47.4 Million Americans Live in Poverty

hi hi 

its sad to see so many poor people in a land of plenty, poverty means not being able to feed your family....have seen it up close and personal...it isnt pretty nor nice

Doesn't really seem possible it in such a wealthy country it very sad to be honest. I'm glad i live in western europe where welfare and healthcare are free all be it at a basic level.

The same percentage of Italians live in poverty in Italy as here.

What percentage of the Brits, French, Russians, Chinese, Japanese are in "poverty"?

It seems that the poorer the people are in the US, the fatter they are. Our poor may have problems feeding their families, but somehow the food makes it to their table.

roy perhaps they are "fat" because of poor nutrition/does that mean the skinnier you are the richer you are..............

NO. Fattier food costs  more, not less.

IF you buy potatoes, pasta and veggies and real staples, you will not be fat the way Americans are.

Rice costs very little.

Japanese people live the longest in the world on rice. Then they move to Hawaii. And then onto Los Angeles.

With each move, they abandon less expensive rice for more expensive massive quantities of meat and fry those potatoes in oil.

Being fat in the US had absolutely nothing to do with poverty inhibiting your food choices to fattier food.

Fattier food costs more, not less.

Stop feeling sorry for people with problems. Empower them by making them responsible for their lives as much as possible.

And stop guilt-monging the rest of us because most poor people in the US have terrible eating habits.

Roy C.  You might try a little compassion.  Obviously you don't know what you are talking about, especially about the food poor or rich people eat for that matter.

What do you know about my compassion?

My compassion tells me that poor people don't have to be fat. And, yes, I very much do know what I am talking about.

Why don't you read any of a number of good diet books? They will all tell you to shop the outside part of the store where the potatoes, veggies, rice and other good things are stored.

The crap that is making people fat is the processed food that costs more.

Touche and learn a bit of nutrition.

PS In the fifties, guess who had more nutritional deficiencies ? Whites or blacks?

We all know who was poorer, a lot poorer.

Turns out that American blacks had farm and country eating habits then, just having come north from the South or living somewhere they kept on eating in a traditional way: lots of greens, for example.

American blacks actually had fewer vitamin deficiencies then.

So, as we can see, ignorance of the reality of what makes for good eating and its relation to poverty leads to guilt-monging and a prescription for what won't work.

Last point. This is the first time in history that "poor people" are fatter than the wealthy. There used to be this thing called "the portly banker effect". They had the bucks and did little physical work and they were fatter than the rest of us.

I probably know more about nutrition than you could ever hope to know, let alone understand.  As for diet books, they are only on the market to make money.  Doesn't sound like you know much about healthy eating.  And yes it does take money to eat healthy,  The cheapest foods, at least in the U.S., are potatoes and rice. Also sugar is a big part of the problem of obesity.

Also helps to have good parents who see that one has a good understanding of what it takes to be healthy.  Which includes proper exercise and lots of fruits, veggies and nuts.

You can consider this your lesson for the day.

In Canada and the UK it's way cheaper to eat badly than it is to eat well. As someone who doesn't eat meat and who likes to eat tons of fruit and vegetables, I spend way more money on my food bill thank some of my friends. It would be way cheaper for me to eat badly and buy white bread and pre-packaged deli meat and cheap mayo, but I just can't eat that stuff so for me to buy whole grain bread, fresh vegetables and real mustard, it's way way way more expensive.

I can't say I know about the US though, but that's what I know about shopping in Canadian and British supermarkets, having lived in both countries for many years.

Roy

Instead of beating poor people over the head with your nutrition stick, wouldn't it be better to suggest ways to get the message out about what constitutes healthy eating with a low budget?

There needs to be a campaign similar to the "stop smoking" campaigns that had ads on tv, radio, newspapers, etc.  Good nutrition on a budget can be done, but people need to have some guidence about how to do it.  I grew up thinking everything was fried......even bologne!  And I had to learn about broiling and not re using bacon fat to fry with.  The next generation hopefully will have better, healthier eating habits than I had as a young adult. 

And the subsidies we pay farmers for corn, soybeans, ect. push down the cost of most all processed food.

Roy, here is a challenge for you, next time you go shopping look at the cheapest foods, now find one without "high fructose corn syrup" you can, BUT it will probably be a "diet" version, & just because it doesn't have it listed doesn't mean much see also maltodextrin & a number of other added sweeteners that are used in processed food (know any diabetics? they have to read ALL labels for that reason)

Hi all, For anyone that is interested about the information on food labels, the quick and easy way is: on the Nutrition Facts find the Total Carbohydrate then find the sub-group Sugars. The closer those two numbers, the worse the item is for you. Fats are important , but not half as important as carbs. It's not fat that is the problem as much as ALL those left over carbs that the body goes and coverts into fat to store. For those that my question this, yes I'm diabetic 60 units daily (NPH and Reg.).Nutrition is a complex problem that can not be solved by simple methods, access to and affordability of healthy food is not always easy; nor is the availability of food stamps open to just any and all.This is a good thread and will be interested to see where it goes.