Does it seem strange to you....
That first we hear of the obesity epidemic, then we are told that we must exercize. ''Similar to the challenge of minimizing tobacco smoke exposure two decades ago, the United States epidemic of obesity and sedentariness is now of sufficient social magnitude and cost that increasing physical activity participation can no longer be treated as an individual responsibility. It was found that the most sedentary people are those who are depressed or in poor health. Duh, folks.
And now Medicare gears up to treat obesity as an illness. Do I smell a rat? Perhaps they should read Paul campos on how fat is the last place where it is politically correct to show disgust. And how disgust is usually linked to fear of contamination.
Benjamin Disraeli is quoted as saying, "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics." I am one of those who believes that statistics can and do lie. According to statistics, I will live ten years less because of my obesity. However, my paternal grandmother, who was about the same shape I am, lived to be 89-years old. I am single, I have no children, and few friends. I am disabled, and don't have any expectations of cutting an impressive figure for the rest of my life. What do I need to live ten years longer on the public dole for? I have two pleasures left in my life, sex and food. I am not giving either of them up.
Here is something I wrote on hunger when I was homeless:

Hungry

It is hard for most people to see a woman barely five feet tall, and weighing 250 lbs, and think of her as hungry and malnourished. Fat has been a symbol of prosperity, and girth desirable in the upper class as a sign they had plenty to eat. Until lately.
Now the rich are thin. They can have fresh produce, the leanest meats, and exotic fruit. They have personal trainers to exercise them, and the leisure time to exercise. They go to fat doctors and fat farms to shed their pounds. The poor don't have these luxuries. The rich are able to afford whatever snake oil is being sold for weight loss, injections of human growth hormone, or whatever is current. There is less stress in their life; they don't have to worry where their next meal is coming from, and if they will still be able to afford the rent. Such is not true for the poor. Often they are working two jobs just to make the rent. It is even worse for the homeless on the streets or in shelters.
But this is the United States, the richest country in the world, people aren't hungry here, we have programs for that, food stamps, feeding programs, food banks, right?
The history of feeding programs has been infamous for millenia, from the bread and circuses of ancient Rome to the soup kitchens of the Irish Potato Famine. The Irish Famine is particularly instructive. Ireland did not lack for food during the famine. It was just all being raised for export to Britain, the richest country in the world at that time, under the auspices of absentee British landlords. Most of the Irish peasants who worked the land subsisted on potatoes and milk, a diet that afforded them enough protein, calories, and Vitamins B and C, provided they ate 2-3 pounds of potatoes at a meal for a working man. Potatoes were also used as cattle feed to provide the milk portion of the diet.
When the potato crop failed in 1845 due to blight, the peasants had nothing to eat, and nothing to feed their cattle. The absentee landlords insisted that the food raised for export be sent to Britain in order to pay the Irish tenants rent. If the blight had only lasted that year, things may have been different, but the crops continued to fail until 1851.
In a misguided attempt to provide nutrition to the population, the British government imported maize (corn) from the United States. Unfortunately, corn does not provide the nutrition that potatoes and milk do. Corn has incomplete protein, and must be coupled with beans to provide complete protein. It also lacks Vitamin C and B, causing the populace to contract nutritional diseases such as scurvy and beriberi. These nutritional diseases made the people more susceptible to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, "hunger fever", and cholera. The result is that out of a population of approximately 8 million in 1845, one million people perished of starvation and famine related disease, and another million saved their lives by emigrating to the United States, Canada, and Australia. Indeed some landlords paid their passages, since it was cheaper to export the people than pay the poor house taxes for each of their tenants in the work houses. Ireland has never recovered from this famine, the population is even now less than it was in 1845.
