But Would You Eat It?
Otago university has just presented a study suggesting that healthy food is subsidized for the poor.
“Discount cards or vouchers for cut-price, healthy food have been proposed for the poor and chronically ill.
“Research by an Otago University health economist proposes a food-discount system similar to the food stamps distributed to the poor in the United States.”
At first look, this sounds like a reasonable idea. Food insecurity in low-income groups has often been associated with obesity in multiple studies. Public health nutritionist, Bronwen King states:
“The Government understood that if people could not afford to buy food, let alone healthy products, it was a real problem and was trying to remedy it.”
Unfortunately, as you consider the target group a number of ugly observations become apparent:
- People cannot afford to buy food, but they can afford to buy tobacco.
- People cannot afford to buy food, but they can afford to buy alcohol.
- People cannot afford to buy food, but they can afford to play the pokies.
- People cannot afford to buy food, but they can afford fast food two or three times a week.
- People cannot afford to buy food, but they can afford to watch rugby on sky TV.
Of course there are families in genuine need, but the reality is that most have their necessities met by the adequacy of the benefit, working for families and similar government largesse.
They eat poorly, not because it is not possible to eat well on a budget, but because they choose not to. It is easier to eat MacDonalds than cook your own hamburger, even though your hamburger will be substantially healthier. You get a much larger portion of a low-cost fatty meat, even though the high-cost one is both less fatty and will be a smaller, healthier portion. A small amount of protein is much better for you than a plate of chips or boiled potatoes.
None of this is rocket science.
So the real question regarding subsidizing healthy foods is not Which is better; food stamps, farming subsidies or removing GST? It is Will they eat it?
I think not.
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Sep 2 09 10:42 pm
I hate these sort of generaliztions MacD. Sure there are undoubtedly some poor who will match this caricature but there are others who don’t and you do to be fair acknowledge this.
Life can take some giant dumps on some people and I think that the fortunate should count their blessings and not look down upon those less fortunate, even if they do not always behave in the way we think they should eg going to MacDonalds – which I expect you probably do from time to time, I know I do.
If I may Luke 16:19-31
Sep 2 09 11:27 pm
Andrei:
I think you are missing the point here Andrei. The portion you quote is not a generalisation at all. It does not say “All low-income people would rather buy fast food than good food” and such was clearly not my intention. I can show you many examples of low income families who do exactly the things I have portrayed. I can also find you examples of very low-income families who manage to eat well, which is how I know it is possible.
Clearly, you do not appreciate that obesity has a peculiarly high prevalence in low-income groups. This is for the reason I have illustrated, people prefer short-term pleasure to long term gain. This is obviously not solely a poverty-related problem, however, so in any discussion on healthy eating in poor communities, it is necessary to observe the facts and it is a simple fact that comfort behaviors are far more prevalent in poor communities. Hence my contention that subsidising healthy food will be substantially a waste of time. I predict a very, very low bang for the buck.
For the record, I have never looked down on people because they are poor. Half of the people who go to my church are on a benefit – it is in a very poor area.
And, if I may reciprocate: John 8:7
Sep 3 09 8:59 am
Indeed MacD and I am deficient in this area too.
In addressing the issues arising from this post we need to be careful not to be paternalistic nor patronizing – not easy.
Yes I am aware of the prevalence of obesity in low income groups, there are multiple hypotheses as to why.
One maybe that being alternately hungry then having abundant food enhances the bodies ability to store it.
Another maybe that obesity is genetic (which in part it obviously is) and culturally we reject the obese so as a rule they do not thrive economically. After all given the choice between hiring an athletically built female or a plump one all things being equal who would get the nod do you suppose?
Or we could go down the poor pig out on big macs route to explain it.
Sep 3 09 9:12 am
Andrei: Or we could go down the poor pig out on big macs route to explain it.
This is a bit simplistic, Andrei. I have purposefully not tried to explain away the poverty/obesity link with a silly “big mac” observation. The problem, well described in journals, is the lack of ability to forgo short-term pleasure for long-term gain. It should be no surprise that this (although present in higher wage earners to some extent) is endemic in the poorer population. This is one of the major reasons why they are poor. Obesity is far more strongly linked to this than any other factor.
