Because parents don't want to be a parent and learn how to cook proper meals for their kids. They'd rather go grab a bag of frozen chicken nuggets, a box of Kraft mac & cheese, and a bag of frozen french fries and run them all through the microwave to feed to their spoiled brats (who, in turn, throw a fit if you try to feed them anything else).
Pretty much all pre-packaged convenience food in the US is crammed FULL of salt, fat, and carbs, and it totally horrible for you. It's also, paradoxically, some of the least expensive food you can buy, so it's not uncommon for those in the lower income brackets who live on government subsidies to buy said lower-priced foods with their handout.
My wife worked at a grocery store in her younger years. She said it wasn't uncommon to see welfare queens come rolling through the checkout with cartloads of soda, chips, and frozen heat-and-eat foods in addition to blowing their stipend on other extravagant items they wouldn't be able to afford otherwise, such steaks. I know the rules have changed somewhat in more recent years and prevent them from buying some of that stuff, so they just double down on the things they can buy with it.
That being said: I'm not saying that every person on welfare/foodstamps is the same. I know there are a lot of people out there that are making the best of a bad situation. It's just a damn shame when the ones that are abusing the system give those who are using it properly a bad name.
It's also, paradoxically, some of the least expensive food you can buy, so it's not uncommon for those in the lower income brackets who live on government subsidies to buy said lower-priced foods with their handout.
This myth needs to die. There is much cheaper, much healthier food out there. It's just that nobody will eat it any more.
What did poor people used to eat? Big vats of beans, legumes, rice, or other staples. Organ meat. Pork and chicken skin. All very nutritious, all very cheap. But even the poorest American wouldn't be caught dead eating chitlins or tripe these days. They'd literally rather starve. The only people eating yesterday's poverty food are immigrants who haven't been softened up by the rat utopia yet.
This myth needs to die. There is much cheaper, much healthier food out there. It's just that nobody will eat it any more.
Oh, no argument there. When I was living solo back in college and barely scraping by paycheck to paycheck I was buying bags of rice, beans, and the "use it today or freeze it" pounds of ground beef or chicken quarters at the store, along with the spices to make dirty rice or red beans and rice. I survived on that stuff for years. It was monotonous as hell, but I knew it was nutritious and it'd keep me alive.
But I had a few advantages over a lot of people on government assistance:
I had half a clue about nutritional value.
I had half a clue about the value of a dollar (since it was coming out of my pocket and not from Uncle Sam).
My mom actually taught me how to cook when I was a kid, and drilled it into my head that it wasn't going to be my wife or girlfriend's responsibility to feed me.
Most of the people you see out there on government assistance that are buying up convenience food are either too uneducated to know about food values, too uneducated to know how to cook, and/or too lazy to learn or care about either. They'd rather just grab their bag of chips and 2-liter, and throw a TV dinner in the microwave than take the time to cook a meal.
Why was the overweight and obesity at 36% before pandemic? That seems insane. Maybe just overweight?
Because parents don't want to be a parent and learn how to cook proper meals for their kids. They'd rather go grab a bag of frozen chicken nuggets, a box of Kraft mac & cheese, and a bag of frozen french fries and run them all through the microwave to feed to their spoiled brats (who, in turn, throw a fit if you try to feed them anything else).
Pretty much all pre-packaged convenience food in the US is crammed FULL of salt, fat, and carbs, and it totally horrible for you. It's also, paradoxically, some of the least expensive food you can buy, so it's not uncommon for those in the lower income brackets who live on government subsidies to buy said lower-priced foods with their handout.
My wife worked at a grocery store in her younger years. She said it wasn't uncommon to see welfare queens come rolling through the checkout with cartloads of soda, chips, and frozen heat-and-eat foods in addition to blowing their stipend on other extravagant items they wouldn't be able to afford otherwise, such steaks. I know the rules have changed somewhat in more recent years and prevent them from buying some of that stuff, so they just double down on the things they can buy with it.
That being said: I'm not saying that every person on welfare/foodstamps is the same. I know there are a lot of people out there that are making the best of a bad situation. It's just a damn shame when the ones that are abusing the system give those who are using it properly a bad name.
This myth needs to die. There is much cheaper, much healthier food out there. It's just that nobody will eat it any more.
What did poor people used to eat? Big vats of beans, legumes, rice, or other staples. Organ meat. Pork and chicken skin. All very nutritious, all very cheap. But even the poorest American wouldn't be caught dead eating chitlins or tripe these days. They'd literally rather starve. The only people eating yesterday's poverty food are immigrants who haven't been softened up by the rat utopia yet.
Even our poor and homeless are entitled snobs.
Oh, no argument there. When I was living solo back in college and barely scraping by paycheck to paycheck I was buying bags of rice, beans, and the "use it today or freeze it" pounds of ground beef or chicken quarters at the store, along with the spices to make dirty rice or red beans and rice. I survived on that stuff for years. It was monotonous as hell, but I knew it was nutritious and it'd keep me alive.
But I had a few advantages over a lot of people on government assistance:
I had half a clue about nutritional value.
I had half a clue about the value of a dollar (since it was coming out of my pocket and not from Uncle Sam).
My mom actually taught me how to cook when I was a kid, and drilled it into my head that it wasn't going to be my wife or girlfriend's responsibility to feed me.
Most of the people you see out there on government assistance that are buying up convenience food are either too uneducated to know about food values, too uneducated to know how to cook, and/or too lazy to learn or care about either. They'd rather just grab their bag of chips and 2-liter, and throw a TV dinner in the microwave than take the time to cook a meal.