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Here's an honest question for you all. If someone is working at a minimum/low paying service job, with lets say 2 kids and single and receiving food stamps to supplement, do you think they're shopping at Whole Foods, buying organic stuff like organic produce/meat and just overall foods that are considered healthy? Or do you think they would buy mostly processed/frozen/"junk food" stuff mainly for the low price and convenience even if they get some sort of assistance?

I'm starting to see a correlation with these kind of jobs and obesity too, as ironic as that sounds since you would think people who are low income wouldn't have enough money to buy food to eat too much. I walk into Walgreens often since it's in my backyard and like 70% of the workers would be considered overweight/obese. I know damn well Walgreens isn't paying these people $14 an hour, at least the regular reps. When I worked at Wal-Mart about 14 years ago, I didn't see hardly any obese workers since I was the fatty at that time. Now times have changed.
 
I'm thankful that currently (I use that word lightly), I can afford to eat a bit healthier, although I'm certainly not the nominee for the healthiest eater in America. And I don't mean to offend people here, but I think it's true that people who shop at Whole Foods/just eat "healthy" in general are more than likely white middle class green-peace environmental vegan type who have the cash to do it. If they didn't have the cash, it would be a different story. And I've never even been to a Whole Foods before. We don't have them here. I wonder why.
On that note, consider food preparation time. Most good, whole food meals require at least some time and space for preparation but when you are working 5/6 days a week for most of the day you don't get a lot of time and energy to invest in making healthy, whole meals.

People also seem to think that everyone should just ignore flavour and just eat what's good for you, but for myself if something tastes bad it will genuinely make me feel sick, even if it's healthy food. Taste isn't just a matter of preference for pleasure but some people are actually nourished by that part. If something is considered healthy but makes you feel sick, you shouldn't be expected to consume it. Hard to call something healthy universally.

I know at least one person who actually can't even digest vegetables because of their digestion and would die if they tried.
That's basically me since I'm born. And then I try to conquer my self by learning to love veggies over time. A really hard thing to do but it works my subconscious a lot. Lately I have come to lose interest in meat and found it easier as I evolve. But sometimes I feel weird in my stomach for eating veggies. There are probably a lot of veggies I will never be able to eat but I guess focusing on those I have succeeded to learn to appreciate really does wonder to my polarity towards myself.
There are veggies I do like for sure, and I eat those ones a smuch as I can, but the whole 'health food' movement of kale and quinoa and all that stuff just doesn't settle in my stomach. I'm maybe just very European but good ol' broccoli, carrots and cauliflower do it for me...
If I could resume what you say it would sound like: Eat what makes you happy. I am totally for that. I mean if you eat veggies and feel like you're just forcing yourself you won't radiate much love after that even if those kind of food is labeled as 'good for you'. It's not encouraging meat eating or anything. It's just what will bring the most positivism for everyone out of it.
When I go to Subway (a sub sandwich place in the US), and order a foot long with lots of veggies, I don't feel fresh after eating fresh veggies. I still get light headed, and dizzy at times. If I get too full, I will start gagging. So I have to be careful about how much I eat.
Sadly subway isn't that fresh anymore. Maybe it used to be but the veggies looks like mosanto processed, gmo, modified stuff. It's probably frozen for a long period of time in plastic bags.
To hopefully get a bit closer to the question in the original post: There definitely is a strong correlation, I think there's no question about that anymore. But there are also other factors that are playing key roles like education, peer-groups, availability.... Sometimes, and not too seldom, poverty/low income/high expenses (and a lot of other factors) are unfortunately also used as an excuse to not buy healthier stuff (for the people and/or the planet). But many times it is simply a question of priorities and choice, just like Aion is making choices for himself - even if many wouldn't admit it. You can live on organic food if you decide to do so even with a very low income, especially, if you cut back on luxury stuff. You can live quite a while on organic potatoes, carrots and onions (and grains, or legumes, if so wished), for example, and maybe some apples and whatever might be in season and/or available locally. Comparing prices is a good option (between farm shops, farmer's markets, wholefood shops, or simply the organic and/or free-from corner in any supermarket, whatever might be available), for some foraging might be an option, as well as growing at least a couple of greens yourself, be it in a container, on a windowsill, or the balcony, if you don't have access to a garden, or allotment, or community garden.... If you want to live healthy (and tread more lightly on the planet's resources), there are ways, and not many limits to creativity. Grains are cheaper than pasta, legumes a cheap source of healthy protein, baking bread yourself is cheaper than buying bread (and much healthier)... I could go on for quite a while, but you get the point. We ourselves are quite short on money and have to do the onion-and-carrot trick frequently, but are eating nearly 100% organic (and vegan, of course). No fake meat and other luxury vegan stuff is obviously a given in this kind of situation, too, and this is also healthier than most of the processed fake meats and cheeses and the like. If you set your priorities and intentions to human-friendly, earth-friendly and animal-friendly rather than yummy food, much is possible which wouldn't seem possible at first glance.
Smile
I suppose but you basically just ignored my whole point about how some flavours actually make me/some people feel sick so not all of those options are sensible to enforce on myself/oneself... I don't get how that isn't seen as a factor...

