And That's Why They're So Fat!

[trigger warning: fat shaming, food. please enjoy this delightful otter instead.]

The bus I take to work goes by the high school right when all the kids are due, so on a rainy day like today, it can take 10 minutes or more to get 50 feet down the road to drop off the kids. The bus driver was understandably annoyed after the 5th time we sat through the light at the same intersection and started pontificating on how ridiculous it was for parents to give their children a ride to school- in the pouring rain, mind you. With ice and huge piles of snow everywhere.

First of all, before I get to the title of this post, I would like to point out that if you've never tried to walk everywhere in the winter, you should. It will be educational. Half the sidewalks are never shoveled and that snow turns into ice as people walk on it. Businesses like to pile the snow from their parking lots onto the sidewalks. The city becomes an obstacle course of ice and snow and what is a 5 minute walk in the summer can easily take me 15 minutes by the end of winter. I don't blame anyone for not wanting their child to walk to school in that.

So, the bus driver is privileging all over people without cars and decides to add another group to his privilege parade: overweight kids. "These kids never walk anywhere, and that's why they're so fat!"

I watched the two biggest kids on the bus flinch at that. I'm not sure anyone else even noticed the casual fat shaming. Why would you? It's everywhere. And two teenaged kids got to start their day with an emotional beat down.

I noticed something at Walmart that might help the bus driver understand reality a little better. I paid $1.99 for head of iceberg lettuce half the size they normally are, but I could have gotten Hostess snack cakes- a whole box of them- for $1.50.

I paid $1.58 each for fresh broccoli crowns, but I could have gotten an entire box of Honey Buns for $1.00. Hell, for what I paid in fresh broccoli, it would have been cheaper to buy three boxes of Honey Buns.

80% ground beef was a little less than $4 for 1.5 lbs, but a bag of frozen, unbreaded fish fillets was almost $6.50.

Bottled water was, per ounce, 4 times the price of generic soda. (Yes, yes tap water, but you've never had to drink water where I live. It smells like it's filtered over rotting corpses. We have to make our ice with filtered water.)

I'm having a very hard time keeping up with my new diet. Having cut out the fat, keeping up my caloric intake is difficult at those kind of prices. Throughout the entire store, fatty, processed empty calorie crap was cheap and in bulk. Healthy food that actually is food is expensive and comes in small portions. A big bag of Twizzlers is $1.25. That's what one mango cost.

If you're poor, and in the county I live in, a full 25% of families fall below the federal poverty line, and you're raising children, what are you going to do? Buy a tiny amount of healthy food and watch while your children spend their entire childhoods hungry, or buy a full pantry of crap that will keep them full? There's really no good answer, is there?

And that's why they're so fat!

Now, I don't want to hear what your stores where you live charge. Am I talking about where you live? I don't want to hear about "Walmart's not the only store there is", either. I don't have a car, so I beg rides from family to get to the store. Which puts me in about the same spot as the average working parent in terms of time and ability to get places. Despite this, I have checked out every store in the area, and Walmart really is the best deal overall. I can't stop by 5 different stores to take advantage of all the sales every week, and neither can the average working poor parent. If I go to Redner's, their produce is limited and I'm paying an arm and a leg for spices and laundry detergent. Price Chopper has great produce, but their cleaning supplies and fish* are outrageously expensive.

So let's not start a kid's Monday with fat shaming until we've fixed the walking situation, the poverty situation and the food pricing situation. You know, never.

*I am a vegetarian, but I always did eat fish occasionally. Since I've had to cut out eggs and milk, I had to find something to replace the protein. I tell myself that wild fish had nice lives before I ate them, unlike the poor pigs and chickens raised for slaughter. Do not ruin this for me. I need protein.

A Food Stamp Menu

food insecurity, food stamps, poverty,
[trigger warning: for those with ED, I will be reviewing nutrition facts for some crappy foods. If this will trigger you in any way, please to avoid the following post.]

Wallet Pop asked a family on food stamps for a week's menu. It is . . . revealing.

This is a family of four: husband, wife, 2 children. They receive $36 per person, per week. Doing This represents, btw, the maximum one can receive in food stamps. I know a family of 5 (two adults, 3 teenagers) that receives $200 per month. Not per person, per month.

Here's what I want you to keep in mind: recently, given that 1 in 8 Americans are currently receiving food stamps, there has been a spate of opinion pieces stating that (a) people should be ashamed to get food stamps, (b) people shouldn't get food stamps, they should work, and (c) obesity is a huge problem in America, there there is no reason for anyone to get food stamps. I think a look at an average week on food stamps might help clarify things.

Monday:
Breakfast We woke up late and skipped breakfast. (trust me, that's the easiest way to stretch food dollars)

Lunch
My toddler had six chicken nuggets, $.75 20 grams of fat, 510 mg of sodium, 60 mg of cholesterol. but it's cheap.
I had a chicken patty on hamburger bun with cheese, $1.45
My daughter had Top Ramen noodles, $.15 12 grams fat, 1960 mg of sodium. Top Ramen is the nutritional equivalent of paste. and cheap.

Total: $2.35

Snacks/Drinks Water that I bought at Wal-Mart for $.25/gallon at a vending machine (probably drank 1 or 2 gallons)

Flavored water - $.62

Trail mix - $.75

2 bananas - $.50

Milk - $.50

Total: $2.87

Dinner Grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup.

2 cans of tomato soup for $.60 (bought on sale with a coupon) it's the first vegetable of the day. between this and the bananas, unless they really get grooving on the veggies later in the day, i think you can see the problem with the food stamp menu. keep in mind, we're talking about 2 children here.

