Quote:
Originally Posted by TheSecondHalf
I think maybe you can't imagine that there are people who don't live more or less like you do. I understand that. I have been there. I've also moved around a bit and faced to total impossibility of explaining how different things are from where I grew up or where I most recently lived. There are differences you can't even think of until you live them. When someone once told me there was literally no option for fresh food that didn't involve dragging her two kids across town via 3 bus transfers (and a few hours) and then dragging them and the groceries home again I thought it just couldn't be possible.
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I find this interesting. One thing I remember, was reading an article from a trainer (based in California) that one should always use fresh fruits and vegetables. Now, I live in Quebec, and when you go north here into the Inuit communities, a head of iceberg lettuce can actually cost up to $10. Okay, they can walk to their store. Now, what about a woman who lives in nowhereseville, and doesn't have a vehicle. Can she just walk her 3 kids to the store at a whim's notice? I find this difficult and I have only 2 kids and a car
I also think a lot of the problems just come down to misinformation at the end of the day. We have to be careful to stereotype the poor as just "too stupid/ignorant" to understand health and nutrition, I think sometimes we can get into that side of it and that's not fair either. I grew up poor - poor enough that my mom was a "freegan". I thought a can of mushroom soup was perfectly adequate dairy and vegetable servings. I wasn't dumb, but nobody told me different and I didn't think to look it up (mind you, this was also back before all food camewith nutrition labels and to "look things up" you had to pull out a ..... BOOK!).
I have a book for my 3 year old and you sit with Elmo at the breakfast table and we talk about yummy things to eat. Normally, he likes Cheerios. Elmo had a whole wheat bagel and he decided he wanted one too. Wow! Maybe these kinds of books could go in a classroom? Now, I know somewhere, someone will remark about the wheat/corn industry having a hand in that and I don't disagree... but it's a start.