How body acceptance had gone too far:
Average clothing size in America in 1995, size 14.
Average clothing size today, size 16.
I wish we could tax junk food, however there are a few reasons why that wont happen. Though there is a small junk food tax in some locations.
1. The food industry is a bigger lobby than tobacco.
2. Junk food is literally made from junk, that is why it is so cheap. For instance, all the veggies that aren't pretty enough to sell at a market get processed into veggie chips at a very low cost, but better than tossing them in the dump for the farmer. Then those veggie chips are marketed as a healthy snack, even though the are empty calories with most of the natural vitamins processed out, added salt and fat, preservatives, etc.
3. People like easy and tasty. I had a friend post a pic on facebook saying something like, this is why people don't eat healthier! It was a pic of a pre cut up, pre packaged fruit. It was quite expensive. I mentioned that if you just buy the whole fruit, it is many times cheaper. She said it was too time consuming to do that prep work. People often have 2 jobs, or both parents will have jobs with 3 kids in the house. Everything focuses on cheap and easy. It takes work to accustom a child to asparagus instead of french fries, work that takes time that a lot of people dont feel they have.
Personally, as someone who was dirt poor in the past, enough that we lived in HUD housing and had food stamps at one point, though no longer, I would chose being poor with one working parent, while the other stays home and has time to clip coupons, buy fresh and healthy foods, and prepare them in healthy but creative ways, etc, over having extra luxuries and a shitty diet. It's less stress, even for the one working person. But I'm not in others shoes and dont honestly know if that is an option for most people. I am probably just very lucky that it was an option for me.
Average clothing size in America in 1995, size 14.
Average clothing size today, size 16.
I wish we could tax junk food, however there are a few reasons why that wont happen. Though there is a small junk food tax in some locations.
1. The food industry is a bigger lobby than tobacco.
2. Junk food is literally made from junk, that is why it is so cheap. For instance, all the veggies that aren't pretty enough to sell at a market get processed into veggie chips at a very low cost, but better than tossing them in the dump for the farmer. Then those veggie chips are marketed as a healthy snack, even though the are empty calories with most of the natural vitamins processed out, added salt and fat, preservatives, etc.
3. People like easy and tasty. I had a friend post a pic on facebook saying something like, this is why people don't eat healthier! It was a pic of a pre cut up, pre packaged fruit. It was quite expensive. I mentioned that if you just buy the whole fruit, it is many times cheaper. She said it was too time consuming to do that prep work. People often have 2 jobs, or both parents will have jobs with 3 kids in the house. Everything focuses on cheap and easy. It takes work to accustom a child to asparagus instead of french fries, work that takes time that a lot of people dont feel they have.
Personally, as someone who was dirt poor in the past, enough that we lived in HUD housing and had food stamps at one point, though no longer, I would chose being poor with one working parent, while the other stays home and has time to clip coupons, buy fresh and healthy foods, and prepare them in healthy but creative ways, etc, over having extra luxuries and a shitty diet. It's less stress, even for the one working person. But I'm not in others shoes and dont honestly know if that is an option for most people. I am probably just very lucky that it was an option for me.
“Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where's it going to end?”
― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
