Welfare and Obesity

I've noticed a common new argument when the issue of welfare and foodstamps is brought up. Most commonly, this argument has shown up in conservatives. The argument is that we're doing something wrong with foodstamps because most of the poor in America, especially those on foodstamps, are obese.

I kinda laugh a little when I see it, 'cause think about it. People who are overweight or obese are basically overfed. So the complaint here is that our poor are overfed.

Maybe it's just me, but this seems like punishing the kid who got an A+ instead of an A. Sure, being overweight or obese can be bad for your health, but it's a hell of a lot better than being barely fed at all, malnutritioned, and dying of starvation.

It's not just foodstamps, either. I've seen people complain about welfare in general because the poor in America are doing vastly better than the poor elsewhere in the world, like India or Africa. It's really not a compelling argument against social welfare.

"You're doing too good of a job! You must stop immediately!"

 

Cheap food is not very healthy, is the thing.

 

sadly many turn to cheap calories like MC D's, you get a lot of calories for cheap... but the cost is your health

not to mention many work there and are still in poverty thus get food stamps

..

 

Of course not, but that's a different discussion. My point here is just that overfeeding our poor people doesn't seem like a compelling argument against food-stamps.

 

Personally, I believe a calculated return to subsistence farming/gardening could gradually eliminate reliance upon food stamps, and improve health conditions of the country's poor. It can also provide an avenue toward self-employment and enhance the organic movement. The process is a self-motivational, civil society initiative that need not require government assistance to occur. As a comparative example, the idea of bike share programs in urban centers, while catching on with local governments, began as a commuter movement to eliminate traffic congestion and combat global warming. By the way TRAT, if you have not figured out that I am a big proponent of the proliferation of civil society, and encourage everyone to pursue at least one long-term endeavor in this third sector, now you know.

 

could mean they do not have enough food stamps to last so they load up on some cheap calories at the fast food place, so I guess it depends how you look at it

 

I don't understand why food stamps can be used at fast food places. Am I missing something here? Do fast food chains have their fingers in the corporate pie?

 

Generally speaking, food stamps can't be used at fast food places. There are only rare, scattered cases of this happening.

However, back in Richmond, Virginia, where I used to live and was on food stamps for six months, there was a little fish restaurant (family run, no other locations) that took food stamps.

 

Our church has a food bank that gets free fresh meats and vegetables from the local grocery stores. We have an open policy. You don't have to knock, you don't have to prove you're poor, just come in and take what you need.

Macaroni and cheese, chips, and junk food are always taken first. Why? Because let's all be totally honest here, it tastes better. Macaroni and cheese tastes 10x better than spinach. You make yourself eat spinach salad with cranberries and (*)(*)(*)(*) because its healthy and you want to not be a fatass, but mac n cheese tastes better, kids will eat it, etc.

The poor are fat for all the same reasons anyone else is. Processed food is the bane of modern society, but we have an insulin addiction to it and like the taste.

This isn't rocket science.

 

Granny says Uncle Ferd likes his womens 'pleasingly plump'...

Study dispels 'obesity paradox' idea for diabetics
15 Jan.`14 ~ The "obesity paradox" — the controversial notion that being overweight might actually be healthier for some people with diabetes — seems to be a myth, researchers report. A major study finds there's no survival advantage to being large, and a disadvantage to being very large.

 

BS its choices I use tons of coupons many BOGO ones by from the companies for example KELLOGS sends me four a month for cereal alone and I look for other deals. No one I see use the money like cash. And I don't buy junk food I don't consider Twinkies food.

 

Around 30% of Americans are clinically obese. Obesity costs America $147 billion annually.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgu...a=X&ei=w9_XUpT6M9GAhAfAxIHwDg&ved=0CEEQ9QEwAQ
There sure are a lot of fat Texans!

 

Sorry, but eating cheaper food doesn't make you fat. Eating A LOT of it does, which seems kind of weird considering how and most importantly WHY can someone on welfare eat TOO MUCH food. Moderation doesn't make you fat, especially obese. You don't get overly fat, which is what being obese is from eating in moderation. Laziness also has a lot to do with it, but then again, there's a reason they're on welfare in the first place and laziness is always a factor.

Yes, fast food is cheap and less healthy food can be cheap as well, but you can easily eat healthier on the cheap as well. Its a choice and laziness pure and simple.

This isn't a conservative view. Its a FACTUAL, logical view.

 

Highly profitable though, for the profiteers and hence, obesity.

 

I thought food-stamps w´could only be used to buy normal, healthy food? That's not so? Then make it so! problem solved: No starving poor people, and no fat poor people.

 

Granny says heck, she always knowed dat...

Researchers Discover How to Speed Metabolism
April 9th, 2014 ~ Have you ever wondered why some people can eat and eat but never gain weight while others easily put on pounds?

 

Food stamps can only be used to buy non-warm food. For example, local pizza places sell uncooked pizza (you cook it in your oven), and people can buy it with food stamps. On the other hand, rottisserie chicken from the grocery store can't be bought with food stamps. Candy, soda, twinkies, cookies can all be bought with food stamps.

WIC which is another food program, intended to help nursing mothers, infants and children get better nutrition, does have a list of allowed foods.

 

Pardon, but the way it's handled now is then (*)(*)(*)(*)ing retarded.

 

or,...could it be that the poor merely don't exercise or move around and sit, smoke and drink? Hmm...maybe they sell their food stamps? Hmmm..

 

Fat people can still be suffering from malnutrition.

 

No one should eat cereal.

 

Obesity is due to a poor diet consisting of cheap food with crappy nutrition, not over-feeding. Poor people do not suffer from having too much food!

Just like localized cold snaps do not disprove global warming!

Same backwards logic though!!!

 

You aren't presenting the entire issue. We are literally bombarded with PSAs and left agitprop that this country is full to the brim with hungry people, so more and more safety nets, welfare and government action are required to meet this "hunger problem" and stop this privation going on everywhere in the US (that curiously we can't actually see... it's like some Casper the Hungry Ghost starvation). The leftist voting blocs, particularly female, eat this soppy crap right up.

A common PSA in my area claims that in a state with 9 million total population, 700,000 are hungry children. This is utter hogwash, founded by survey "studies" where they ask kids questions like, "do you always get what you want to eat?" (kids would eat candy all day if they could) "do you eat a balanced breakfast every day?" "do you eat five servings of fruit and vegetables every day?" and other charged questions, then check the "hungry" box based on that. This is the exact kind of flawed agitprop survey methodology used to generate lots of feminist rape and sexual abuse stats.

The upshot is that we live in a country full of a paradox, morbidly obese "hungry" people. The argument from the nonleft is that something is wrong with all the agitprop stats, and there is. So the argument you are outlining as against food stamps is really an argument against the typical leftist "starving nation" propaganda that heats up during Republican Presidencies, then calms down, or rather is "being addressed by the compassionate leader" during Democrat Administrations.

 

Yeah, that too, but it makes you a racist bigot for saying it

 

Yes, you can buy candy bars and soda with food stamps, and yes, that's retarded. The problem arises when the government tries to set standards and the lobbyists start wheedling in on the process, "well if peanut butter is allowed, and it has X calories per tbsp, why isn't our candy bar with peanuts allowed, with less calories? If potatoes are allowed, why not our chips that are 90% potatoes by volume?" The way food stamps work and are handled in the US is a prime example of why government meddling in markets is almost always counterproductive.