yes you can be overweight and in poverty

[Mumof4worriedfor]

Just saw this story on ITV twitter.com/itvnews/status/614128648585617408

Most of the comments are about her weight. Don't people understand the cheaper food is more unhealthy and you can very quickly get into poverty! Really annoyed by the response.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Where I live, in a very few generations, the First Nations people have gone from one end to the other. From a culture who didn't have a word for famine, ate berries, salmon and all the things that are supposed to make us live forever. To now, massive issues with poverty, malnutrition, obesity and diabetes.

One lovely person told me that the first time she had shopped from the outside of the supermarket (the fruit and veg etc.) was when the school told her off about what her child was eating for packed lunch.

I bet her grannie could make duck soup from live duck to plate. She can't cook a vegetable.

The loss of knowledge is terrible.

[Klayden]

Healthy food is expensive and I can easily see how you'd become overweight while on a low income. I piled on the weight as a mature student at university, struggling to scrap the pennies together. However, at that individual's weight, I expect she is massively overeating, not just eating cheap food because that's all she can afford.

[formerbabe]

Yep mrsd, saving money and eating cheaply is much easier when you have a choice. I can make cheap food...but, I have a nice big kitchen, a well stocked store cupboard and a spice rack full of jars of dried herbs and spices. One jar is about £1 in the supermarket. If you're skint and have a quid do you buy a value bag of oven chips or a jar of cumin?! It's a no brainer!

[BarbarianMum]

Healthy food need not be expensive but cheap healthy food can be hard to buy locally, heavy to carry (something to think about if you have no car) and pretty monotonous. You also need to know how to prepare and cook it, and lots of people don't.

[WorraLiberty]

Whilst poverty is directly related to obesity, it's still only one of many factors that make up a bigger picture.

Imo overeating (crap or healthy food) and lack of regular exercise, is a very big factor.

I live in a poverty stricken area and yet most of the overweight people on low incomes who I know personally, eat very large amounts of food and don't take enough exercise to burn it off.

[formerbabe]

I drove through Chelsea recently...I have never seen so many joggers in one area, pavements were full of them!

[WorraLiberty]

I agree MrsD most of us don't take enough exercise.

But still, what I see around me (on an average day) is the majority of overweight people I know personally, eating significantly more food than the majority of not overweight people I know personally.

It's not the same for everyone of course, but still in a lot of cases it's not the quality of food that's causing weight gain, but more the quantity.

Regularly eating poor quality food won't necessarily make you fat on its own.

[unlucky83]

Right I'm ready for a flaming ....
Ignore the weight issue...
That is NOT poverty ...look at the furniture, the decor - the wall of beautifully framed photos - nothing looked old/secondhand - even look at the plates - they are not the cheapest plates you can buy. Some (most) of the things might have been on credit etc but that will be being paid back.
I went to school with lots of children from poor families (late 70s/early 80s)...their houses looked nothing like that...they had the odd nice 'new' thing but not everything.
That child went through 5-6 pairs of leggings in a month ...at £5 a pair that's £30 - can you imagine someone in the 1940s - even in the 70s - chucking clothes out like that - they'd repair them, patch them or buy something else - because you couldn't afford not to.
DD2 (similar age to that DD) has Asda school trousers, they cost £4ish a pair and are almost indestructible ... have lasted well over a year and she doesn't spend playtime standing around looking pretty - plays rough and tumble. (She has 6 pairs - so that was £24 for a YEAR for trousers). Both DDs wore tights for a while and did put their knees through them often -so I mended them - then encouraged them not to wear them anymore. (And we are not poor -just can't bear waste like that)
I am damn sure there is real child poverty in this country - but that it is not it. Did they look like they would struggle to pay the electricity? Didn't have an oven? And if they do what they really need is help with budgeting, prioritising spending etc...
God that actually makes me cross ...

[HelenaDove]

YY Laurie. Ive done Slimming World a lot since 2002 I lost ten stone initially and in the last two years ive lost 3 stone 9 of the 4 stone i put back on.

But i estimate its cost thousands. And you never lose the weight as fast the second time so it takes longer costing more.


Someone on JSA would NOT be able to do it.

[ollieplimsoles]

unlucky

I actually see where you are coming from and similar thoughts went through my mind about this story.

I grew up in a very deprived area, I had friends who would come to school in tatty clothes with holes, and their houses did not look like this lady's, they had nothing, and many things in their homes were falling apart.

They were lucky if they could afford oven chips, one of my school mates once ate crisps in a sandwich for an evening meal..

[Ionone]

In 1936, George Orwell wrote this: “Would it not be better if they spent more money on wholesome things like oranges and wholemeal bread or if they even, like the writer of the letter to the New Statesman, saved on fuel and ate their carrots raw? Yes, it would, but the point is that no ordinary human being is ever going to do such a thing. The ordinary human being would sooner starve than live on brown bread and raw carrots. And the peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food. A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an unemployed man doesn't. Here the tendency of which I spoke at the end of the last chapter comes into play. When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don't want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit 'tasty'. There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you.”

How sad that things have changed so little in nearly a century, and that some people still have such a poor understanding of what the poorer members of our rich society actually face.

[slippermaiden]

As somebody said well up thread, it is possible if you make breads, soups, dhals etc but if life is shit then wouldn't you rather have some chips?

[Aermingers]

I wonder why we can't have more food like France. I've been over here this week and even the convenience food is healthy. You can get ready meals which cost £2 and are spinach tomato and fish and delicious.. You'd never get things like that in the UK, unless you were prepared to go to Waitrose and fork out $$$$

[Cherriesandapples]

Poor food is always fattening - bullshit - my mum was brought up in the 1930's by a single mum with five children and no benefits. They ate meat (rabbits) stew and veg, bread and milk, fruit tarts and a bit of ham! Mum remembers the family next door sharing a 200g size tin of salmon between 8 people.

[Raveismyera]

We are a nation are far wealthier than the 70s. Life is different. Poor people now are not as poor as poor people then. Poverty is relative.

[Raveismyera]

(But that doesn't mean they can afford everything they need)

[Raveismyera]

How is that relevant cherry? I don't understand those posts -who cares if in the 1930s people shared a raw street rat? Doesn't mean that the poorest in today's society aren't poor

[lljkk]

I dunno, I'm on the fence.
In late '50s my mom stopped eating to pay for the baby formula & mom's weight reached it's lowest in her adult life (98 lbs at 161 cm tall). The rest of the family found out how hard things were for my mother when she was spotted by the milkman (who naturally knew her father) scrimping oranges. So our family experience of poverty is... adults get skinny.

[zeezeek]

I have absolutely nothing of any use to contribute to the thread - but just wanted to say that, MrsDeVere, without sounding patronising or something, I really do think that you sound very wise, intelligent, funny and empathic - and always seem to say the things that make sense.

and from me, to you and I hope life is easier for you now.

[elderflowerlemonade]

Why are we assuming her life is shit?