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.

I agree that rubbish food is cheaper - I can buy a ready meal for 89p in Iceland that would feed my 2 girls and cooks in 10 mins in the microwave. or a 500g bag of pasta for 30p with a bit of cheese on top. that option is much more appealing than slaving over the hob for hours messing around with lentils especially when u are fed up, and counting every penny.

However going on the article this lady seems to be more in need of budgeting advice and is more likely spending on non essentials leaving little money in the food budget. I buy most of our clothes and household stuff secondhand. we had horrifically mismatched ugly old furniture for ages as thats all we could afford.

I posted this on another thread a couple of months ago.

Wed 29-Apr-15 16:50:58
King i actually had/have a nutrition qualification. It wasnt lack of education It was lack of money when i was signing on back in the late 1990s. Workfare which i had to pay to attend and so couldnt afford to eat healthily. It was do workfare or be sanctioned. So the money went on paying to travel to a job with no wage.

It was only when i found a job working nights in a sex chatline office which paid enough so i could afford to go to Slimming World and do their plan. I lost ten stone. Husband had a heart attack in 2006 and now has ischemic heart disease and emphesema. (he smoked for 48 years) i gained 4 stone back when i became his carer. Because we were living on 40 pounds a week which had to pay for hospital appointments food, heating etc.

In the last 19 months i have lost over 3 and a half stone of what i put back on. Im still DHs carer but hes now pension age so gets more financial help.

Every time i gained a lot of weight lack of money was a big factor. So you get judged for being poor AND being overweight which really fucks up your self esteem And having self esteem and confidence is something you need to tackle a task like this.

I think part of the bad attitude towards poor people is that people expect them to be excellent with money. Wealthy people (or average people) can be crap with money and people don't care; or sympathise, because personal finances are hard; but poor people have to be excellent at squeezing every penny and never having unexpected emergencies.

Have been on both sides of this. Fed kids on chicken nuggets and oven chips, and cooked healthy meals from scratch.
I suppose the ideal is a bit of both. Some healthy meals can be very inexpensive and quick to cook: pasta mixed with tuna, frozen peas and topped with cheese, jacket potatoes, and of course, soup which can be made with any old leftovers and had fed us all often when times have been tight. Equally, we have done the Iceland dinners. But I do think it's possible to eat at least some healthy meals while on a tight budget.

Also it doesn't take much to put weight on. A 100g bar of chocolate or a few chocolate biscuits too many every day and you could theoretically pile on 4 stone in a year (500 extra cals a day, pound of fat is 3,500).

A 100g bar of chocolate is a massive amount to eat every day

Not that I wouldn't be as happy as a pig in shit for eating it mind, but let's not pretend that's a sensible snack to eat in front of the telly every single night.

Floppity Ive had to cut down on carbs to lose weight this time. And i wasnt eating chocolate or biscuits every day when i started at SW the second time.

What i should have done was cut down the carbs after the age of 35. Couldnt do that on 40 pounds a week though.

I have a nice house and nice furniture. I also love cooking from scratch with lovely fresh ingredients.

But shit happens, like in the past 2 month I got sick(er) and DH had to leave his job so now we have no money.

We sold DS1s wii u today and you know what we did? Went to bloody Iceland and filled our freezer! :o

Yes we got a good bit of frozen veg but the main focus was making sure my 7 and 1 year old boys are happy and full every night when they go to bed.

So yea, shove your lentils up yer arses.

I don't think eating food from Iceland will automatically make anyone fat.

Living on a tiny food budget won't automatically make anyone fat either.

It might make them less healthy after a while, but it's not inevitable they'll get fat unless they eat too much.

But that not necessarily the case because the junk has a much higher hidden sugar content which causes weight gain. Cheap hydrogenated fat is used - So one meal may have twice the calories you expect. That's no big deal for a bit but for years ok end that will be where your obesity comes from.

Well as a human guinea pig I can safely say that it doesn't help.

Our portion sizes haven't changed (we can't afford it) but what we eat definitely has. I know I've gained weight and DS1 has too.

Raveismyera obesity doesn't just happen overnight though.

As you say, it's likely to take years. So in that time, presumably there's (for most people) ample time to take action/exercise.

