Why poor people fat, rich people thin?

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Ok sorry for the stereotype, I figured there wasn't enough space to put many words. I meant "In developed countries, why do poor people tend to be fat compared to general population and rich people tend to be thin?"

Yes, I've heard of the so-called "cheap calories" you can get from junk food. Also, stress slows down your metabolism and you may be more stressful when faced with finacial uncertainties.

However, I can think of other factors which could suggest why rich should be fatter, intuitively speaking.

Rich people tend to have jobs that require less manual labour while low paying jobs tend to have more manual labour.

Rich people can afford to have a few cars per family and everyone drives everywhere without having to walk much.

Yes, rich people can afford to pay for fitness programs but less face it, some middle-aged people are too lazy to go on a fitness program even when they can afford it anyway. Also, everyone tends to have junk food ocassionally even when they can afford healthier foods.

So I guess less stress and good nutrition overrides other factors such as exercise?

That's pretty much what i've always thought it comes down to. The lower class statistically has higher stress than the upper class. The upper class still has people who have poor nutrition though. A lot of these upper class people are too busy to eat a meal and live off vending machines.

I am poor and am very thin

usually the job exercise isn't intense enough to make a difference in the cases of the poor. Plus, the cravings that naturally follow exercise are usually satisfied by fat-laden processed foods in poorer people.

Then the lipids in the fattening foods make you crave more fattening foods. Regardless of how much you work out, if you only enjoy fattening foods you're almost always going to be overweight.

Thin people who only eat crap are lucky and probably just have great metabolisms.

Edit:missing a word.

Last edited by Darkword on 26 Jun 2010, 11:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

rich folk may not do manual labor on the job, but many office buildings have fitness centers so they get paid to work out...

...happens where I work. Of course, I'm a poverty-stricken contractor, and the fitness center is off limits to me.

I'm also becoming a fat bashtid.

I think that some of the rich, thin people buy the minimal amount of groceries that will satisfy their bodies, so they might have became rich, that way. Perhaps, I should try that.

Don't forget they are too busy to exercise and they cannot afford extra time to take a longer commute by walking to the bus stop or biking/walking/jogging. Rather, they drive and they can probably afford the fine for driving in HOV lanes if there is a traffic jam .

I always see the exact opposite.

I'm quite certain it's the cheap highly processed, sugar and fat loaded food. Go back in time a few generations when that stuff was not around - it wasn't common for poor people to be fat, but malnutrition was not unusual either.

Health food is expensive and poor people can't afford to eat healthy. So they have to eat processed food and unhealthy pasta and fruit dipped in syrup, and TV dinners.

But there are grocery stores out there that have inexpensive prices and my husband and I go to one where we can buy good food. I haven't had TV dinners in years.

Aside from your health, it actually seems like a win-win situation. I like junk food and its cheap.

Fast food is cheaper than healthy food.

Don't look at Africa. I'm talking about people LIVING WITHIN developed countries.

The food industry is corrupt although fruits and vegetables are easily obtained, they fetch more than fast food which are derivatives. This shouldn't be how it is, but it is.

Fatty and starchy foods are cheaper, look at the fat people in a Walmart and see what they are loading up in there shopping carts. its no big mystery

Easy answer for this. The cheapest, most calorie-dense is fast food and prepackaged stuff. What is the most expensive food? Organic fruit and veg, whole grains etc. When one has to work many hours or late hours on minimal pay it is not convenient or cost-effective to pay much attention to grocery shopping and preparing healthy meals.