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Comment by GhostVII | Hacker News Reader

How does cheap food cause obesity? You gain weight if you eat more calories than you burn, if you are gaining weight from cheap food it just means you are eating too much of it.

And regardless I'm pretty sure foods like rice and potatoes are much cheaper than fast food, and are healthy. They are more expensive in terms of the time it takes to prepare them though.

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“More expensive in the time it takes to prepare” is more expensive for large numbers of working class families, and it’s often a worse kind of expensive than a strictly monetary difference.

Sure but couldn't a person just serve smaller portions? Like if your kid is getting fat just take what your normally serve him and throw part of it in the trash (or refrigerator). If he's still getting fat take a bigger part from it next week and so on. I don't understand how this technique could elude anyone rich or poor.

A rice cooker at goodwill is maybe $10.00. A slow cooker let’s say another $10.00. Throw another 20 at a bag of rice and dried beans then you have a minimal effort super cheap “won’t make you fat” meal.

I think its that people don’t know how to cook even these basic staples anymore. And when you work a shit job, a large soda is a welcomed mini vacation

> And when you work a shit job, a large soda is a welcomed mini vacation

Exactly.

I remember reading Orwell's "Road to Wigan Pier" (a bit dated) and one of his observations was that a lower class supermarket would have nothing but white bread. However a middle class supermarket would have brown bread and healthier foods as well. His conclusion was, very roughly, that eating healthy was a luxury of those who were well off. Whereas the poor were struggling so much day to day that they needed short-term gratification just to get through.

Cheap food causes obesity insofar that if you have money you can buy nutrient dense food that tastes good and spend zero time preparing it. With cheap food you're constantly expending willpower to eat food that tastes like crap, expending more time making it, or are sacrificing health value. Eating pots of unappetizing starches (which really aren't as healthy as you make them out to be relative to smart fast food picks) takes time and willpower. Those are actually limited resources. Attempting to do difficult unpleasant things one after another does actually wear you down and cause negative mental health effects which unravel your plans. A starch heavy diet means you're going to get rocked by insulin spikes regularly for your troubles. Whereas if you can afford to eat leafy greens and a big hunk of fish your mental stamina will increase.

In my mind the key to a healthy diet isn't buying potatoes and rice in bulk. It's $$$. FWIW my favorite poverty meal was chili... Good mix of time effiency/cost efficiency/taste.

I regularly use potatoes to bulk up my lunch glass dish mix.

Skip the peeling, rinse, dice, throw in microwave for some minutes in glass lunch container, then throw in the rest into same glass container.

Can season and add oil if desired (just toss around in said glass container).

My biggest problem is going through 10lb bags without wasting, but they’re so much more expensive when you help yourself.

Cheap food is calorie-dense but nutrient-poor. In order to avoid deficiencies, you have to eat a lot of it.

Hey bro, go pick on someone else's calories, getting calories from cake is the same as avocados. It's all cals in cals our right?

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