It's not just a matter of pleasure, but you can't just force yourself to eat foods you find disgusting, that's traumatic to the body.
Archetypal Signification of the disgusting food??
I understand your point totally, Aion, but on the other side there are so many different options as far as grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, etc go, many of them tending toward the plain side. I'm not sure how facette's post implied that one had to focus on eating foods that made them sick. Not to mention, tastebuds change over time, and so can psychological associations with food. If you eat tons of processed food with artificial flavors, that seriously alters your tastebuds. (artificial sweeteners are the worst culprit) Abstaining/detoxing from these things can help revert the taste buds to a normal functioning.
Examining the abstract mental relationship one has with a food doesn't make it taste good or settle well in the stomach. Where is the line between accepting your preferences and accepting a foodstuff?

There is a huge variety of food in the world. That indicates to me that the variety is able to feed a diverse population and the diets of all people don't necessarily need to be universal.
(02-21-2016, 01:41 AM)Bring4th_Jade Wrote: [ -> ]I understand your point totally, Aion, but on the other side there are so many different options as far as grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, etc go, many of them tending toward the plain side. I'm not sure how facette's post implied that one had to focus on eating foods that made them sick. Not to mention, tastebuds change over time, and so can psychological associations with food. If you eat tons of processed food with artificial flavors, that seriously alters your tastebuds. (artificial sweeteners are the worst culprit) Abstaining/detoxing from these things can help revert the taste buds to a normal functioning.

Sure, but that is more a matter of preservatives and chemicals than a matter of the exact foods you are eating. These I have grown very sensitive to and am moving more to whole foods, but I still have a somewhat narrow pallette.
(02-21-2016, 01:06 AM)Aion Wrote: [ -> ]I suppose but you basically just ignored my whole point about how some flavours actually make me/some people feel sick so not all of those options are sensible to enforce on myself/oneself... I don't get how that isn't seen as a factor...

It's not just a matter of pleasure, but you can't just force yourself to eat foods you find disgusting, that's traumatic to the body.

No one is suggesting you force yourself to eat anything. 

It really has so much to do with habits, addictions, beliefs, perceptions, associations. That is something each individual can balance in themselves.

As far as poverty and obesity being related, that is a statistic, and it has to do with "food anxiety." People under the poverty level are naturally more concerned with survival, and will overeat as a result. Overeating cheap food—fast food in the U.S.—exacerbates the problem as cheap food has little to no actual food value so hunger isn't satisfied.

I have been a raw-fooder and the amount of produce you need is greatly reduced compared to what you might cook, because you feel satisfied and "filled up" with much less. You are getting the nutrients, enzymes, and fiber you need naturally. Also, when you eat this way, constant cravings go away. There is a level of drama in eating that seems to diminish when you give your body really good fuel.
(02-21-2016, 01:06 AM)Aion Wrote: [ -> ]I suppose but you basically just ignored my whole point about how some flavours actually make me/some people feel sick so not all of those options are sensible to enforce on myself/oneself... I don't get how that isn't seen as a factor...

It's not just a matter of pleasure, but you can't just force yourself to eat foods you find disgusting, that's traumatic to the body.

