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This Just In: Poor Don't Eat Like Middle Class

This is why I don't take the newspaper anymore: I'm tired of the sob stories.

The latest is an article in The New York Times about how people in flophouses can't afford unprocessed food. They use the term "working class" to describe people living with no reliable stove or refrigerator or pots, pans and other basic utensils, which annoys me as someone living in a working-class neighborhood. We have our problems, but a lack of a working appliances and cooking utensils is pretty unusual. Some of the people interviewed in a book the article referred to said they were evicted from their last place, but there's no reason given (there never is in the news).

First, I have to wonder whether people without cooking utensils care about cooking. It's just as well if they don't--moving to a place with working appliances really should be more important than figuring out how to sit down to poached salmon and asparagus in a lemon-butter sauce at home. And I doubt that people in such circumstances really would use extra grocery money to buy their children fresh fruit. Kids threw away fresh fruit by the ton when school lunches were "upgraded" in 2012.

Second, does eating unprocessed foods fix obesity? Not necessarily. Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes has photos of overweight people who living on home cooking; the Pima Indians are among them. And readers of a certain age may remember pictures of overweight sunbathers in the Soviet Union, where, so I'm told by internet friends who grew up there, they likewise ate home cooking.

So what can people of limited means do? Some people living in "food deserts" can buy real food in their area. I know this because I live near a "food desert," and there are literally 30 places to buy food within a four-mile radius of it. In fact, there used to be a small grocery co-op in the middle of the food desert. That's right--you can have a grocery store in the middle of a food desert. The co-op folded last year due to financial difficulties. Not enough low-income people were interested in buying local, organic, pasture-raised (read: expensive) groceries. In any case, yes, it's possible to buy real food on $29 per week (as of 2015). In less time than it takes to get coffee and an egg and sausage biscuit at the McDonald's a few blocks away, I can make the same thing (sans biscuit) at home.

Fast food isn't such a bad option. Just get a burger and salad and throw away the bun. Hey, it worked for Tom Naughton--and he even ate the bun! 

Comments

Yes, I have occasionally had a 'fast food' burger and salad minus the bun!!!
But you can't beat making your own burgers :)

All the best Jan
Lori Miller said…
It's certainly cheaper than going out to eat, and homemade salad dressing with no seed oils is better for you. But for people with no way of cooking, such a fast food meal sure beats pizza or Chinese food--or even a homemade meal that's mostly starch.
Larcana said…
Eating in give you tastier food, too!
Lori Miller said…
That, and you can make a decent-sized meal. For all the hand-wringing about fattening fast food, if you take away the fries and the sugary drinks and the bun, there's no much food there.
Anonymous said…
Interesting the comparison to processed and home cooked fresh food, both make us fat if we eat too much of either, I really think the term working class isn’t a fair term for this comparison either, and not having appliances to cook with has got to have the most influence on what the homeless eat, We don’t have very many people living on the streets this far north in Canada , the freezing temps, but I know that the soup kitchen and several churches supply healthy meals everyday for who ever is in need. You really made think about this today, thank you for that,
Lori Miller said…
Here in the US, I think you can't buy prepared food (like a roast chicken) with SNAP. For some, that makes sense: most people who aren't working should have time to prepare food. For the homeless and disabled, though, it makes it difficult.
Galina L. said…
I know some low-income people who don't do much besides working on two low-paying jobs. They eat junk because they don't care and dead tired most of the time. Of course, you can cook at home all sort of junk
Lori Miller said…
I was in that category a few years ago when I was taking care of my parents and then moving cross country. Lots of stress, little time, and a sensitive stomach to boot. I hope things get better for them.
Kim said…
throwing away the bun! that's how I've been eating burgers all this time XD
Lori Miller said…
At Dr. Davis's videoconference the other night, he mentioned someone who ordered a burger, but on finding out the meat wasn't grass fed, just had the bun. 🤦

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