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VikingofRock posted:That was an excellent OP, thank you. One thing that I've wondered is how big an issue food access is in the US. Are there a lot of people who suffer from malnutrition? I'd google it myself, but I think I lack the requisite knowledge to correctly interpret the stats on it. nearly all americans are able to consistently get enough food to survive, but somewhere around 5% of american households have at least one person involuntarily forego eating for a day every once in a while, largely due to lack of money. two big factors as to why people cannot purchase enough food is because 1) they need to prioritize some other long term expense, such as rent or car repair, over an adequate weekly food budget 2) there is a stigma attached to food assistance programs, only 2/3 of households who qualify for food stamps actually apply for and collect them another complicating factor is that garbage food is cheap in america. you can get a box of salty carbohydrates for like a dollar, and it will fill you up. households who tend to have low food security are correlated with lack of access to grocery stores. many poor people in the united states, both rural and urban, have a limited selection of food retail available, often independently owned low margin stores who often do not stock more expensive and perishable fresh foods in favor of boxed, processed food. some people supplement this with gardening, but that is not a feasible solution. so it's possible to afford enough raw calories to not qualify as hungry even if you're giving yourself diabetes and heart disease in the process we know that simple food is good for you. like just cook some vegetables and eat that, fills you up and not many calories. but processed food is calorie dense so paradoxially in america poor people are fat, because they eat cheap high energy food that slowly kills you if you rely on it as a dietary staple. like a mcdonalds meals is relatively cheap and tasty. so it depends on what you really mean by malnutrition, americans aren't really starving but the food we tend to eat is horrible boner confessor fucked around with this message at 05:34 on May 11, 2015 |
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May 11, 2015 05:31
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