with something that most people already have in their home or apartment (a fridge).
And with a visit to the thrift shop, you can get a rice cooker for like $10. And make all kinds of dishes without any effort at all.
There are so many “hacks” to make cooking quick and easy, that I’d say it’s more effort to always feel shitty because of a poor diet.
I love to cook and always have. When I was working 2 jobs (and some additional freelance/part time) to keep a roof over our heads, there was zero chance I had the time, money, and energy to cook. Living in a food desert, I would have to spend gas money I didn’t have to go to a proper store to buy things and that would eat about 50 minutes more of my already-sleep-deprived day. Don’t even get me started on when I lived out of a car for a while. And I’m fortunate that I even had the car. Public transit was terrible where I lived at the time and basically useless unless you want to spend 3-4 hours a day commuting. There were no sidewalks and multi-lane roads with high speed limits. The social safety net is also in terrible shape, moreso today than back then.
“Only $10” also shows how out-of-touch you can be for the real situation that people have, particularly in areas of the rust belt and coal mining areas where the employers frequently left. I also worked in worker’s comp in healthcare IT and let me tell you that people with lifelong problems from the mines frequently get denied care as the mines fight just about everything, so there are people who have a really rough time and need more care for their families which is still more time and money in places with few jobs left to go around. These people also don’t have the resources to “just move”, either. This doesn’t even go into the opioid epidemic that also is an issue from overprescription in those areas and other confounding factors.
Friend, I don’t know why so many people believe that simply feeding yourself require a tremendous amount of time, money, or energy.
You can make a week’s worth of food, with little more than a few minutes to dump the ingredients in a rice cooker, slow cooker, or pressure cooker. When times are tough, and money is tight, this would be the most ideal way to do things.
Do food deserts exist? For sure. I completely understand that not everyone has access to unlimited amounts of food.
But the reality is, over 90% of the American population live within 15 minutes of a Walmart (with three quarters being within 5 minutes from one), and that’s if they don’t already have more than one grocery store in their area. If they live further, Walmart offers free shipping or very low cost shipping. And that’s just Walmart. Pick whatever grocery chain or even Amazon, and there really is no such thing as a food desert.
Please don’t diminish someone’s ability to really improve their life with very little effort. The worst thing we can do is convince people that they are powerless, when in fact, they have way more control over their dietary choices than they think.
I literally had none of these at the time I mentioned. I had I think two pots and a frying pan.
Citation? I sure didn’t.
We had one and that was anywhere close. Again, remember gas money and travel time were issues for me. Like every cent of gas and food money.
But it’s fine for you to tell the working poor to basically ‘git gud’ and find money to spend on things, places to spend it, and time to do so? Particularly the ones without vehicles? The ones who deal in cash and don’t have debit or credit cards to order online?
Again, there are people who do not have bank accounts or cannot regularly access them to spend money online and most places these days aren’t going to do CoD. This is also just misinformation.
"The consensus established at the NIH workshop was that food insecurity and unhealthy neighborhood food environments contribute to diet-related chronic diseases that worsen health disparities. Addressing these challenges would help tackle nutrition security, a growing priority for the USDA and other federal agencies [83]. Several factors, including social determinants of health such as employment, housing, and education, severely limit access to affordable, nutritious food among various racial/ethnic minority and rural populations. " from the conclusion/summary of https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(23)66352-X/fulltext which also mentions food deserts elsewhere in the work.
Of course they’re not powerless, but your “solutions” are blind to just how shit the situation is. I’m telling you this as a very annoyed person who lived it. You’re telling people to come up with time, means, and money out of nowhere. “It’s just $10” is insulting to some people who are choosing between food and medicine or heat or electricity. You are saying to empower yet victim-blaming by saying they’re not doing enough.
I’m going to try to cover this quick, since my intention was not to get into a back-and-forth argument. Everyone’s situation is different, but my point is that improvement doesn’t require as much effort as you might think.
I get that. You have to start somewhere. If a visit to a thrift shop for an almost free rice cooker is too much, work with the pots!
Forbes posted the 15-minute figure back in 2013.
Walmart’s official number from 2019 uses miles: “Not only do we employ over one million people in the United States, but 90 percent of Americans live within ten miles of a Walmart store.” (source)
There are variations of this stat, depending on the year, but they clearly show that accessibility isn’t an issue. Look at a map of obesity rates and Walmart locations, and you’d never be able to argue that it’s about access to the store. If anything, the easy access to Walmart, coupled with uninformed food choices, and it’s probably a driving factor of obesity!
And that’s just Walmart… consider other stores, and you’ve probably got 99% of the population within a very close distance.
I understand that. I’m not sure how far back we’re talking, but this is a non-issue with free shipping being offered. Also, keeping in mind that almost all the population has access to at least 1 large grocery store within close proximity to where they live. The obesity map in the OP isn’t looking at outliers.
Really, people are still eating food, and they still have to get food from somewhere. That’s not really up for debate.
The unbanked population is very small (<10%), while obesity affects the majority of the population. Grocery stores accept cash.
I’m suggesting that simple changes can have a big impact. Even buying food from the dollar store doesn’t have to be unhealthy.
I don’t drive to get to the grocery store. I ride my bike or walk. It’s completely doable with minimal effort.
I’ve also used pre-paid cards and cash to buy groceries, so I don’t accept the excuse that lack of a credit card or even a bank account is preventing someone from buying food staples.
Sigh… not out of nowhere. I’m submitting that by reallocating time, means, and money, you can get to a BETTER place, probably with less effort and by using less money!
The hardest part is starting. Once someone abandons the bad habits they’ve picked up through their childhood and adult life, their relationship with food can improve, and they can save their money and health in the process.
