this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
37 points (79.4% liked)

Asklemmy

43984 readers
726 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Cry_in_the_Walk_In 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He's smug and preachy.

Pushing for healthier school lunches was fine, but his campaign to shame parents into making healthy food for their kids, without first considering poverty, available time, or other complicating factors is proof that he doesn't care about people actually eating healthy, as much as he is about maintaining his "champion of healthy eating" façade.

[–] jscummy 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I hate when people bring up the poverty angle, unless it's more about people having to work more hours/multiple jobs and not having time to cook. Healthy whole foods are generally way cheaper than fast food or even junk food from the grocery store, at least in my experience

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Not on a "per calorie" basis they aren't. And I'm not really sure by what other metric you can compare them. But look at how many calories of broccoli $3 gets you compared to potato chips. Then you have to add in the time of preparation.

Additionally, many impoverished people tend to live in "food deserts", areas without grocery stores, but many fast Food locations.

The deck is definitely stacked against the impoverished.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They most certainly are not. If you're buying unhealthy food only as snacks, you mistake your subset as all unhealthy food.

If you need calories and are on a shoestring budget, your options are potatos, bad bread, Coles cakes etc. You can eat for a week on a few dollars but you'll become overweight and eventually die of malnutrition. Your options become even more limited if you don't have a working stove due to being cut off your gas.

[–] jscummy 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess I was thinking snacks first and foremost but cheap carbs aren't necessarily unhealthy. Protein sources are probably the most expensive and mixing in veggies is pricey on a calories/$ basis.

But rice, beans/legumes, and a lot of other basic staple foods are pretty cheap. Eggs are back under a dollar by me at least.

Not having the time/means to shop and prepare food makes sense, or if you're in a food desert and don't have much available conveniently.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Eggs are pushing $10/doz where I am πŸ’€

You can absolutely put together a relatively healthy meal for reasonably cheap, I'm talking about "getting your gas cut-off" budgeting though.