They're well aware of that fact - and they'll (rightly) point out that cheap food is invariably unhealthy.
When you can get food from the dollar menu from McDonalds cheaper than what you can cook, obesity is always going to be a factor.
A personal anecdote - I graduated high school heavy. Dining hall food was a disaster. I put on 25 lbs. my freshman year alone. My sophomore and junior years I added even more. I hit my peak my junior year at 305 (at 6'0", that's just not good). My senior year, I started dieting. My first year of grad school, I started exercising. I lost 110 lbs., and have kept it off for 3 years. But my food bill doubled from the fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains. I had to buy expensive running shoes to keep from getting injured.
In short, fitness is expensive.
The question for us conservatives is this - how can we, in the free market, encourage fitness and healthy living? How can we make nutritious food cheaper without too many handouts?
“They’re well aware of that fact - and they’ll (rightly) point out that cheap food is invariably unhealthy.”
Last I checked, fruits and veggies were still pretty inexpensive and covered by food stamps and WIC programs.
Can’t blame it all on McD’s...know what I mean?
You can deduct medical expenses from your taxes (and even bank medical dollars tax free but would have trouble rolling it over from year to year).
Why must all “medical expenses” be for treating problems? Why can’t some of it be used for preventative care including health club dues and equipment? You’ll have to ask Ted Kennedy, a wealthy fat cat who inherited his money who defends the inheritance tax (which has never seemed to affect his family) and blocks efforts to be able to roll over personal medical savings from year to year.
The question for us conservatives is this - how can we, in the free market, encourage fitness and healthy living? How can we make nutritious food cheaper without too many handouts?
That is a great question. Maybe those of us who are trying to live a healthy life get an insurance break (medical and life). It doesn’t help with making nutritious food cheaper, but, it might offset some of the costs of that food...Just a quick thought..
(I feel the flames a’comin’)!
A lot of it is simple.
For starters, STOP FRYING!!
Yes, it’s fastest (that’s why the fast-food places use it) and it makes everything taste good, but it’s also the MOST UNHEALTHY way of cooking (and probably the most work).
Re-discover baking - takes longer, but it’s heathier and a lot less work.
Why should we, as conservatives, care how people are eating and exercising? The reality is that by and large healthy food actually is cheaper than the non-healthy stuff, but it’s not as convenient, and the same laziness that drives people into perpetual poverty drives them to eating crappy food. I guarantee that even with my mediocre culinary and shopping skills I could feed a family cheaper from the fresh sections of the grocery store than from the boxed sections or fastfood joints, I can even beat the dollar menu at McDs. The key to making fresh food cheap (and I’m talking from the consumer perspective) is to remember that they don’t keep so you’ve got to go to the grocery store often buying little on each trip.
While your suggestion that cheaper food is more fattening certainly has merit, there are other significant factors as well.
Time and effort come to mind. No one cooks for their children anymore, they buy them a happy meal so they don't have to miss the next episode of The Biggest Loser. How much does a sack of rice cost? A bag of beans, A sack of potatoes? Pennies a serving. Cans and frozen packs of vegetables cost $0.30 cents a serving, perhaps.
Here is a sampling from yesterday's Kroger flyer: Round steak $1.99/lb. Whole chicken $0.79/lb. Bananas $0.39/lb. loaf of bread $0.88. Canned veggies 50 cents.
So you can feed a family steak, green vegetables and pinto beans for about seven bucks. cheap, and while not health food, it certainly isn't loaded with fat and sugar.
Perhaps the key to weight control is just eating less calories. If you do that, you can eat anywhere and not get fat.
“fitness is expensive.”
It’s money-expensive and time-expensive. You need free time to not just exercise for 20 minutes, but drive 20 minutes to the gym each way, changing and showering for over an hour of time taken away from daily duties where you have to have someone else watch the kids.
I think there are three main reasons for obesity. The first is the expanded 60-80 hour work week in sedentary desk jobs. The second is agricultural subsidies that make grains, sugar and meat artificially cheap. Exempting everyone under the sun from the 40 hour work week and subsidizing fattening foods is a perfect recipe for obesity. We have to either remove subsidies for grains and meat, or add them to fruits and vegetables. Which do you think is more likely to happen?
The third? Anti-smoking laws. Smoking used to do a good job keeping people thin. Taking that away without changing anything else is going to cause more people to get fat.
You don’t have to eat fresh produce to lose weight. Canned veggies and canned fish will drop the pounds just as fast if not faster.