I am sorry Aion, I wasn't replying to you, but tried to say something to the original post. Of course there is no need and it would indeed not be sensible (and probably detrimental to one's health) to force yourself eating something you can't stand and/or not even digest. As Jade and Diana have suggested, some people would probably be surprised what an amount of flavour good, healthy food can develop, even just freshly from the ground or plant or tree and without flavouring, how much and quickly your tastebuds can change (back to their natural state), and also, how many simple options there are to ad bursts of flavour in a healthy manner, like adding miso, tamari, lemon juice, spiced oils, coconut aminos, plain or mixed herbs and spices like chili, cumin, coriander, curry, garam masala, adding roasted seeds and nuts, or nutritional yeast....

On the other hand, when talking about taste, it largely comes down to a choice between what you like to eat and a choice to the benefit of others (as in not poisoning that struggling entity Earth even more, not poisoning the workers who produce the food any more, and not poisoning the animals in the soil, air and water any more). As soon as people are in an intellectual and educational position to know there is a choice between the two, it's up to them. That said: I think there are many on this forum who manage to combine both perfectly, and without any feeling of 'sacrifice' or suffering on their part. You don't have to run over yourself to make a choice for others there, creativity, again, is a great tool for combining them (and if you aren't creative in that, there's an incredible amount of food blogs with tips and recipes, and cooking books, too, for every way of living/eating imaginable), so that it's becoming not either or, but and. The benefit of not poisoning your own body is obviously another bonus.

Here are some great ideas of adding healthy food resources to socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods:

Below the following video, there are a number of links to articles and studies about 'food poverty' and 'food deserts'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n4SkuOe2OQ

-`ღ´-
Your question plays into the (insanely profitable) narrative that Whole Foods is where you go to get healthy foods.

The choice is not between spending your whole paycheck at Whole Foods, or a handful of dollars in the frozen foods aisle at the Piggly Wiggly.

Please note Whole Foods sells products containing GMO foods, including Monsanto corn. Which ones? Well, you won't find out -- because while Whole Foods is so dearly concerned about GMOs, they, err, don't bother to label their foods for their customers. In fact they have, in the past, labeled foods with Monsanto corn as "Natural!"

If I seem like I'm being pedantic, it's because your question propagates this idea that Whole Foods is the paragon of healthy living, and it's not. They're a brilliant corporation -- and that's probably the nicest thing I can say about them. They've found their niche, and carved out a customer-base that trends towards having a higher-income, which you have correctly observed.

But you do not have to go to Whole Foods to eat healthy. You do not have to be rich to eat healthy. But you do have to care, and you do have to educate yourself, because they sure don't make it easy. So yeah -- the poor are absolutely at a disadvantage when it comes to eating healthy. And it's so easy to fill up on processed, dead foods. I get it.

If someone wants to start eating healthy, they should shop in the produce aisle. Eat foods that are in season, they'll be cheaper. The produce isn't perfect -- they're still most probably treated with pesticides (so is Whole Foods' produce) and possibly even GMO (so might Whole Foods, who knows?). But the frozen food is all that, plus it's been further killed & treated.

Sadly, the first step is people have to care ... and then they have to educate themselves. And trying to get the information is a real grind through the muck. Nothing new for life on 3D Earth though. Smile
(02-21-2016, 01:46 AM)Aion Wrote: [ -> ]
(02-21-2016, 01:41 AM)Bring4th_Jade Wrote: [ -> ]I understand your point totally, Aion, but on the other side there are so many different options as far as grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, etc go, many of them tending toward the plain side. I'm not sure how facette's post implied that one had to focus on eating foods that made them sick. Not to mention, tastebuds change over time, and so can psychological associations with food. If you eat tons of processed food with artificial flavors, that seriously alters your tastebuds. (artificial sweeteners are the worst culprit) Abstaining/detoxing from these things can help revert the taste buds to a normal functioning.

Sure, but that is more a matter of preservatives and chemicals than a matter of the exact foods you are eating. These I have grown very sensitive to and am moving more to whole foods, but I still have a somewhat narrow pallette.

