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alithea:

canisfamiliaris:

Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?

The answer is NO.

The “fact” that junk food is cheaper than real food has become a reflexive part of how we explain why so many Americans are overweight, particularly those with lower incomes. I frequently read confident statements like, “when a bag of chips is cheaper than a head of broccoli …” or “it’s more affordable to feed a family of four at McDonald’s than to cook a healthy meal for them at home.”

(via sunfoundation)

this bullshit fills me with a very specific kind of rage. so, TIME TO DEBUNK!

1. that meal from mcdonalds takes virtually no time to acquire AND is available almost anywhere.
2. the second meal? that “salad” is lettuce … with nothing else, not even dressing unless its just olive oil or some milk i guess? gross.
3. also thats the price of each serving, not an entire loaf of bread, a bottle of olive oil, etc. that stuff adds up which means you have to have a lot of money at one time to buy it all.
4. that meal probably took an hour and a half to make, which is a long fucking time when you work multiple jobs or are caring for a lot of people or dont have help! seriously, if you are a single parent of three who works, is spending an hour and a half every night preparing a meal a likely option?
5. same with beans and rice! also, you know whats a fucking bummer? eating beans and rice every night because you are poor. ask any person who has done it and they will tell you (you can start with me).
6. there is a “nutrition” argument here that lacks a follow up: poor people are more likely to be doing physical labor and need more than 571 calories per meal.
7. you know who is less likely to know how to bake or prepare a chicken? people without access to the internet, or libraries, or who werent taught how to by their parents because their parents worked all the time. access to healthy foods is a classist issue and classism is cyclical, you fucking morons.
8. seriously, these sorts of infographics make me want to fucking flip tables. do you know why people don’t eat more fresh fruits and vegetables? because fresh fruits and vegetables are expensive, because they take a long time to prepare, because they dont live near a grocery store that has a decent produce section, because they dont have reliable transportation to get groceries to and from the grocery store, because they dont have the energy to plan all of the shit that is involved in making healthy, intentional, filling, balanced meals. basically: poor people get fucked, and then we get BLAMED for being lazy.
9. eating “healthy”, aka access to fresh fruits and vegetables, is a privilege, first, foremost, always. so fuck you new york times and your ignorant goddamn infographic.
10. there are SYSTEMATIC REASONS that we do not have equal access to fresh fruits and vegetables. they are very REAL problems. besides, you know, systematic poverty in america, the total mis-distribution of farm subsidies is a perfect place to start. read about that, then either get bent or start working on the actual problem.

AND NOW TO DEBUNK

And here is why:

1. Cooking something like potatoes or even chicken BREAST only takes about 10 minutes if that. It’s also at your home, so odds are you’re there anyways  before you’re leaving.

2. Lettuce, or even spinach with olive oil and lemon juice is fucking delicious. May some pepper, even? 

3. This is the only relatively decent argument, though the fact that it’s cheaper by weight is fact enough. Buying in bulk saves you money in the long run. Just get a few supplies per visit. 

4. Once again, things ACTUALLY don’t take that long to cook. At all. If you’re smart, start boiling water before you’ve started showering and getting ready for your day so you aren’t sitting around waiting for them all. Also there’s tons of dishes that have very few ingredients and only take a few minutes to prepare, with little to no cooking time.

5. Many of your arguments are selfish. If you’re dirt ass poor, would you rather, like, live and be relatively healthy than being unhealthy as well as poor? 

6. This is moot, beans and nuts are both incredibly high in calories. Both of them are cheap, and both of them contain the better kinds of fats.

7. I would hope that most people understand the concept that if you apply a lot of heat to something, it will cook. And you can cook things in many ways, such as baking, boiling, and frying stuff. If you’re unsure how much to cook it, just measure the amount of time it takes for it to start smelling gross, and go back from there each time you make it. Don’t expect to be spoon-fed things that people thousands of years ago figured out for themselves. 

8. Some fresh fruits and vegetables do, in fact, take a bit of time to prepare. But if you just do all the preparation ahead of time, en masse, it’s less of a problem. Don’t have time to chop up onion before making dinner? Chop up the entire thing and use it little by little! Hopefully you have a refrigerator that’s probably full of half-full condiment containers that you thought you ‘needed’. 

9. Access to fresh fruit and vegetables takes as much as to walk to a grocery store, or even a corner convenience store. I know the mac’s two blocks away sells eggs, canned vegetables, apples, oranges, and bananas. Albeit, more expensive than the grocery store.

10. I’d say most of the problem lies in education, and spoon-feeding (ha) society into a mindset where they can’t just find things out on their own intuitively. 

Maybe it’s cause my dad IS a good cook, but most of what I’ve really learned has been from experimentation by myself, and seeing what quick, simple things I can make that taste decent on a really, really restricted budget. 

