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.
On a straight cash basis, you are correct. If you're looking to feed a family of 4 on frozen dinners, your paying (looking at my grocery store's website) about $10 for the meal ($2-$3 per meal). If instead you take $20 (so 2 dinners worth), you could instead get a 5 lb whole chicken, a 4 lb bag of potatoes, and 2 lbs of dried beans, and you'd still have $5 left over for other stuff. And that should have no issues feeding your family 2 dinners.
I think a big part of the "cost", though, is not just the financial costs but rather the time costs to prep it. Yeah, cooking up beans, chicken and potatoes is not especially difficult but it does take time. And I think more than just snobbishness (though, there's some of that - a lot of people will scoff at chicken and beans when they have an option for steak), its that many people just don't want to put in the time to soak the beans, cook the chicken, mash the potatoes, etc. when instead they can just stick the TV dinner trays in the microwave.
And it's not just a cooking knowledge thing (though I know a ton of people who are terrified to do anything in the kitchen), but a laziness thing - just look at things like Grubhub, Uber Eats, etc. Their whole business model pretty much comes down to "oh, you don't want to go down the street to get takeout, so pay me to do it for you", and last year Grubhub was apparently averaging 623,000 orders per day.
Our local grocery store has steamer bags of chicken, seafood, veggies, potato's. Grab, come home, put in oven for 25 minutes and done. Usually get two meals out of it and works out to be about $3/person per meal. Less if you just do the meat and then fix a baked potato to go with it.
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.
On a straight cash basis, you are correct. If you're looking to feed a family of 4 on frozen dinners, your paying (looking at my grocery store's website) about $10 for the meal ($2-$3 per meal). If instead you take $20 (so 2 dinners worth), you could instead get a 5 lb whole chicken, a 4 lb bag of potatoes, and 2 lbs of dried beans, and you'd still have $5 left over for other stuff. And that should have no issues feeding your family 2 dinners.
I think a big part of the "cost", though, is not just the financial costs but rather the time costs to prep it. Yeah, cooking up beans, chicken and potatoes is not especially difficult but it does take time. And I think more than just snobbishness (though, there's some of that - a lot of people will scoff at chicken and beans when they have an option for steak), its that many people just don't want to put in the time to soak the beans, cook the chicken, mash the potatoes, etc. when instead they can just stick the TV dinner trays in the microwave.
And it's not just a cooking knowledge thing (though I know a ton of people who are terrified to do anything in the kitchen), but a laziness thing - just look at things like Grubhub, Uber Eats, etc. Their whole business model pretty much comes down to "oh, you don't want to go down the street to get takeout, so pay me to do it for you", and last year Grubhub was apparently averaging 623,000 orders per day.
Our local grocery store has steamer bags of chicken, seafood, veggies, potato's. Grab, come home, put in oven for 25 minutes and done. Usually get two meals out of it and works out to be about $3/person per meal. Less if you just do the meat and then fix a baked potato to go with it.