It's definitely a process. After I "went vegan", I still had many times where I would have bite of this or that with dairy in it to taste it, as I was working in a restaurant, and felt it was my duty. So I tasted things. Until one day, I tasted something with dairy in it, and it tasted rotten and sour. This was more than two years ago and I haven't 'tried' anything with dairy since, but it was over a year of being vegan with random 'tastings' before that piece finally fell away. So I think diet change is really exemplary of what it really is to just embrace the process of letting that which is no longer needed fall away.
Hi,
while I do see a correlation between income level and education and/or nutrition, what you have to bear in mind is that the "I can't afford to..." a lot of times is (ab)used as an excuse to not buy healthier stuff (healthier for both the people and the planet). To me it occurs to be a mere question of choice, as is so much in this experience - you can chose to live on organic food, while a lot of times (of course there would be exceptions) people will complain about not having sufficient money for proper food, while at the same time using the latest model of smartphone or
gaming console or other gadgetry which are unnecessary to live a "good" live but are means to deflect peer pressure.

If you set your mind to it, you will soon realise ways of maximising what you can do with the little means you have, especially when considering, for example, buying in bulk (15kg of organic rice drop the per-kilo price for same by a whopping 50%).

"Taste" is in this regard no argument, as you put your acquainted taste above effects and impact on other people, the planet and the environment. Unless you think that the "food" you get at non-organic fastfood chains is a fair trade-off for rainforest deforestation, GMO establishment, and forced work / slavery, this is self-explanatory in my eyes. What some people seem to forget is that their physical vehicles are not the only ones affected - just think of the poor people working on those non-organic farms. There is this beautiful footage of the "illegal immigrant" in Spain, working his bones off at the massive vegetable farm, where he is walking barefooted and without any protection, spraying herbicides and pesticides. When buying these products, what you're saying is "I agree with what you're doing, please go ahead and do as you do, I sanction it with my life time" (as, if you truncate the whole story, you're paying with life time, which you spent on "making money") - "every dollar is a choice, as the saying goes.


There is, additionally, loads of examples on the internet with people living on small money but with a fully vegan-organic diet, again, the question is: What's your priorities. Switching to whole-food additionally adds nutritional value - i.e. wholegrain rice makes you filled for much longer than white rice, same goes for pasta or flour/bread (I just took a roasted onion whole-wheat loaf out of the oven. 2kg of organic bread, which has cost around 50 cents all in all and last for a week for two). It might take some time to get acquainted to the organic wholefood taste, but taste is socialised in the first place (i.e. a question of "what you're used to" as opposed to a natural state of perception) but once you are and you listen to your body, you wouldn't want to switch back any more, really (white pasta tastes quite
ridiculous to us by now).

In terms of "healthy is for the rich", as OP assumes, my thoughts go toward that while there are, of course, the so called LOHAs with their "double
income, no kids" situation (where one should be glad they spent it on a low carbon footprint stuff and healthy food as opposed to porches and what have you), there is also the other side of the coin, with low income families spending all the money on good nutrition. You might have to never go on vacation, but, in my opinion, this is very well worth it, given your decision is the one that causes the least negative impact on planet/environment/people/animals. I am just a starter in the learning of what Ra have told us, but it has the benefit of having it fresh in the mind. I think, there would be a reason it is called "service to OTHERS". "My taste does not allow to consider affected people and the harm I cause" doesn't sound very positive to me. From a sociology standpoint of view, though, politics and policy-based structural building do play a role, as, for example, there a literal food-deserts, especially in the USA, where people are structurally cut of of supplies for vegetables/fruit by the architecture of regions (regions you can't leave without a car for populations financially unable to afford same, especially for minorities). There have been quite interesting studies on this, but I don't have the stuff from University to my disposition any more and it's too long ago I read this...

In the end, the question is do you pay now - with money - (for good, healthy, nutritious food) or do you now live of foodlike substances, junk"food", and, in the long term run, pay with medical bills, deteriorating health and potentially not being able to enjoy your life do to the physical suffering you might face. Organic, vegan and fair-trade based living is, to cut the long story short, a win-win-win situation, even though it might be tough to do it at times...

So much for a first post in this forum BigSmile

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Edit: To avoid double-posting
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Ye probably know this nice little summary image already...