6 slices of bread at a cost of 50 cents

Shredded cheese (50 cents)

Olive oil for cooking (the olive oil didn't cost me anything because i won it on RachelRay.com)

Total: $1.60 Total for day: $6.82

nope. that was it. 2 bananas and tomato soup. the rest was white bread, paste, fat and salt. you can feed 4 people on food stamps, but they're not eating well.

Tuesday:
Breakfast:2 yogurts for a total of 80 cents

3 bananas for $1.25 Total: $2.05

Lunch: 1 can of chili for $1

2 peanut butter & jelly sandwiches made for $1.00

3 pears for $1.25

Total: $3.25

Dinner:2 boxes of Shells and Cheese for $5

2 ears corn fpr $2 Total: $7

Total for day: $12.30

Wednesday:

Breakfast:2 yogurts for $.80

3 bananas for $1.25 Total: $2.05

Lunch: Top Ramen for 15 cents

2 hot dogs (no bun) for 40 cents 34 grams of fat, 14 grams of saturated fat, 1168 mg of sodium

1 French Bread Pizza for $1.50 Total: $2.05
Drinks: 2 apple juices for $2

Dinner: 3 roast beef sandwiches Roast beef for $5.50 (the meat was on sale, leftovers available)

3 sandwich rolls $2.50

3 carrots $1.00 Total: $9.00 ending the day at the children getting 2 servings of fruit, and, being generous, 1/2 serving of vegetables.

Total for day: $15.10
Thursday:

Breakfast:Homemade Fruit Smoothies that included fruit, juice, and sherbert mixed in the blender for $3.50 yeah fruit!

Lunch:

Leftover Roast beef sandwich from last night - $0

3 ham sandwiches: $2

Dinner (we had a guest for dinner on this night) Pork chops stuffed with stuffing: $6

1 pound of green Beans for $2

Mashed potatoes $2 Total: $8

Total for day: $11.50 wow, 2 servings of vegetables, one of fruit.

Friday:
Breakfast:2 yogurts for 80 cents

3 bananas $1.25

Total: $2.05

Lunch (we had an extra guest for lunch):2 pot pies for $1.50 pot pies aka death in a pastry shell, 21 grams of fat per pie, 8 grams of saturated fat per pie, 841 mg of sodium per pie.

2 hot dogs (no bun) for $.40

1 Can of chili for $1

Total: $2.90

clearly, she does what I do, which is to find something cheap you like, or can tolerate, and eat a lot of it.

Snack:

3 flavored waters - $.95 flavored water. saddest snack ever.

Trail Mix - $.75
Dinner:Fish for $7

Green Beans for $1.50

Pasta: $1 Total: $9.50

Total for day: $16.15

Saturday:

Breakfast:2 yogurts for 80 cents Banana smoothies for $1.25 (friend gave us some of the fruit we used)Total: $2.05

Lunch: Top Ramen noodles for $.15

4 pears for $1.25

One can of soup - $1 Total: $2.40

Dinner: Pizza for $3

Total for day: $7.45

Sunday:
Breakfast: 4 slices of toast for $.50 that for 4 people. which says to me that the bread ran out, because i don't know too many people who eat 1 slice of toast at a time. also, i'm a little concerned that this may be dry toast, which is entirely possible. butter, jam, etc. are expensive.

2 bananas for $.45 Total: $.95

Lunch: 2 Banquet Turkey Meals for $2

1 Banquet Pizza Meal for $1

1 Banquet Chicken Nugget Meal for $1

1 Healthy Choice Microwave Meal $2.40Total: $6.40
Dinner: We made French toast and sausage with eggs

1 Package Sausage - $1.50

8 slices bread - $1 oh, i see. they needed the bread for dinner.

6 eggs - $.85

Total: $3.35

Total for the day: $10.70

Miscellaneous: 6-pack of soda for $3.35

5 Microwave meals for $13

Jones Cola Fridge pack -$4 Gallon of milk for $2.50

6 gallons water for $1.50 Total: $24.35

Approximate total for week: $105.07

So, a week on food stamps: a celebration of premade, fatty, salty crap because that's what's cheap. Very few vegetables, not enough fruits, no whole grains, very little, in other words, that could be considered healthy. This is a menu for 2 children. Is anyone surprised at all the obesity you see, especially in poor communities? Should we be shocked by rising rates of diabetes? Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised to learn there is a connection between troubling educational failures and a generation of children raised without vegetables.

So ask yourself who should be ashamed- the family, for needing food stamps, or the those among us who think eating crap to avoid starvation is too good for children?

Food Insecurity aka Hunger

hunger, food insecurity, america, poverty,
1 in 7 Americans suffer from food insecurity, which I think is what we're calling hunger these days.

I know I am, what about you?

I go to the grocery store and salivate over things like fresh fruits and vegetables, peanuts and almonds, even prunes (which can't replace chocolate, but who needs gummy bears when you've got nummy prunes?). I salivate, I don't buy. Which is a shame, because those foods are all good for you, packed with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.

It's cheaper to buy offbrand vitamins at Walmart than pomegranates and plums. My donut in the morning is cheaper than a healthy breakfast, and forget about lunch. Most days I don't even eat lunch anymore, and if I do, it's a candy bar. $0.89. Healthy veggie soup, at least $4.

That's hunger in America, in case you haven't experienced it: alternating hunger pangs with stuffing your face with crap.

Btw, I actually swallowed my pride (having gotten sick of swallowing my hunger) and applied for food stamps. I didn't qualify. I feel truly sorry for those hungry enough to qualify for food stamps.