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Five Myths About Healthy Eating

POSTED BY: Geezer
UPDATED: Monday, June 25, 2012 22:59
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GEEZER

Sunday, October 16, 2011 6:13 PM

Quote:

By Katherine Mangu-Ward, Published: October 14

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to stay out of the Republican presidential race means that the American people will be spared months of discussion about his ample waistline and the bad example it sets. Nonetheless, with first lady Michelle Obama urging everyone to get moving, obesity remains a political hot potato, or maybe a tater tot. Below, a helping of skepticism about the causes of Americans’ poor eating habits — and the effectiveness of political fixes.

1. People in poor neighborhoods lack access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Walk into nearly any supermarket in the United States, and you are immediately confronted with abundance — bok choy, mangos, melons and avocados from across the globe — where a couple of varieties of apples and carrots once struggled to fill shelf space.

But not everyone has easy access to this fruity phantasmagoria. If you’re picking up ingredients for dinner at a gas station or a convenience store, you probably live in what eggheads have taken to calling a “food desert” — an ill-defined concept with powerful policy implications. A commonly cited 2009 statistic from the U.S. Department of Agriculture has 23.5 million Americans living in poor urban and rural areas with limited access to fresh food.

Making those food deserts bloom is a centerpiece of Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity agenda. This January found the first lady smiling for the cameras with Wal-Mart executives in Southeast Washington and declaring herself “more hopeful than ever” as she tours the nation’s produce sections.

But the prevalence of food deserts is almost certainly overstated. Not having a supermarket in your Zip code isn’t the last word in access to healthy food. According to the USDA, 93 percent of “desert” dwellers have access to a car. And farmers markets, often overlooked in surveys of rich and poor neighborhoods alike, have tripled since 1994.

Still, it does seem reasonable that making it easier to buy fresh food would improve what people eat. However, a study published this year in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the first to measure the impact of access to fresh food on diet, followed 5,000 people for over 15 years and found something surprising: Proximity to a grocery store or supermarket doesn’t increase consumption of healthy food. That suggests that a lack of convenient leafy greens isn’t the problem. Dinner menus are the product of subtle and pervasive food cultures, which can’t be tweaked from the East Wing.

The primary beneficiaries of tax incentives and other nudges aimed at abolishing food deserts are big grocery chains, not poor shoppers.

2. Advertising forces people to make unhealthy choices.

Television-bound children, their eyes awhirl with images of Tony the Tiger and his high-fructose friends, haunt the debate about junk-food advertising. And any parent who has ever experienced a 2-year-old’s grocery store meltdown would certainly like to have someone to blame. But the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, has concluded that “current evidence is not sufficient to arrive at any finding about a causal relationship from television advertising to adiposity [excess weight] among children and youth.” Similar findings hold true for adults.

We don’t need advertisers to tell us that candy is delicious. Humans were big fans of fat and sugar long before the idiot box was invented. We’re programmed to go for the good (bad) stuff. Sure, Kellogg’s and General Mills have big advertising budgets, but they’re nowhere near as powerful as Darwin. Cracking down on advertisers gives politicians a scapegoat, but it doesn’t make kids, or their parents, healthier.

3. Eating healthy is too expensive.

A dinner of hot dogs and Devil Dogs is undeniably cheap. But a bowl of beans and rice with a banana on the side is cheaper. A survey by the USDA found that, by weight, bottled water is cheaper than soda, low-fat milk is cheaper than high-fat, and whole fruit is cheaper than processed s

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AURAPTOR

Sunday, October 16, 2011 6:19 PM

It really comes down to personal responsibility and the individual making choices for themselves.

Of course, laying blame on anyone but the actual person who makes poor choices is probably 'mean spirited', and runs counter to the "it's not my fault, blame McDonalds! " mindset so many in govt are eager to promote.

SIGNYM

Sunday, October 16, 2011 7:51 PM

Actually, "commodity foods" are cheap, but meat, vegetables and fruits are pretty expensive. While you can fill your belly with beans and rice and corn, it won't make you healthy.

AURAPTOR

Sunday, October 16, 2011 8:09 PM

Fruits and veggies aren't so expensive that they can't be included in one's weekly diet. There's usually a pretty wide selection to choose from, so the 'too pricey' excuse simply doesn't float. And chicken... that's darn cheap too.

GEEZER

Sunday, October 16, 2011 8:31 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
Actually, "commodity foods" are cheap, but meat, vegetables and fruits are pretty expensive. While you can fill your belly with beans and rice and corn, it won't make you healthy.

Vegans and vegetarians might disagree with you about needing meat (or dairy).

Anyway. There's usually healthy stuff on sale.

My local grocery is selling, for example, three 1 lb bags of frozen veggies for $4.00, including mixed veggies, string beans, brocolli and califlower, etc. Chicken leg quarters for $.79 a pound. Apples $.99 a pound. Red seedless grapes $.99 a pound. ten cans of veggies for $10.00. Not that pricey. Organic costs a bit more, but it also costs more to produce.

Or course, I could walk down to Costco and get some of that cheaper.

We cost it out here, and our regular meals for the two of us usually cost less than one meal, or even one burger, at McDucks.