[Image: Ego-2-Eco.jpg]
Organic, non-gmo, chemical-free Brussels sprouts still taste like crap to me. That's what I'm saying about taste, is that it is not strictly a matter of junk food or addictive/additive agents. People are allowed to have preferences for what food they like...

Also, that picture doesn't express anything about being vegetarian or the sort, it just expresses that man gets eaten too, lol.
Since when has anyone said you had to eat foods your didn't like, Aion? Why are you focusing on that? I eat almost all vegetables but carrots repulse me. And my eyesight is bad. Doesn't mean any part of me then thinks that since carrots are good for me, I need to eat them, but carrots taste bad, healthy food tastes bad, so eating healthy means I have to force myself to eat food that I don't like.

My point is that when one stops eating chemical additives, their taste buds change. What tastes bitter and repulsive today, after 6 months of not eating chemical additives, might taste different. I mentioned chemical sweeteners because they are hundreds of times sweeter than anything found in nature. When you eat them with any regularity, your tongue has to desensitize itself to sweet tastes, because it cannot process them at that level. Which is why people who drink diet soda are especially more susceptible to weight gain - it creates a sugar addiction vacuum that cannot be sated. This also means that natural fruits and vegetables don't taste as sweet, either. Most chemical flavorings have this kind of broken feedback loop, fake sugar is just the worst culprit, since it makes everything else taste bitter/sour by comparison.

I'm partly amused because brussels sprouts and kale are two of my favoritest things to eat, however you are actually only mentioning one vegetable because they merely different cultivars from the same plant as broccoli and cauliflower, too. So you don't like cruciferous vegetables, that's okay, many people don't. They are often very pungent. There are many others. Herbs and technique are also important part of the taste of anything. I wouldn't devour excitedly just any brussels sprouts, because I have been served some that were downright repulsive, for sure. I like them prepared a very specific way. Luckily I'm a picky eater that has taught herself how to cook, so I can experiment and alter to my own tastes.

You mentioned quinoa too, which again is just the whole "Whole Foods/quinoa!" bandwagon health food rhetoric. Quinoa is actually a very unethical food to eat. Because it's a bandwagon fad, it's really hurt the local populations in the Andes mountains, the only place that it is grown, where it is a huge staple in their diet. Our obsession with quinoa has created a different type of problem as far as "poverty and diet" goes.
Yeah I'm very wary of the whole 'health foods' movement because so much of it appears to just be marketing. My girlfriend and I have actually had to start avoiding preservatives as much as possible lately, and neither of us really like artificial tastes. This has come simply with age it seems, not anything intentional. This is why I don't think I need to 'force' myself to eat anything to be healthy because I believe my body naturally is progressing in a way that will reach that point. Maybe I just work differently but once I decide something my body usually reacts to begin to accommodate it. As soon as I realized I no longer wanted to eat preservatives my body stopped desiring those foods and they no longer seem appetizing.

The reason I mention flavour and taste is because I actually believe them to be very catalyzing aspects of eating and I think the way the enjoyment of taste (especially in regards to meat) has been demonized as being inconsequential to health but while that may be true in a purely physically way, I think it is a different case mentally and emotionally.

My point is that eating healthy isn't just about the food substance but also about how you receive and digest the food. So it's easy to say 'oh this is better' but the actual process and experience isn't so obviously so. I brought it up because it was mentioned how people become addicted to the flavours and sugars of junk food and how this becomes the deterrent for pursuing healthier food but I wanted to point out that that isn't always the case for why people might not move towards different foods.
Do you not see how the apparent addiction ties into the mental and emotional reactions associated with taste?

You are very right though. It is something that just comes with time, when one is ready. I went vegan before I even knew of the Law of One, so none of it had anything to do with my relative morality regarding unity, it just happened. I just warn you that the process of eliminating in such a way doesn't stop once it starts, heh. The body gets more and more sensitive.