Today, I made pasta sauce and pasta in about 20 minutes that probably cost me under $1.50. Tomatoes, water, herbs, ground beef, and pasta. That’s all.  I ate the whole thing but that could probably have kept me from going hungry for an entire day. 

The nice thing is also that you can freeze a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, JUST LIKE IN THE STORE, yourself. 

Don’t be lazy, don’t be picky. You don’t NEED ketchup. Be resourceful. Be experimental.

It has to be edible, it doesn’t necessarily have to be good. 

This has been a post. 

PS I am totally a person who gives in and buys fast food, even when I shouldn’t. Sometimes, yes, I haven’t had time to get groceries! This happens often! But this is something I’m conscious of and when I’m seriously poor (such as right now) and literally can’t afford to even buy mcdonalds, I’m still completely well fed because I know that as long as you apply heat to it, it’ll eventually cook, and eventually be edible. 

So I went to the hospital again last night. Time to ACTUALLY go to the allergist I guess

SO I might be doing a production of RENT and a production of Angels in America back to back without even meaning to.

[insert gay seal on stage here] 

Wonder Boys, by Michael Chabon

A wonderful book. Not as well written as Kavalier and Clay, also by Chabon, but the characters are wonderfully flawed and relatable.

Like, full on.

She pressed the button to activate the red light but didn’t wait for it.

Luckily, the driver realized what was happening with enough time to hit the breaks but not enough to avoid hitting her. 

I just, let out a scream and stood there a few seconds until I realized what was happening. I called 9-1-1 and had to fill out a police report and everything.

The paramedics said she could have some brain injury and definitely will have a concussion. She was knocked out for a few minutes until she woke up and started crying. But at least she’s alive.

Agh, it was just so scary. It was slow motion until she got hit, and then it was just a blur. 

This happened about 5 minutes after the picture of me complaining about the heat. 

It’s crazy how quickly stuff can happen.

I totally probably could have gotten with my brother’s hot friend who I’ve known since I was like 13.
He was all ‘heard you’re gay that’s awesome, I’m happy for you. I’ve been to gay bars and stuff before and getting hit on like a compliment and stuff” uugh and then I lied and told him I was partying tonight and being cool instead of the truth that was that I was seeing a movie with my cousins. But then he was like ‘oh I should come party with you if you don’t mind!’ AND OF COURSE I COULDN’T GO BACK ON MY WORD so I had to make up all this obvious bullshit.
Like if I just told him I wasn’t doing anything but wanted to drink I totally could have hit that and ugh. He’s a firefighter in Red Deer and just SO good looking.

I find myself very angry that I am the eternal youngling, and I will always be the youngest. Youngest in my family (on both sides with over 10 cousins on both), youngest of my friends, youngest of the people I live with.. I’ve always been the youngest.

And yet, I hate being around younger people than I, or occasionally even people the same age. They just all seem so trivial, that nothing and everything is important that the same time. I find it horrible unattractive. And then I wonder - am I like that? Am I this contrived, this.. awful to be around? Does my life seem as if it’s going nowhere, or that I’m just not ‘cool’?

And I love people who are older because they have experience over me, and I can really learn things from them and maybe I can teach them a thing or two because I’m really not that young! I’m 19 but I can be 21, or 23, or 25, or 27!

I love people who are older because they seem to have their lives together, even if they really aren’t. But at least they have been living that way long enough to at least make it seem like everything is okay. That everything’s cool.

And I feel as if I’ll be 20 in August and eeeevvverrything will change. Well dressed bearded men will come flocking to me in their gravity pope shoes and I don’t have to worry that my ex boyfriend broke up with someone for me and now is back with that someone even though he’s a jackass and I’ll never be alone for the rest of my life.

And so, I guess I just wait and try to make the best of it. Wait until I’m 21/23/25/27(<— ideal age, 27) and at least I won’t be 19. I love my spirit, my enthusiasm. I really do and I really wish that I could appreciate someone who appreciates that. But no one seems to do so, and I am left only appreciating myself.

Okay, you get it, I’m lonely. Byeeee

Honestly, I think my eyes/eyebrows are one of my best features.

I also really like my hair and my shoulders.

I check myself out a lot, particularly while brushing my teeth and such.

I’m totally cool if I don’t get into BFA off the waitlist for next year.

A) Cause I get to take Solo Performance Creation and Shakespeare Scene Study with David Barnet

B) ABBEDAM IS DOING ANGELS IN AMERICA dijfalkdfjads

Soo yah. Gwah. I mean, assuming I get in. If not I’ll ASM or at least be involved, buuut. Yeah. Fuck. Angels in America. When in my life will I have an opportunity to do that again?

jdfalkjf