Why do the poor become fat?

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Yes, I live in a city like that, too. I became particularly interested in urban planning and how it effects the lives of people because of one of my classes last semester: "cultural geography". Turns out, my city wants more urban sprawl. It wants to build more expensive houses on the outside fringes and forget about the poor center that needs help and development. One day I want to move to Portland (who focuses a lot on being environmentally friendly) or a big city where transportation is good. I also hope I can contribute to the good of my city some day.

Being judged sucks, I always get that question: do you drive yet? Some people just don't understand how I don't want a car because I don't want my lifestyle based around one. People think that just because that's the way everyone else is doing it (driving) that that is the way everyone ought to do it. My mom for instance seems to see me not driving as me not being successful in the adult world, I think she is more worried for me, really. But I see it as a success because I see my rest of my life ahead of me going to college, living on campus and I don't see myself needing a car. In reality I might want a car one day, but that is not a priority. I'm focusing on my priorities.

good for you, glad you were successful.

similarly, i lost 90lb. somehow, i came out the other side without judging the people who are unable to do so. but i am an ex-smoker who doesn't judge smoker either. i just feel like my successes don't automatically translate to meaning that everyone has the circumstances to be able to do what i have done.

no, i think you should stay away from food advice for obese people. that is an unbalanced meal (where are the veggies?), eggs are not recommended on a regular basis (we had this discussion) and it would be considered a breakfast meal in my country (and therefore it does not fit the criteria for satisfying). i am not going to respond to your meal advice in this thread again as you're simply not getting the point.

And as far as I recall, you didn't win this debate. One quarter pounder is far worse for your heart than any humanely consumable number of eggs are—not to mention the risks of colon cancer the burger carries. Reg Park ate 35 eggs everyday; he bench pressed 500 lbs before steroids were available.

Who cares about vegetables when you get enough fibers from the oats and enough nutrients from the eggs? You don't get enough nutrients from a hamburger menu, the protein levels in it are too low, the protein quality is too low, the fiber amount is too low and te carbohydrate leels are too high.

there is no winning. i am just not going to argue diet with you because you don't seem to be able to take North American traditions, current health research, and standard food guides into consideration when making suggestions.

Traditions? I lost 100 lbs by cutting out alcohol and bread. Both are ground pillars of the Scandinavian diet.

http://www.inquisitr.com/303914/egg-yol ... onclusive/

No matter what you believe, you'll always be able to find some obscure research that supports your claims. The only way to be sure what's true and not, is to look at real life examples. The very fact that eggs are a ground pillar in the diet of both fitness performers and bodybuilders gives a pretty good estimate on how healthy it is.

The government health guides are as out of date as Windows 3.1.

The reason I argued my rice and beans was more nutritious than McDonalds, "macros" and "micros" aside, preservatives and additives. Obviously we've all seen how McDonalds burgers never go bad. http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/12/29 ... n-counter/ Year old. That's Fallout 3 kinda food.

Anyway, you're arguing off a false premise. If $2 is enough to fill you up at McDonalds (which wtf) then I showed a meal that can be made for $2 or slightly over that'd feed a whole family if $2 would "fill you up" at McDonalds.

http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/
Check this site out. She makes recipes and breaks it all down by price. Fast food is NOT more efficient unless you have zero things to cook with, but even without a full oven or stove, a hot water boiler, and a toaster oven don't take up much space and can be used in a single room. You'd get into trouble in a college dorm perhaps where cooking is not allowed (but they have kitchens to use in dorms anyway) but yeah.

I'm not judging, I know things are hard, but things must be overcome to survive in life.

This is the Canadian food guide,

Which is in essence why people get fat. Low as hell in fats, including may I add the very healthy fats from fish and coconut oil. Overloading on grains, which is a guaranteed way to make your blood sugar constantly go haywire, causing insulin spike after insulin spike day after day,

Quite a lot of fructose, which interestingly enough is the only sugar that your body can store directly as fat.

So in short, this is what the Canadian government recommends:

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide ... it-eng.php and its also why people are getting fat. Insulin causes your body to store fat, when you eat carbohydrates in the form of vegetables, fruits and grains, you spike insulin, which causes your body to store fat.

It's why ketogenic diets such as the Anabolic diet works so well for fat loss and why they recommend low carb diets for diabetics. No constant spiking of insulin by eating the recommended and may I say idiotic 5 - 6 meals per day. How is someone going to lose weight if they are constantly in fat storage mode (from insulin spikes) that never stop?

