Alarmingly high proportions

September 21, 2015 9:35 AM

"There's a popular narrative about poor families and fast food: They eat more of it than anybody else. It’s dangled as evidence for the high rate of obesity among poorer Americans -- and talked about even by some of the country’s foremost voices on food. "[J]unk food is cheaper when measured by the calorie, and that this makes fast food essential for the poor because they need cheap calories," wrote Mark Bittman for The New York Times in 2011 But there’s a problem with saying that poor people like fast food better than others. It’s not true."
posted by almostmanda (35 comments total)

From the article: Rich parents might roll their eyes at Big Macs and french fries, but it's their kids who like them most.

Surely the data reflects who can afford to eat fast food the most often rather than who likes it the most.
posted by straight at 9:59 AM on September 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

I wonder if this will alter their marketing strategies.

In a new study, a team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Arizona State University found that fast food chains in predominantly black neighborhoods were more than 60 percent more likely to advertise to children than in predominantly white neighborhoods. The researchers also found that fast food restaurants in middle- and low-income areas tended to direct their ads toward children more often than those in high-income neighborhoods, and those in rural communities tended to market their products to kids more often than those in more urban settings.

posted by zarq at 10:00 AM on September 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

I have so many questions. When they say 'fast food' are they counting corner bodegas? Is there a separate grouping for junk food like chips and candy? Is there a more specific age breakdown than 2-11? I would imagine once kids hit school, things would change.

I can't find this information on the CDC page, but I'm not really sure what the name of the document I'm looking for would be called.
posted by lownote at 10:01 AM on September 21, 2015 [6 favorites]

Is anyone really surprised that dual-income households outsource cooking and cleaning?
posted by pwnguin at 10:06 AM on September 21, 2015 [4 favorites]

> What? It's delicious. It tastes so good

As my wife once said, everyone loves salted fat.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:08 AM on September 21, 2015 [6 favorites]

Everyone eats fast food, but the economic issues of the cheap calories matter to poorer households.
posted by Dip Flash at 10:09 AM on September 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

Just this past weekend I had high end fried chicken with a hybrid nashville/indian sauce with naan and butter paneer - cheese in a cream sauce (Pub Royale for the chicago mefites- highly recommend). It won't show up in a food shaming category but it was probably about 1200kcals with more than the RDA of fat and salt.

The people who criticize big macs probably still go to au cheval and get the double burger with cheese, bacon and fried egg. If they don't then they are dumb as well as mean.
posted by srboisvert at 10:10 AM on September 21, 2015 [9 favorites]

lownote, try the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey's Flexible Consumer Behavior Survey (FCBS) Module (.pdf).
posted by MonkeyToes at 10:12 AM on September 21, 2015

Anyone have any info on the Healthy Eating Index mentioned in the article? For the layperson, that it. I found some links, but they seemed mostly aimed at researchers. For instance, in this fact sheet is the max score supposed to be the calories in the portion mention divided by 1,000, or is it "if you get 1,000 calories from this source you get the max score"?


....okay basically what I really want is some kind of widget so I can see where my own diet ranks. But that seems to be out of the question.
posted by Diablevert at 10:14 AM on September 21, 2015 [3 favorites]

This is kinda dumb, it seems like outrage looking for a place to hang it's hat. Sure, everyone seems to like fast food, I'd wager that kids from higher income families in addition to getting mnore calories from fast food, get more calories from fresh fruits/vegetables/nutritious food than kids from poor families.
posted by Keith Talent at 10:17 AM on September 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thanks, MonkeyToes. That's informative. I wonder how many parents think their kids are eating school breakfast/lunch when they're really eating something much more sugary between the nearby store and school entrance.
posted by lownote at 10:18 AM on September 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

some kind of widget so I can see where my own diet ranks

Diablevert, something like this?
posted by MonkeyToes at 10:18 AM on September 21, 2015

This is kinda dumb, it seems like outrage looking for a place to hang it's hat.

