Why poor people fat, rich people thin?

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[quote="Darkword"][/quote]

Did you leave it blank on purpose?

Everyone seems to be considering this from the view that being poor) makes you fat, but there's a substantial amount of influence the other way. Fat people are low status in our society, so they tend to end up in lower status jobs. There's a marked difference in income between fat people and thin people with the same skills and qualifications. The disparity is greater in women, and kicks in at a lower weight than for men. In the US, people of African American, Hispanic and to some extent, Native American descent are more likely to be fat, and fat hatred and the discrimination it involves is very much tied up with racial and class prejudice as well. So, it's more complicated than it looks. (That's before you even get to the disparities in healthcare...)

I think it's that poorer folks have a perception that cheap foods that come in large quantities are better value than good but slightly more expensive foods that come in smaller amounts. If you compared a kilo of chips to 3 avocados, you'd probably get a lot more nutritional value out of the avocados, but they seem like less food for the money.

I'm dirt poor but I eat well, I realized that bigger does not always mean more value, and cheap foods often cost more in the long run, in terms of poor health and quality of life.

Also, higher earners probably have better self control, and better awareness of consequences. That's part of the reason why they earn more. They therefore find it easier to not eat a bucket of chicken for every meal, and have a tuna salad instead.

It really is appalling, isn't it; what our current culture does to the poor ....

I think everyone who's posted on this topic has the right idea; empty calories, stress, affordability, lack of options ...

And I'll add, under lack of options, also geography: The poorest neighborhoods [here in the U.S. at least], have no major grocery stores. None. They have "Quick-Stops" that peddle relatively expensive single-serving packages of starch, sugar, fat. [They may also sell liquor to blunt the aches of the rest.] And that is it.

Thus, people who

a.) can't afford a car,
b.) are unemployed or under-employed,
c.) live in areas with poor public transportation,
d.) may fear going out due to neighborhood violence [itself borne of pain, frustration, abuse, neglect],
e.) are stressed and depressed,

are basically left with garbage to eat.


"The Government has a basic outline for minimum nutrition standards that many of its own people can’t hope to afford."
(I happened on this recently -- sorry for lack of attribution; I think I heard it on NPR and paraphrased after the fact.)

Ah, yes. So, add; The unchecked greed of mega-corporate mainstream, processed-food producers, and the callously short-sighted policies set by politicians most of whom focus only on their own short-term goals; the immediacies of money and power, and having enough of both of those to win their next election battle.

Where is the compassion of these folks -- both corporate and governmental -- with enough power and persuasiveness to really improve the human condition, but don't do so? And how the #^%! do they sleep at night....

Liz

Lots of good reasons here. To sum up:

1)Fattening food is less expensive per calorie than less fattening food.

2)Lots of low paying jobs don't actually involve much exercise. Jobs that do involve a fair bit of physical activity probably pay well above minimum wage. A construction worker is getting both more exercise and more money than a McDonald's employee. Fast food workers also often get reduced prices for the food- encouraging to eat way too much of what they sell.

3)High paying jobs, while involving a lot of desk work, also often have opportunities built in for plenty of exercise. Some have in-house gyms. Many jobs at the tippy top practically mandate exercise while working by having deals and business happen during golf games and squash/racquetball games. The CEO gets up from his desk and makes a deal on the squash court. The clerks at his company are chained to their desks and get no exercise at work along with less money.

4)Fat gets people passed over for promotions, so also less money. In some high profile cases, it has even gotten people fired.

5)Stress is pandemic at work and a high salary is no protection against it (I'm sure the execs of British Petrol are pretty stressed right now). But there is a studied correlation between high stress/low power and health problems. Apparently the damage from stress is greater if you have less power in your daily life.

6)Dangerous neighborhoods are not a place conducive to outdoor exercise. Safe neighborhoods are.

[quote="zen_mistress"][/quote]

How did you do that?