The Paleo diet is the healthiest diet you can find,

I recommend that you read John Kiefer's book "The Carb nite solution" it has in excess of 1500 citations from scientific papers on this exact issue.

Last edited by TM on 12 Sep 2012, 3:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I am equally done arguing with Kurgan.
He clearly does not know anything about US prices or diets and apparently thinks we should all be bench pressing 500 pounds in our spare time.
I have little hope anything we can say will change his mind. If he wants to continue to think normal people eat on $5 a day in America that's his problem.
I think he simply hates his life and is taking it out on America because he thinks everything is so much better here.


1000knives rice and beans is healthier, I don't think anyone would honestly try to debate otherwise.
It also takes a night of soaking and an hour of cooking to make.
Not so much for your nose though, I would hate to share an apartment with someone who lived off rice and beans.

I don't hate my life. I just think it's mighty funny when Americans complain about gas or food prices.

If the US ever gets a new Bill Clinton, I might even consider moving there. I'd make more with my computer science degree there, with lower taxes and lower prices on everything except phone bills, whey protein and internet.

Bro skip the whey protein and eat 35 eggs a day here. It'd be like $3.

I think Kurgan has reasonably answered "yes" to the question "is it possible to buy healthy food if you are poor in America?". It is possible and there are some poor people who do it. But "is it possible to buy healthy food if you are poor in America?" was not the OP's question. The OP wondered why poor people in America are often fat (they aren't all fat, it's just more prevalent than in other economic classes). I think it is because cheap, convenient food is the affordable default that they are surrounded by. If they devoted themselves to finding the healthiest possible food instead of doing other things, many of them probably could. But devoting themselves to that cause is just not going to happen. OliveOilMom explained why.

Yup.
There are more obstacles preventing them than richer people, and that's precisely the thread's question-
it doesn't matter if XYZ is possible, but whether it's AS EASY for group A as group B.
It isn't.

This guy is 84; he faces many obstacles just because of his age:

Processed foods, cheap foods, etc are laden with MSG. MSG makes you fat and causes long term health problems. It doesn't create problems right away, but it's my suspicion that MSG might cause autism/Asperger's because the parents ate it. My mother was poor. Ate a lot of crap foods and did drugs. She was also borderline-retarded. So, I've got more than one factor bleeding through genetically. But like I said, investigate into MSG, the flavor-enhancer. One form of it is related to it is created from the infamous "gluten" that aspies and autistic need to avoid. It's also because they use the chemical Sodium Hydroxide to convert gluten into MSG.

Where there is MSG and additives used, there are more health problems. Look at the areas with the highest amount of problems. Now look at how many additives like aspertame, fake sugar, MSG, is used in their meats, etc.

I really would like to bring this to the forefront again. In the past, they put MSG in shots given to kids, causing a lot of damage. I am doing a lot of research on this to make an article and hope that people will open their eyes. A MSG solution is even sprayed on produce as it is grown as a "growth enhancer". MSG causes free radicals in our body, which damages our body, brain, increase aging, makes diseases worse like Alzheimer's etc. The solution is anti-oxidants and glutamate blockers. I believe it is a major causes--I know not the only cause--but it's a growing problem!! !!

It was discovered in the early 1900s and has been used aggressively since WW2, wide-spread, especially in the Asia's and North America. I'm sure Europe and others have it in their foods, too. Now I know it isn't in everything. The simple solution is to eat healthier things and know how it's grown. I'd pick locally owned, family run places. But even then, who knows...

But the basis of eating healthy: STAY within your Calorie range. Count calories! Low fat, low carb, moderate protein, more if you are working out, drink half your body weight in water, not tap water, try distilled. Whole grains like oats are good. But wheat has gluten. Nooo cured meats like lunch meat or beer jerky... they use MSG. White rice doesn't have gluten, but is higher in calories and void of most nutrients than wheat. Avoid processed flour, sugar and salt. Yes, it takes some brain-work, and I'm still gathering the pieces myself. But this means, apples, blackberries etc are good breakfast foods, soy-milk is a nice replacement to milk, cause our milk here comes from cows who are jacked up in hormones, etc. You get your carbs from fruits, veggies, brown rice, beans, etc nuts other than walnuts... it's possible to be poor and eat healthy. I do it. I'm poor. I just have to eat less. I'm 5 ft, I use 1481 calories a day and go gym daily. I pay less than $20 a month to go. It is possible, if you realllly want to try.

Last edited by RageHQ on 13 Sep 2012, 6:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

News flash. Normal people do not look like that. Not even normal healthy people.