Sabotage City!

A couple of things occurred over the weekend that made me think a lot about access to healthy resources in our communities.  The first was was bantering with the friend of a friend on Facebook about obesity being a product of miseducation rather than personal choices, and the second was traveling across the south to visit my bestest girlfriends in semi-rural Mississippi.

My friend's friend made the assertion that obesity is less the fault of someone making destructive choices than the fault of the community at large for demonizing being overweight and not educating people about how to be healthy. I disagreed.  While education is important, ultimately it is the hand-to-mouth actions that we each take as independent adults that influence our weight, and it doesn't take an advanced degree to figure out that the path to wellness is not paved with doughnuts.  He countered that we should accept our country as a population of overeaters and overweight people.  I was incredulous.

Then I ventured outside of my insulated, utopic, upper-middle class environment and realized that I am a lucky, lucky lady.  I live in a community with at least three organic grocery stores, multiple weekly farmer's markets, health food stores and restaurants, and whole grain/gluten free/vegan/everything else you can imagine products on the shelves of my corner grocery store.  As I walked the aisles of a grocery store in this affluent north Mississippi community, it was very challenging to find products that met my personal standards for nutrition. Instead, I was surrounded by high-sugar, overly-processed, preservative-laden food...and the parents who buy it for their kids because they just don't have any other choice.  They live in a Sabotage City.  It made me so sad. 

And it made me so angry because how can our country get healthier when we can't even find healthy food in our grocery stores?  I do believe that you can shop and eat healthy even in a Sabotage City by eating clean: veggies, fruits, and lean meats.  I even blogged about it back in May of last year.  But with kids in the house, even the most staunchly healthy clean-eating families are likely not going to live on produce and lean meats alone.  They need access to whole grain breads, pastas, rice, cereals, and most importantly, the education necessary to know why its important to choose those products. 

When I got home yesterday, I went to the grocery store to stock up for the week ahead.  As I filled my buggy with the healthy products I had taken for granted, I was overwhelmed with frustration.  Bringing education about healthy choices to a community is vital...and providing access to healthy products is non-negotiable.  I still contend that our health is dictated by our choices.  We need better choices.  

How do we do that?  How can I help?

Signed,
Frustrated

Not Only Are You Poor, You're Also Fat

Okay we've all seen the People of Wal-Mart, and maybe sometimes we are the people of Wal-Mart. Hey, I change into robot-emblazoned men's pajama shorts when I get home from work. I won't judge you.

But this headline yesterday made me think there may be a little more than a social stigma attached to being a regular at discount grocery stores - the rising level of obesity among customers at economy grocery stores versus higher-end stores such as Whole Foods, Fresh Market, and the like. In fact, results from a small study cited in the article shows that the percentage of food shoppers who are obese is almost 10 times higher at low-cost grocery stores compared with upscale markets.

And since I shop at both, I guess that puts me at moderate risk for both obesity and fashion-related crimes.

This informal study, which was only conducted in the Seattle area, reaches the conclusion that poverty is a main contributor to the problem of obesity, since people who are stretching their grocery dollar are more likely to buy food with the most calories per penny, and these are likely to be processed foods like pizzas, pastries, white flour products, and other convenience foods.

But I'm a Wal-Mart shopper.  I loathe being there, but I go because I am a cheap bastard and I buy a lot of high-dollar food.  But each time I go, I completely skip the part between the eggs, milk, meats, and produce.  I manage to fill my buggy with fresh fruits, vegetables, lean meats, eggs, and clean ingredients for breadmaking every time.  The difference here is education - I suspect that the People of Wal-Mart who are trapped in the cycle of buying cheap, processed, unhealthy food are plagued by poverty, but also by lack of education regarding how to make healthier choices. 

It is possible to shop at Wal-Mart and buy healthy food. 

I do it all the time.

Here are some great tips for saving cash on healthy groceries no matter where you shop.

Good day! :)