If I can find bottom round beef for $2.50 a pound, like my local store's selling right now, I can make 24 servings of chili for $15.00 of meat and a couple of bucks of spices and garlic. Maybe a can of pinto beans to pour it over and a skillet of cornbread. That's like $.85 cents a serving.

Madame will buy a couple of chickens and stew them, cook down the stock, pick the meat, add some veggies, and make a real healthy and hearty soup we can freeze up for about the same per serving.

Same with stews and spaghetti sauce. Hell, we bake our own bread, and even using expensive flour it's cheaper than the store's (and better, too).

"Keep the Shiny side up"

BYTEMITE

Sunday, October 16, 2011 9:49 PM

I pretty much live on beans, rice, and corn.

I think the main deal is, even though it might be cheaper long term to buy in bulk and have lots of leftovers, the very poor family might not be able to afford that initial $15 cost.

PHOENIXSHIP

Sunday, October 16, 2011 10:15 PM

You're right... these are all personal choices, but here's the problem. I'm a sociology major.

That was a joke, by the way.

The other problem is that when I view this through the lens of a sociologist, I see a specific population (in this case, residents of urban areas) and I find a prevalence of obesity, I wonder if there's a systemic cause. Could be a lack of education, jobs, job training, or lack of personal responsibility? These things are usually caused by more than one thing.

1KIKI

Sunday, October 16, 2011 11:00 PM

To understand their lives try reading "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich. http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0805063897

Many people are 'working poor'. Each day is an effort to > try < to get by. Most are renters. Some live in hotels. A rising portion are homeless. Many people are living with other people in a single residence and don't have regular access to working kitchens. Taking a mosey on down to the supermarket to comparison shop and THEN prepare the food at home are luxuries of time and effort. And fast food is - well - fast. And easy to find.

There is another factor - food addiction. About 40% of people have brains that light up to fat, sugar and carbs, and salt in the exact same way a crack addict's brain lights up with crack. The studies referenced that document this can be found in "The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite" by David Kessler former head of the FDA under Bush, then Clinton. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004NSVE32/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_r
d_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1605297852&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0EF8DGKF8PS44WM9EB1Q People are exposed to these addicting substances early in life as part of the normal, standard American diet.

These addicting substances didn't become a REGULAR part of the American diet until the fast food franchise and pre-packaged food came into widespread being. Through trial and error, the industries found what would keep people coming back for more of that hit. On the one hand they preach personal responsibility, on the other they advertise and sell addictive foods, to children. Hypocrites much?

And then we have Geezer. Who's fine with all that.

While Wall St. is going through the roof, Main St. is paying all the bills.

Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in taxpayer funded bailouts, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes?

Yeah, me neither....

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Monday, October 17, 2011 1:13 AM

I think it is better to look at things systemically. If obesity and bad eating habits happen across the board amongst the poorest people living in wealthy nations, which it does, so it is not just about poor black neighborhoods in the US, then you need to ask why it is happening and how it is happening.

So we have the same situation here. And so does Britain, so you can rule out race for a start. I don't have a sociology degree (ahem) so I am just speculating why it is so.

Firstly, fast food and convenience food is cheap. I'm on a budget so I do look at prices carefully. Not only is it cheap in your average supermaket, but you can get ultra cheap supermarkets like NQR (Not Quite Right) where it is all frozen and packaged foods. But there is more at play here than just cost, its about desire.

Being poor in a wealthy western country is a whole experience in itself. I've been pretty poor myself, just not hopelessly poor if you know what I mean. You always have access to a TV and advertising and you are bombarded with advertising forcing the same message down your throat. To have and to consume is to be someone. If you don't you are a loser. No one wants to be a loser and the less educated you are, the more prone you are to swallowing that message. That is why children are so vulnerable. And they drive the spending habits of their parents. why parents find it hard to say no to stuff even when they can't afford it.This is why people get into debt so they can pay for things they cannot afford.

Advertisers on the other hand, are not uneducated. Creating markets that are just about irresistable to certain segments of society is a science that has been refined and refined again. Marketing campaigns/advertising works on a whole range of complex levels, and most of us are suckered in to one degree or another to messages or products that have been spun.

So they do target the poor and the vulnerable and they target food and drink advertising, because its easier to buy a Big Mac than a BMW if you want to give yourself a treat (unlike a wealthy friend of mine who bought the boomer in a vulnerable moment.)

There is free choice and so you have not every poor person being obese, but when you have trends you have to try and understand what is going on, other than blaming the most vulnerable as you appear to be doing so yet again.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution series focused in part on poverty and food, showing that there are generations of children being born and reproducing that have only known the fast food diet, that eat in front of the TV, don't use knives and forks - don't know how - rather like Americans never learnt (ahem) and certainly have never had anyone cook in their household, and that would include grandma and great grandma as well probably. Cooking and food preparation is one of those things that really gets handed down.

The other thing I wanted to dispute is information about food. FRankly most of it is a lie. Food that is marketed as healthy or low fat are commonly loaded with sugar and preservatives and not in anyway healthy.

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Monday, October 17, 2011 2:05 AM

A study which disagrees with the original article. Links watching junk food ads and obesity for children.

"By the time they are 5 years old, children have seen an average of more than 4,000 television commercials for food annually. During Saturday morning cartoons, children see an average of one food ad every five minutes. The vast majority of these ads — up to 95 percent — are for foods with poor nutritional value, the researchers say."