Food Swamps Increase Obesity Rates(theatlantic.com)
theatlantic.com
Food Swamps Increase Obesity Rates
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/12/food-swamps/549275/?single_page=true
6 comments
Until we can get past the fast-cheap-easy mindset Food Swamps will continue to dominate the landscape of many towns. Slowing down and putting more importance on what we eat should be a priority.
There’s also a major interaction with poverty. From a dollars per calorie perspective, fast food can be a great bargain... at the expense of nutrition of course.
Similarly, healthy foods can be a luxury from a time-to-prepare perspective. Toasting walnuts, chopping kale, and dicing pears for a totally rockin’ macro nutrient side salad is something that someone with two jobs just isn’t going to do.
Why are the fast, unhealthy things cheap? Some of it is government agricultural subsidy structure. Some of it is comparative shelf life. There are probably others as well.
Similarly, healthy foods can be a luxury from a time-to-prepare perspective. Toasting walnuts, chopping kale, and dicing pears for a totally rockin’ macro nutrient side salad is something that someone with two jobs just isn’t going to do.
Why are the fast, unhealthy things cheap? Some of it is government agricultural subsidy structure. Some of it is comparative shelf life. There are probably others as well.
nail->head
Cheap-fast options put money into the pockets of those who provide those options. The markup is ridiculous. The staff make little to nothing.
It wasn't until the 2015 Dietary Recommendations for Americans that any agency that fresh food is better, in many ways, than packaged foods. This was a glimmer of hope. But, while the American government continues to benefit corporations and not individuals we will probably see little improvement.
Cheap-fast options put money into the pockets of those who provide those options. The markup is ridiculous. The staff make little to nothing.
It wasn't until the 2015 Dietary Recommendations for Americans that any agency that fresh food is better, in many ways, than packaged foods. This was a glimmer of hope. But, while the American government continues to benefit corporations and not individuals we will probably see little improvement.
I like to think of nutrition as education. The more time you spend working hands-on with the food you put in your body, the greater the understanding for and tendency to seek nutritionally-rich ingredients.
Following this mindset leads to better farming practices and land management as well. However it's important to recognize the privilege of those able to do so.
Our society would greatly benefit from better nutritional education.
Following this mindset leads to better farming practices and land management as well. However it's important to recognize the privilege of those able to do so.
Our society would greatly benefit from better nutritional education.
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See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM - fructose specifically dysregulates appetite feedback loops between the gut, liver and brain. The only healthy way to consume fructose is when it is trapped in a great deal of fiber, which limits this effect. And the only way to do that is to eat it in the form of fresh fruit that has not been processed in any way (i.e., frozen, chopped up, etc.)
So the primary thing wrong with the KFC double down is the fructose in the bacon and the mayo-like goop they put into the middle. But compared to a milkshake, or a Big Mac, it's actually pretty healthy, if you ask for it without the bacon and "sauce." At least as of two years ago, KFC's original recipe batter had no sugar added to it. (NB: The "extra tasty crispy" batter does contain sugar!)
Also, did you know that food labels routinely lie about sugar content? Turns out that the USDA allows anything <1g per serving to be rounded down to 0g! Do this with enough servings, and you'll run well past the safe daily fructose limit. Also they permit fructose to under something like 60+ different names. My way of dealing with this is to refuse to eat any food containing any amount of it, even if it is at the very end of the ingredients list. And when in doubt, I ask the restaurant/grocery store/relative about what's in the sauce. Don't leave anything to chance!
The result is that I'm quite fit at age 37, and I've managed to stay this way for about a decade. Many other people my age have rolls of fat hanging off their bodies, and they are very sad about it...
At any rate, there is no substitute for educating oneself, studying chemistry, biochemistry, reading labels, keeping up-to-date with the facts. If you don't put the effort in, you're not going to get the results you want back out.