Emotional associations with foods can be altered, new comfort foods can be established. Old "junk" foods can be remade into healthier versions. I made a huge batch of puppy chow/muddy buddies (peanut butter, chocolate, butter, powdered sugar, cereal) that we've been eating on the past two days. But no guilt, because all the ingredients are natural and organic. The only part that's actually unhealthy is the powdered sugar and the processed butter substitute. I do want to try to make this recipe sometime with coconut oil, though. Anyway my point is that one can still eat "healthy" but eat basically what they want. The societal process of fad diets of denial and eating rancid cabbage soup as a picture of turning to "health" doesn't have to be involved. It's a totally personal thing. I feel like because my body runs on high quality food most of the time, that indulging in sugar or a processed box of mac and "cheese" isn't a crime. My body isn't spending time and energy eliminating superfluous toxins that offer me no nutrition at every meal.

Of course, none of this is necessary, as it's all just an analogy. But the amount of energy we expend to process our food, literally and figuratively, seems absurd when we can just put fuel into our bodies that is as close to its natural source as possible. Your point being that if it feels like punishment or denial, it won't work. But I get tons of pleasure from eating fresh raw vegetables, like a salad, and in fact always have when I was a small child. The crisp taste of water and minerals in varying textures is really exciting to me. So I'm just blessed with a predilection. But it's possible to find pleasure and reward in the process of preparing and eating whole, fresh foods as part of one's daily diet.
Ah, I have a hard time pigeonholing humans. Again, sure you can correlate the addictions with taste, but it's not the only relevant factor and genuinely people just sometimes have different tastes in food. My point is that I disagree with any apparently 'universal' explanation because I just don't think any applies.

But don't you see how this can be frustrating? As you say, you already had a predisposition to that enjoyment so of course it 'makes sense' to you, but that's not the case for everyone. Sure it's possible, but you also have major biases towards certain things which make it easier for you to get in to. So the way you explain it seems catered to your own biases.

My point again here is that while it may seem 'easy' and obvious to you, that is dependent a lot on your palette.

That being said, for me a huge factor is time and largely why I don't spend more time on preparation. This is something I'm working on by making a career shift.
In short, a lot of unconscious, emotional, and environement has to do with taste and craving for certain foods. But still no diet is universal. Relativity!
Quote:Ah, I have a hard time pigeonholing humans. Again, sure you can correlate the addictions with taste, but it's not the only relevant factor and genuinely people just sometimes have different tastes in food. My point is that I disagree with any apparently 'universal' explanation because I just don't think any applies.


But don't you see how this can be frustrating? As you say, you already had a predisposition to that enjoyment so of course it 'makes sense' to you, but that's not the case for everyone. Sure it's possible, but you also have major biases towards certain things which make it easier for you to get in to. So the way you explain it seems catered to your own biases.

My point again here is that while it may seem 'easy' and obvious to you, that is dependent a lot on your palette.

That being said, for me a huge factor is time and largely why I don't spend more time on preparation.

I guess you are missing my point that food is currently manufactured to create tastes that are addictive, and to alter your brain/taste bud chemistry to reinforce that. It's obviously more complex than sugar tastes good so I have to eat it, of course. It's many layered but I just don't see the distinction you make between the taste of certain foods having beneficial emotional and mental effects so not being able to relinquish it, and being addicted.

Dairy, for instance, is literally addictive, because it's meant to be a food for newborns so there is a built in reward mechanism to encourage an infant to eat. In fact, there are even "lactose-free" "cheese" products out there that still add casein to the final product, because casein is the addictive chemical, and the reward driver for eating dairy. There are plenty of other "artificial flavors" and even "natural flavors" that never have to be listed on a label that are specifically only added to create an addiction feedback loop in your brain associated with the food.  This is what I mean when I say processed foods are addictive.

We're all in this trap. I'm sorry if I make it sound easy. This is four years worth of conscious dietary choices in culmination speaking. And it's an attempt to uphold the law of responsibility, because once I know these things, I can't unknow these things. I also have to teach what I learn. When threads about diet come up, I engage because I've spent a good deal of time studying and learning about what goes in our food, and on the whole I feel like my body complex functions in a healthy manner so I feel like I must be doing something right.  I know it's a combination of mental, physical, and spiritual, and I enjoy exploring that relationship with everyone.
I... just... nevermind...
Sorry for being a brick wall. Maybe next time.
Beautiful!