BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Low Carb Working Poor are Obese on High Carb

CNN just ran a GREAT story on how the working poor are becoming obese at record rates because they are all eating high carb diets because they are cheap. They literally can't afford to eat vegetables and healthy meats and fish - so instead they fill up on rice, bread and fruit punch. They claim it's cheaper to buy soda for their kids than healthier drinks.

"During winter, jobs are scarce, so Caballero feeds her husband and three children the cheapest food she can get: potatoes, bread, tortillas. "

This diet is causing HUGE malnutrition issues for the parents and their kids. One child went blind from diabetes and many others suffer from anemia and diabetes.

"Cutler Elementary, which Caballero's children attend, has so many diabetic kids that teachers recently had an emergency workshop on how to handle blood sugar highs and lows. This in a school where 100 percent of the kids qualify for free school lunches. "

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/diet.fitness/03/04/obesity.paradox.ap/index.html

What happened to our grandparent's generation, where people grew fresh veggies in their back yard and canned them to eat through the winter? They raised chicken for free meat, too. My grandparents were dirt poor and never had a diet like this. Are we so much a TV generation nowadays that it's easier to eat bad food and drink soda than to ensure the health of our kids?

Scary. I have the same problem though; I have two teenage sons and it is very difficult to stock the larder healthily toward the end of a pay period or if the child support doesn't arrive.

I started on a project to do weekly meal planning for families of various sizes - I should finish that up! I know many families who are on quite small budgets but find ways to eat healthy meals all week. My sister has sixteen year old triplets <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I'll start posting some tips!

If you can get to one I'd suggest shopping at Aldi's. It's a pretty great chain. They have bags of frozen chicken at reasonable prices. Lunch meats, bacon, breakfast sausage, pork shops...even their shrimp is about 40% of what most grocery stores charge for it.

It would be worth it for anyone to check out that is on a tight budget (as I am). My husband and I spend about $100 a month on groceries and pet food/supplies there. Aside from things that need to be restocked (eggs, milk for his coffee, etc...) before the month is up, we're pretty set.

I should point out right now that my husband was on a low carb diet for about 5 minutes until he decided that there was no way in hell that he could live without his coffee with milk and sugar. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Hi Lisa,

I have been griping about the cost of a low carb diet which my spouse desperately needs. We tend to find things like white rice, pasta, potatoes and so forth much cheaper than meats and veggies.

It's not a matter of not wanting my family to be healthy...$3 for a head of lettuce is really outrageous and hard to get plenty of at that price. I really would prefer healthier affordable choices.

As for gardening, people do not have the plots of land they once did nor the time. With both my husband and I juggling work, our marriage, homeschooling and anything else, gardening is a rather big task that I fear we have no time to devote to really. I did attempt a small kitchen garden but have battled soil and water issues for four years, grrrr!! If I had more time, energy and money, I might have better success with it.

That's a very interesting point - but I don't think I would call potatoes a healthy thing to eat. When you think about it, the Irish had huge malnutrition living on potatoes (and then the whole potato famine made it worse). In Jewish Passover, they eat potatoes specifically as a symbol of the malnutrition suffered by the slaves. So yes you can eat potatoes and pasta and it fills your stomach. But it's really not nutritious or healthy for you. So it's sort of unfair to compare that to broccoli and cauliflower and other vegetables even if it's cheaper.

Lettuce isn't very healthy either! So to go to lettuce isn't a great choice. Lettuce is pretty nutrient-empty.

The trick is to buy fresh. If you try to buy things out of season, it's going to cost a lot. I remember when my mother was a child, they got oranges for Christmas because it was such a treat to eat them out of season! My boyfriend goes shopping every 2-3 days and gets whatever is on special. You can easily find frozen vegetables that are inexpensive and make a ratatoille. There's always some sort of chicken or fish on sale for the day to do a grilled meal or stir fry.

I know people get used to the quick-and-easy pasta-in-a-pot. But then we wonder why we are so unhealthy - not only is it full of starches but it's got little to no nutrients in it either. It's time for us to reclaim our eating habits and eat things that are low in sugar and high in nutrients - even if it means thinking about "new foods" like asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower and so on.