Barbara Erinreich, in her book Nickle and Dimed, on not making it in America, says she believes there is a conspiracy to make the poor fat. I agree with her. Take food banks. I have used food banks in the past, and find that often you are given high-sugar or high-fat food. Some food banks are better than others at providing produce, but much of what is provided is marginal, unsaleable, on it's way back to the earth from which it came. Otherwise it would still be in the store for the people with money to buy. Meat is rare at food banks, often coming with the commodities from the USDA in the form of canned beef and pork. Canned with lots of fat, and obviously not the best cuts, meat that would be discarded if not canned for commodities. I have been given chum salmon, and never have found a way to cook it that is appetizing. And sometimes we get frozen meat from the fast food joints that is older than they will use.
Sometimes you are given nutritious staples like rice and beans at the food bank, but the fact is that many of the people who go to food banks either don't have cooking facilities or don't have the time to prepare these long-cooking foods..
Food stamps. Yes, if you make less than $950 a month you can get food stamps. But the most you can get is about $135 a month, and that's only if you are on GAU, and your whole cash income is $339 a month. Ever try to feed yourself nutritious foods for $135 a month? Well maybe you can do it if you eat a lot of rice, beans and pasta, and use meat strictly as a condiment. And go to the food bank at the end of the month when the money runs out.
You must have cooking facilities In order to get food stamps, so that lets out a lot of people who are on the street and in shelters. Most people on the street and in shelters are lucky to get one meal a day from the shelter or some food program. Some shelters only provide snacks. More sugary, fat-laden food no doubt. It provides calories, but not a lot of nutrition. People under stress have higher needs for vitamins and micronutrients, and they are not getting them from what is offered. This decreases their ability to function and cope with their lives.
Here at the Aloha Inn where I live in a transitional housing program for the homeless, all our food is from donations. We get one meal a day, and if we are lucky we can have leftovers for lunch. Since our food comes from the same sources as the food banks, we get a lot of sugary, high fat food. There is never a lack of desserts or pastries. What there is a lack of is a variety of vegetables. If I never see mixed vegetables again after I leave here, I will be happy. Broccoli and cauliflower renowned for being health supporting are in short supply and are often overcooked. I long for a fresh carrot where rot is not the operative syllable. My mouth waters at the thought of pot roast. Last time we had anything like that I think it was venison. I enjoyed it, but some people couldn't get past the slightly gamy taste. Sometimes the food is oversalted, and even the meat we get is often very fatty. Things like hot dogs, polish sausage, the fatty pieces of chicken. Bony pieces of fish, or the tasteless salmon.
A lot of the food is past it's prime, past it's "sell by" date. It is mandatory to smell the milk before you pour yourself a glass or put some on your cereal. And look at the pastry to see if it is moldy. The other night the tuna casserole tasted moldy. I suspect some moldy cheese got grated into it, because I know they just cut the mold off the cheese and then use it. Sometimes if the cheese has white mold it is harder to see than green mold, and often the mold goes deeper than what is visible on the surface. Sub-optimal at best, dangerous at worst.
Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for every mouthful, but the diet is not optimal for nutrition. I don't feel good unless I am taking vitamins, and I have had more colds here in three months than I usually have in three years. They have hung on longer, too. And I figure I am better off than a lot of people who are in the shelters, and on the streets. Yes, there are food programs out there, thank heaven. If you know where to go you can get a sack lunch, or have a hot meal at night. Sometimes it comes without ties, sometimes you need to work for it, and sometimes you pay by listening to some preaching.
The diet tends to put weight on people. Flo Beaumon, the program director here, threatens to make "gained tonnage" part of her annual statistics. Homeless people tend to have more chronic disease like diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. And they are being offered high fat, high sugar, high-sodium foods, just what will make their chronic diseases worse.
I have probably eaten more fast food in the last three months than I usually do. What are you going to do when you only have a few dollars and are hungry? Are you going to buy a nutritious lunch at PCC (a local organic and health food store) for around $10, or are you going to hit a fast food joint where you can get a sandwich, fries, and a drink for around $3? Since I rarely have $10 I can spend for food at one time, PCC is out of the way, and fast food ubiquitous, you can guess the answer.
So here I am, five feet tall, 250 lbs, hungry and malnourished.