Saturday, August 2, 2008

Food Apartheid: Banning Fast Food in Poor Neighborhoods

Item One: The U.S. of part of A. has a majority of its adults listed as "overweight."

Item Two: States with the highest percentage of persons deemed "low income" have many of the highest percentages of overweight people.

Item Three: Studies have shown that with a limited income, most of the food consumed is higher in sugars and fat than that consumed by people with higher incomes.

Item Four: Food is comfort. That's a subjective assessment, but you and I know it's true.

Even with the first three items, how the hell does the Los Angeles City Council conceive and approve an ordinance that would ban new fast food restaurants in low income communities? 

Rather than going all Nader on their pointy heads, here are three options they might want to consider:

1) Improve schools: It leads to better prospects for getting out of and avoiding low income status.

2) Focus on health maintenance rather than health care.

3) Stop focusing on racially-tinged idiocies and get to work on real problems.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It goes like this... and it's reall simple too.

You are poor. We are paying for your healthcare. Your health is in the toilet because that's where your eating habits are. And poor health equals high healthcare costs--which we are paying for and do not want to pay for. You are also too stupid to be taught how to make better choices. Therefore we will do all the thinking for you.

And that's how you end up with such a measure.

I spend most of my money on food. And too often, it's hard to get healthy foods in poor neighborhoods. Overpriced produce not fit for anyone to eat. Not even a rat. People like me who want to eat healthy don't qualify for food stamps. People who qualify for food stamps like to shop for unhealthy stuff anyway. No one wins here.