So anyone in that position couldn't solely blame their weight on Iceland, but also on the fact they didn't exercise enough to keep it under control.

Like I said upthread, poverty is only part of a much bigger picture.

Rich or poor, self discipline still plays a part.

No question About it. That it is more expensive if not too expensive to eat healthily for some.
Senario ice land has 24 bags of crisps for £3.00 now if you're on your own with /children that is their snack before bed for the next 12 days.
Strawberries grapes blue berries, all £2 each. And has to eaten with in a few days.
You can't seem to get that through to these nutritionists though.

Is it ever possible for people to discuss a current issue without bringing up WWII, the 1930s or the past? That always makes even my 80-year-old father laugh, as he was alive then and says, 'That was then, this is NOW.'

I agree obesity doesn't happen over night but I can see how it happens.

This sort of food really affects your energy levels and moods when you are eating it everyday.

It's not really about it happening overnight though- we are talking about entire families who will all spend their lives fat.

Yes but they won't spend their lives fat just because they were poor.

Lots of poor people aren't fat, so it's not inevitable.

I'm not denying poverty isn't related to obesity, but it's not the only factor.

expatinscotland Are you saying you'd rather people spoke based on ignorance? Without insight or experience? If so then I disagree.

I think that if you are on a v low income and having to count every penny, that a 'treat' assumes more importance than if you are not. People are right that some people could move more and eat less and it is simple. But it's not simple when you're in that situation because the crisps or the chocolate or whatever are pleasurable and good and going out for a run isn't fun as such, at least not until you have done it often enough to see the benefits. And there isn't any money to have a different kind of non-fattening treat because those are loads more expensive usually.

And if you are on your own with kids or working shifts and juggling childcare where do you get the time anyway? You could get up earlier and walk a couple of miles to work, but if you are tired tired tired from living your life one paycheck to the next and worrying about where the next supermarket shop is coming from, you don't feel like it. You feel like a little treat, and it's only 50p for a packet of biscuits. And things get slowly worse and then of course you don't feel like getting out there and exercising because you know you are already fat and you feel like people will be looking at the fat person running and you don't want it and you can't afford decent supportive trainers anyway and who will watch the kids while you do it? And then you feel miserable because you are fat and you are doing life wrong and then you feel worse and you do, really, need a treat and you need something to just be fun in your life.

Who was that woman on YouTube a while back who talked about why poor people don't give up smoking? She summed it up perfectly. If you can only get halfway there, however long you try, what's the point? You'll never ever get there so you might as well have the chips or the cigarettes or the wine or the whatever and enjoy what is here now.

This isn't me, btw, it's just what I see in other people's lives. I can't judge them for it. I am sure I would be the same in their positions, which I am fortunate enough not to be in. I can afford the non-fattening things that make life OK. It's frankly awful that people are still living like this (it's not their fault, it' society's fault, it really is, on all kinds of levels).

Seriously where do people get some of this stuff from!?

I think the problem is if somebody has been a fat child then that's normal. I was normal weight then had ds and turned into a heifer. I have to admit that my bar of normal has gone up since then.

expat there is one missing. Shall we see if it comes up on the thread

'Are you saying you'd rather people spoke based on ignorance? Without insight or experience? If so then I disagree.'

Don't be ridiculous. People use 'back in WW2' as a strawman to spew off about conditions now. How is 'Well, in WW2 there was rationing so there's no excuse for people to be fat today' or 'Well, back in the 1930s my mother ate rabbit stew and she was not fat' bear any resemblance on today.

'Back in teh 70s we didn't have microwaves and iPhones.' No shit. No one had. They didn't exist.

I'm not being "ridiculous" but interesting to note that someone who challenges your argument is being 'ridiculous' as opposed to just having an alternative point of view. Does your opinion conquer all?

We didn't have many of the things that we do now. In fact technological change in our society is currently being met with rioting and strikes.

A straw man argument is a fallacy. I, however, do not view others' experiences as fallacious. So if someones grandmother's neighbour's aunt or whatever, once fed her family of 4 on a tin of beans it was their experience. Doesn't make it true for all at the time but it is still a valid argument.

I don't think that's true Humble.

A valid argument has to have at least some solidity.

WWII just doesn't apply here.

It's not really an argument though is it? It's just story telling