How can someone be obese and poor....is it because?

Question

they eat so much cheap food like starch, potatoes, macaroni, beans?
Or is it because they use what little money they in food to feel comfort by indugling

Answer 1

Go to your local health food store and price nice, healthy vegetables. Then go to Wal-Mart and price a box of generic macaroni and cheese. Which is cheaper?

Of course, the macaroni's cheaper by a longshot.

Little Debbie snack cakes, mac n' cheese, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, Ramen noodles and other high-carbohydrate foods are cheap and plentiful, so when you don't have much cash, that's the kind of stuff you end up eating, and it packs on the pounds fast.

Answer 2

I think obesity in the poor is a result of both poor diet and poor choices. You can't very well go to Whole Foods with Food Stamps and the working poor in this country do eat a lot of hamburger on special, and potatoes , macaroni, and white bread are relaltively cheap and filling. Don't blame the beans, an excellent source of fiber and protein. It is not only poor people who use food for comfort; in that respect, the playing field is equal. When you are truly poor and struggling, it's unlikely to think of exercise . Poverty breeds self contempt, often times, so the poor are up against a double edged sword.

Answer 3

Both could be possible.

Potatoes and macaroni are not so bad the problem is more real junk fast food, chocolate and crisps are temptingly cheap when a lot of people with not much money for food (or with money, for that matter) are just not used to making food from scratch from fresh which can be very cheap but nutritious. It's not expensive to make a veg soup, a good sandwich or a nice tomato sauce for some pasta.

Answer 4

Mostly the former, somewhat the latter.
Here in the USA, obesity is highest among poor people because the cheapest foods are very high in sugar, hydrogenated fats, and empty calories.
These foods have very little nutritional value, so people who eat a lot of them develop vitamin and mineral deficiencies. One of the earliest symptoms of vitamin and mineral deficiencies is food cravings, which the person then tries to satisfy by eating even more of the junk foods.
Education is a factor also. Poor people tend to be less educated, less likely to read the fine print on the food labels and know that the junk food that they're buying has little or no nutritional value, less likely to know that this is important.
In addition, these junk foods are often highly flavored with salt and high fructose corn syrup. Our bodies recognise these tastes, salty and/or sweet, as traditionally accompanying foods with high nurtritional value. Meats are natrually salty, and fruits are natrually sweet. Both guided our pre-agricultural ancestors as to what foods were good. So manufacturers use a hyperstimulus of added salt and sweeteners to fool the body into thinking this is good food. This, together with substandard education, makes the average poor person an easy mark for the junk food industry.
Due to these factors, the poor people in the industrialsed nations, especially the USA, parodoxically tend to be fatter than the rich people. The rich people, observing this, then made it a beauty standard to be thin, becuase being thin means that you're not poor and living on a poor man's diet of empty calories.

Answer 5

Having just heard this, perhaps it uncovers a little bit of the answer for you...there is a chemical in the body that when under stress begins to produce fat...Cortisol I believe it's called. This in turn apparently causes some people to gain weight most often in the stomach, but elsewhere is possible also.

For others there is a pre-disposition to weight gain. Their body also may not burn off calories as quickly as it should, low or slow metabolism.

For others of course, it is the diet either alone or in combination with one or both of the above. So, you don't have to necessarily be a huge and frequent eater to become obese, there are a few more factors than foods involved for some.

Answer 6

I don't know about being poor and obese, but I had an accident when I was 26 that injured disks in my back. I can't walk around like I used to because my pelvis bone goes out of whack causing my left leg to be shorter than my right one. Since that accident, I have gained a substantial amount of weight (one supermodel) and it is due to the fact that I have a hard time getting around. I'm 36 and I will try to have surgery to correct at least one disk in my lower back which causes the most pain.

Imagine walking around with a 6 inch blade in your lower back. That is what it feels like and pills do nothing. My back has caused me to lose jobs because I cannot function in my normal capacity and I do take time off work because sometimes, I can barely move. I have been to chiropractors for over ten years and it's only getting worse not better. Don't pick on the fatty you see in the grocery store, that may be me, who has to sit in my car and cry after shopping just from the pain of it.

Answer 7

Probably both. Junk food is so much cheaper and easier. And, they can't afford a gym membership. Or... they're the type of people who are too lazy to get a job and they just sit on a couch all day eating the junk food they bought with their food stamps. Have you noticed that their kids are usually really skinny??

Answer 8

maybe a little of both and maybe not. the government puts so many addictive chemicals in our foods, that we get hungry faster and need those same chemicals to get us by. the government makes the bad stuff cheap and the good stuff expensive. it's because they WANT us to be addicted to foods. when we get obese and addicted to foods we then run to the doctor and she puts us on two or three medicines. that's how the government gets their money. all people in the government own stock in pharmaceuticals. if you don't believe me, read the book "Natural Cures..." By Kevin Trudeau. It is all scary but true!

Answer 9

Go into a grocery store and check out the prices. Healthy foods with a lot of nutritious value are more expensive. Also, there's a lack of health care/awareness.

Answer 10

Obese people don't always eat more than the average person. It' the fact that they don't eat what is right for them. Where a healthy person may eat a balanced meal for dinner, an obese person may go for a meal that is high in fat content. Not excersizing is another factor.