Why are poor people heavier?

Question

I've read that according to a national study, poor people are fatter because they can't afford to buy healthy food. The buy foods that they can get more of for the money which have tons of preservatives etc. Do you agree or have you heard this?

Answer 1

So it strikes me that poorer people tend to be:

Less well educated
Less active
More likely to drink beer and fast food
Yep, pretty much the same qualities a fat person would expect.

I'm a firm believer that there are certain kinds of people in the world. Yes, there are lazy, fat rich people and there are thin, active poor people. But I'm guessing that a study could show a correlation between intelligence and wealth, and I'm also guessing that a study could show a correlation between intelligence and weight. Yuppies may play golf, but it keeps the weight off more than drinking beer while watching NASCAR as your twelve government-supported kids run around the house on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Does that incense you? Yeah, me too a bit. After all, the author of the book this article links to "presents fat as a heath liability unjustly foisted on the poor and insufficiently addressed by the affluent." The article also points out some scary thoughts like this: "A regular serving of McDonald's French fries contained 200 calories in 1960; now it has 610."

In the end, I'm still fairly certain of another thing: people are the weight they are pretty much going to be. I can eat well and exercise, and my body might change just a little. I can slack off for two months and eat like a cow (multiple stomachs, postponed cud chewing, the works!) and look about the same. Most people I know have always been about the same weight - the few I know that have changed at all have had to work very hard to change.

Answer 2

There may be some truth to that, but not strictly so. Fact is, if you are a disciplined person with good habits, those traits make it nearly impossible to be poor in America, AND you are less likely to be fat.

You could eat very healthy for little money, in fact many fresh fruits and veggies, rice, beans etc are very cheap, and would make a healthy diet. However, they are boring. Big Macs are tastier and also cheap. What takes a bit of money or else a lot of time is to eat food that's healthy AND delicious and interesting. That's quite a trick.

Answer 3

look at the marketing of fast food and confections/soda etc Who do they target ?Howmuch is a meal there? If you are a hard working stiff on construction you may need a hot quick meal on a tight budget you go to a fast food joint for a couple dollars you eat and are satisfied. Probably you havent been educated on the Mediterranean diet lately and perhaps find buying a fresh salmon steak and fresh veges a bit pricey. It s acombo-economics/poor educated/fast food aggressive marketing and addicting food they provide such as high fructose corn syrup makes you eat more and more(its sugar on crack) Combine extra stress of not knowing if you can pay your rent or if your kid will have to go to the military to get a job and you also get food used as a soothing antidepressant. Its a no brainer

Answer 4

They can't afford to buy the healthy food. A perfect example is those little burritos you can buy in the frozen food section that are 4-5 for $1, but have 20g fat and 5g saturated fat, not to mention tons of trans fats.

It a racket, I tell ya.

Answer 5

yes to the best of my knowledge, and I am one of the poor, pasta, rice, bread products, all are cheaper to buy than fresh fruit and vegetables, so we fill up on pure carbs and small amounts of protean, also processed foods for some reason are cheaper than fresh food, go figure, but perhaps because fresh is seasonal. but we import from around the world, and I suppose the cost of transportation is a factor,. but the premise that poor can not afford healthy food is sad but true

Answer 6

A single serving size of a cup of soup(noodles with peas, carrots, and corn, with beef or chicken seasoning) is 28 cents at the local discount store. You can not buy an apple or orange or any single piece of fruit for that amount of money and be satisfied if that's all you have for lunch. That cup of soup will make you feel full but you will get fat. That expensive piece of fruit will not make you fat, but you can't afford it if you only have 28 cents.

Answer 7

I have heard it and what a crock of crap !!

A bag of apples or any fruit cost the same as the chips and garbage they are buying.

A bag of carrots(among many other vegetables) is under $2 for BIG bag so those heavy people claiming this need to get off their butts and pay attention to the what exactly they are shopping for.

All that prefab. stuff could be made homemade MUCH cheaper and healthier so it is simply LAZINESS, unwilling to change and wanting to blame something !

Answer 8

A novel I once read called it "poor fat", because people who have less money are more inclined to fill up on cheap carbs (macaroni & cheese) which when eaten out of balance with more nutritious food will easily turn into fat.

Answer 9

Correlation does not equal causation. They may be fat because as well as being too lazy to earn a decent living, they are lazy about their exercise, and their nutrition. It’s kind of like that first domino that is knocked over that causes the rest to fall.

Answer 10

Yeah i've noticed that, It's cause they spend all of thier money on food instead of the other things that they should be spending on