Sep 3 09 11:07 am
The problem, well described in journals, is the lack of ability to forgo short-term pleasure for long-term gain. It should be no surprise that this (although present in higher wage earners to some extent) is endemic in the poorer population.
This is where I have a real problem – it is all well and good for well heeled academics to come to this conclusion as they fly to conferences business class and discuss these matters over a sumptuous meals accompanied with fine wines.
Perhaps the poor live lives devoid of many opportunities for “pleasure” and take what little crumbs they may when the opportunity presents.
Ironically, I find that view strangely academic and far removed from reality. Poverty is nowhere near as desperate and dull as that.
Sep 3 09 11:54 am
It is also interesting when you see programmes on obese people who will eat a lot of takeaways, but moan about a weeks worth of healthy groceries costing $200 – “It’s too expensive to eat healthy”. But they appear to worry more about the amount of money changing hands in a single transaction, instead of calculating how much all those pies cost over a week. A lot of these people really do need some education in budgeting, and their perceptions.
An eye-opener for me many years ago, was working in KFC and benefit days were set in stone, DPB day every 2nd Tuesday, and Dole every Thursday – we had to roster extra staff those days. A lot of the people coming in would fit the stereotypes, and would spend a small fortune on that one meal ‘treat’. When you’re on the breadline, you need to apportion your treats appropriately, blowing 10% of your income on one meal is ridiculous. Treats don’t need a monetary value attached, my kids love a picnic, or going to the beach.
Not having seen foodstamps in action, I quite like the idea of them. It comes across as incredibly interfering, but really if you’re relying on handouts, should we not ensure that you meet your needs before your wants?
Sep 3 09 8:23 pm
I think that the fortunate should count their blessings and not look down upon those less fortunateWhich part of “NZ needs change its attitude if it is to work its way back up to being an independent country” don’t you understand?
The biggest problem here is clearly the benefit and Dole. Stop that and the problem goes away. Frankly the idea that we need to stop the poor starving is one of the biggest attitude problems NZ has. In Singapore you work or you starve in the gutter. In NZ you just go on a benefit. that single fact explains most of the economic differences between Singapore and NZ over the last 50 years!
Sep 4 09 8:56 pm
One of the benefits of education is the ability to research ways of providing nutritious, tasty, inexpensive food.
For instance, I can make a delicious, nutritionally balanced soup with red lentils ($2.50), a carrot or two, maybe some pumpkin or potato, and source the rest from garden weeds – onion weed, chickweed, puha, nettles, dandelions, etc.
I know I can do it because I’ve spent a lifetime extending my culinary boundaries because I can read recipe books and can grow and identify garden plants – and weeds.
Because I’m educated I know many of the claims made in food advertising are misleading. There are entire aisles in the supermarket I don’t go near – the soft drink, potato chip and processed food aisles – for example. I know they are laden with sugar and sodium, and various other additives, which are likely to have serious health impacts.
Because I’m educated I can make homemade pizza that is far better than anything I could buy at one of the pizza chains. I can make KFC-type chicken with minimal salt and fat, and no sugar, for a fraction of the cost of the bought variety.
If I had no recipe books I know I could borrow some from the library.
If my only source of information was television I might well conclude that my life might indeed be better if I took advantage of the family pack of KFC for only $29.95 and I would indeed be cool if I washed it down with a 2 litre bottle of Coke.
Each week I read the supermarket catalogues and struggle to find basic nutritious food among all the softdrink, processed food, biscuits and booze which the supermarkets need you to buy to make money. The top selling item in supermarkets is softdrink.
Local DHB staff say they have to work hard to convince patients presenting with various preventable disorders that they need to stop drink 3 x 2 litre bottles of softdrink per day.
I worked briefly for a high school in a lower decile area in the days before they tried to improve school canteen menus. Children with the greatest learning and behavioural difficulties seemed to have endless money to spend on sweets and soft drink at morning break. Late morning, their blood sugar having dived through the floor, their behaviour presented huge problems for teachers and prevented other students from learning. For many of them the parents simply didn’t know how to parent.
Is it poor literacy, a poor grasp, as you say, of short term pain for long term gain (it’s benefit day so we’ll all go to MacDonalds and not think there’ll be no money for food for the rest of the week), or a mindset that says life is so dreadful we might as well live for the moment?
And it isn’t just beneficiaries. There are plenty of employed people eating like this as well.
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