My suggestion to anyone is, start with what you have.
If you can, visit a local thrift shop or join a “free stuff” group, and invest a little in some time/money savers: an inexpensive rice cooker, a pressure cooker (even a stove-top version), a large pot, or a slow cooker.). These can be found free or very cheap, and they will last many years. All or any of those items can save time AND money.
Focus on inexpensive staples: rice, dry beans, oats. These can offer healthy calories, are filling, and can be cooked in large batches very easily and with minimal effort.
Save on produce when possible: buy frozen fruits/vegetables rather than fresh. You can eat 100% of what you get, and there’s no risk of them going bad if you don’t consume them quickly enough. Buy in season, and if you can only afford bananas, go with them. Replacing soft drinks with something like V8 would be a massive upgrade.
Learn how to make “one pot” recipes, and change them up using different spices or seasonings (these are inexpensive, and add variety to your dishes).
If possible, learn how to make your own bread, pasta, non-dairy milk, snacks, or treats. These can take more effort if doing it by hand (invest in an inexpensive bread maker, blender, etc., if your goal is to save time, too), but they can save a ton of money. My $100 bread maker paid for itself in several months, and we’ve been saving on bread, pizza dough, and tortillas ever since.
Assuming you aren’t poor (fun fact: the CDC suggests that income level does not correlate to obesity in men and has only some impact on women), invest in more time/money saving appliances. That way, you can expand on your meal types and make it much easier to replace worse food options.
Learn better eating habits. Really, this is probably the biggest barrier preventing people from losing weight.
Stop eating in front of the TV or when you’re distracted.
Learn how to refocus emotional eating into something more productive.
Make meal prep something the entire family can get involved in (i.e have your kids or spouse pick out recipes to try).
View food as a means for fuel and nutrition. This doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy it, or that you can’t “junk out” once in a while, but give food the appropriate time and place.
As best as you can, don’t keep junk food in the home. Replace them with healthier versions, if possible.
Always try to have healthy convenience foods available to you (ideally, stuff you’ve made!).
Portion control. Yes, eat out of a small bowl or weigh food based on the appropriate portion sizes. Use a bowl, plate, mug that brings you joy. My family has dedicated items for each family member, and we find that this makes eating more like a ritual rather than a mindless activity.
Track your calories. This is a big one. You won’t be able to lose weight unless you know what you’re eating. If you’re unknowingly adding 1000 excess calories to your diet each day, you’ll never succeed. Tracking calories also gives you come accountability.
Find the time to move. Walk, bike, use a standing desk… whatever gets you UP and moving your body will improve your health and help lower your weight.
I could go on for days, but I hope that my point has been made: there are so many small things that anyone can do to improve their diet (and health). Sometimes, just knowing that a better life is possible can motivate you to start.
Good luck eating “overnight oats” everyday on dirty plates in a dirty kitchen, cause looks you don’t think cleaning is part of the food preparation process.
Goddamn, where are you eating your meals, bro?
Cleanup is SUPER EASY.
I don’t understand what everyone is doing to make food prep and cleanup such a nightmare, but it really doesn’t have to be difficult, unless you make it difficult.
Sounds like you’re not the one who cook or clean in your home.
Yes, I do, along with the grocery shopping. For a family of 4.
Since the pandemic, we really had to tighten up on our grocery budget, so we learned where to save money on food while making food prep easier (so we aren’t relying on convenience foods).
As an example, we were spending something like $15 to $20 per week on non-dairy milk. So, we just make that at home for pennies at a time. Takes <10 minutes to make a week’s worth, then we reuse the glass jars. No waste, no running to the store, no filler ingredients.
We do also make use of an instant pot and bread machine. Low effort, but high-quality food that’s cheap.
Food prep (and cleanup) is a skill that I hope everyone can take at least some time to learn. It carries through to the rest of your life, and you’ll have better health as a result.
Don’t get me wrong, we definitely still buy convenience and packaged food, but they aren’t the meal. Even as snacks, these foods are far too expensive to have all the time.
It sounds like you were like most people in the western world - uneducated on nutrition, cooking and basic life skills. This isn’t a jab at you this is just the world that we live in. Most people don’t have a good understanding of these things so the go with what is easy, fast and feels inexpensive. This drives obesity.
It’s great that you took the initiative to learn home economics and it sounds like it has helped you and your family. Many others have not gotten to the “so we learned” stage yet for whatever reason.
Well, I knew how to cook and enjoyed cooking well before the pandemic. We did rely on more packaged food back then, not junk food, but just “packaged” stuff (i.e. bread, dry pasta, etc.).
As prices went up, we had to find ways to bring them back down.
Another example would be canned beans. As a vegan household, we were going through canned beans… at least 40 cans per week. Not bad when they are $0.69 each, but impossible to sustain as they climbed to $1.69. So, we started cooking dry beans with our instantpot (which we already had).
Almost no prep work, other than dividing the portions into separate containers to make it easier to use in other dishes. But we’re saving hundreds of dollars a year, and we’re getting 100% beans (no anti-foaming agents, preservatives, or other extras).
We picked up so many cost-saving strategies over the pandemic, and while food costs are still high, it’s not crippling our budget.
Education in (basic) nutrition, basic meal prep, kitchen shortcuts, using small appliances to your advantage, all go a long way!
The biggest challenge that I think most families would face to get out of the “so we learned” stage is deprogramming certain habits and taste preferences.
If you’re used to overly sweet, overly salty, overly fatty, and artificially flavoured food, then it takes some adjustment before your taste buds can appreciate what real food tastes like (spoiler: it tastes better than the fake crap).