Eggs always seem to be on sale around me, and you can make SO many egg dishes for every meal of the day (and snacks too) - don't forget about those! I love egg drop soup <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Lettuce was just an example, I am not bunny, it just isn't filling. Potatoes and such are going to be the death of my husband, literally, if we don't get a better hand on the meal planning. So I really am open to suggestions as I am taking our health seriously. I am just also tied to a tiny budget.

Let's start with my kitchen issues. I don't have one. We spend lunch and dinner at the office. I have put together a kitchenette with a microwave, tiny fridge/freezer, George Foreman Grill, steamer and crock pot. I recently got some sort of small oven type thing but it doesn't do it all like a real oven.

I am in a small town. Real fresh produce is obtainable IF I want to drive an hour and twenty minutes for it. I am stuck with Wal-mart (30 min away) and two mini grocery stores in my town. The local ones don't have the choice Wal-mart does in produce. The prices really aren't cheap in comparison to other products and income levels. Potaotes are 1.89 to .99 cents for 10 pounds, a head of broccoli is about 1.40 if I can even find it in town. Asparugus can sometimes be found at Wal-mart but I only shop there once to twice a month. Eggs are about 1.20 a dozen but hey the stores here carry em!!

I am feeding a family of four and an infant usually. I have about 350 to spend on groceries and supplies for the month to cover us all.

I do want to try container garden. I think I could defeat the whole soil, water problem this way. What would be the best things to start with?

And any other advice would be appreciated.

Chances are, your grandmother didn't work outside the home. She had time to can food. Today's working poor are overwhelmed enough already, often working two jobs to keep their heads above water. They sure don't have time to raise chickens.

And the ones who might have time to raise chickens--the non-working poor--typically don't have the education or wherewithal to start such a venture, or live in urban areas where they have neither suitable space nor the landlord's permission.

For another perspective, read Barbara Ehrenreich's book "Nickel and Dimed," about the lives of low-wage workers; many of them don't even have adequate cooking facilities and have to rely on cheap prepared (i.e., high carb) foods.

It's tragic that these folks are living on cheap carbs, but I can't blame them for reaching for what's cheap and quick/easy to cook. Their circumstances force them into it. I struggle with the grocery bills for eating low-carb but feel fortunate that I can manage it.

Hi Fendel,

I mentioned in a previous post that I find time to be a major factor in why I don't have a garden or the animals for that matter.

For the most part, my Grandmothers were at home all day. They also had something else I lack....seven children. My Grandmothers did not pick the veggies or pick up the eggs themselves. That was the children's task.

My aunts and uncles speak of scrubbing floors, caring for the babies, gathering the food outside, hanging the laundry on the line, doing the yard work. Well if I had so many assistants, I think I would get more done in a day.

Funny,modern inventions were supposed to make our lives easier and less time consuming. Now, why is it that I don't get as much accomplished each day as I need to?

These are really great points! I think this is a fascinating discussion. Let's see where to start.

On the garden, a garden actually doesn't take that much time. My grandmothers on both sides had few kids and wouldn't let them anywhere near the garden. My mother has always had a veggie garden and I know I didn't help with that. My best friend Sue has a gorgeous garden that she raises with her hubby that I get treats from every year. My mom and Sue both work so this is a fun, relaxing evening task they do instead of watching TV. Which gives the dual benefits of feeding their families for free and giving them exercise.

So I definitely think that a garden is a healthy, frugal way of getting important nutrients into a family. There are so many small-sized apartment plants nowadays that it should be easy even if all you have is a back porch. I love the garden catalogues that have towers to grow a ton of tomatoes on in only 1 square foot!

I think the big issue is that a lot of adults nowadays weren't taught these skills by their parents, so they don't know where to start. So they buy store-bought stuff even though it's more expensive, because it's easier. A mission of BellaOnline is to help people become healthier and more self sufficient, so if people really don't know how to grow gardens, this is a critical task for us!

I just realized we don't have a container gardening site so I'll start that up right now and hopefully we can find a host for it shortly. For people in urban areas, growing food at your windows could be a super-easy way to get those critical vitamins into your diet in a healthy, natural and pretty much cost-free manner.