Seems more like a data-driven refutation of outrage to me, but YMMV.
posted by Etrigan at 10:18 AM on September 21, 2015 [6 favorites]

The category of "fast food" has even less relevance today than ever. In fact, measuring home-prepared meals against meals eaten out also means much less than it used to, because "home-prepared" meals and ingredients have been creeping gradually toward similar nutritional and flavor profiles as restaurant food.

If you get a carry-out container of chicken fingers from the supermarket and serve it at your home, is that a "home cooked" meal? What about tacos from a kit? Pillsbury crescent rolls? Are Oscar Mayer Lunchables "fast food"? What are they, exactly?

And what about a nice homemade lasagna with lots of crumbled Italian sausage and cheese in it? Odds are that the home cook is more likely now than ever to make it BIG, make it TASTY, with lots of salt and extra fat by virtue of the ingredients.

I think the invocations against "fast" food and "processed" food are less useful than the recognition of the concept of "food reward." Neurological and metabolic research continues to show that the body and brain get really messed up when there is an overabundance of extremely delicious food. It doesn't matter at all what the "quality" of that food is—what matters is the pleasurable reinforcement effect of eating it. Food reward knows no socioeconomic status. It's there in the improvisational foods of the worst kinds of poverty (ever had frybread?) and in the excesses of obscene wealth. It's there in a Big Mac and it's there in truffled mac n' cheese at the most artisinal hipster gastropub.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 10:21 AM on September 21, 2015 [24 favorites]

Overeducated_alligator: There was a category for prepared meals from the grocery store as well, so at least the interviewers recognized that home cooking does not equal grab and go/heat grocery food.
posted by lownote at 10:23 AM on September 21, 2015

I'd wager that kids from higher income families in addition to getting mnore calories from fast food, get more calories from fresh fruits/vegetables/nutritious food than kids from poor families.

I think the whole point of this article is that we probably shouldn't be paying attention to such wagers (e.g. Bittman's) without having the facts at hand.
posted by griphus at 10:29 AM on September 21, 2015 [5 favorites]

Diablevert, something like this?

That thing is horrifying. 2 cups of fruit per day? 5 1/2 oz of protein? Is the purpose of this diet to give me kwashiorkor and then kill me with explosive acidic poop?

one egg? oNE EGG? who wrote this, hitler? one ounce of meat?
posted by poffin boffin at 10:31 AM on September 21, 2015 [12 favorites]

And what about a nice homemade lasagna with lots of crumbled Italian sausage and cheese in it?

That's still not likely to have the insane salt and sugar content of supermarket versions, which wouldn't taste of anything much if they didn't put so much in.

Everyone likes a Big Mac and I think the stuff that's killing us may be more likely to come from supermarkets, like breaded chicken and horsemeat pies.
posted by colie at 10:47 AM on September 21, 2015

Facts are important--assuming the conclusions of this research hold up in a general way re: nutrition, the implications for public health may be big stuff. For instance it immediately makes me think of all the ways that economic advantages allow my family to get exercise: free time for hiking and biking, pool memberships and fees for swim teams, equipment etc. Importantly, the most crucial ingredient in getting healthy exercise in my own experience, is security (economic and otherwise.) At times in my life when I was really concerned about having energy or strength for making it through the next few days, that's when I was least likely to get out and jog, and my health suffered. I felt instinctively that I had better ration my energy use (partly in order to make it available to those around me), even though what I actually needed was probably mental strength and a run would have helped.
posted by TreeRooster at 10:53 AM on September 21, 2015 [3 favorites]

Fast food is an expensive source of unhealthy calories. All the poor kids in my little town growing up were getting theirs from Kraft Dinner.
posted by clawsoon at 11:03 AM on September 21, 2015

(We were poor, too, but we were "plant a huge garden and trade mechanic work for a side of local beef" poor, not Kraft Dinner poor. Same money, different food.)
posted by clawsoon at 11:04 AM on September 21, 2015

> Everyone likes a Big Mac and I think the stuff that's killing us may be more likely to come from supermarkets, like breaded chicken and horsemeat pies.

The Toronto Star has a semi-regular column named The Dish, wherein they analyze the nutritional content of various restaurant meals. Sometimes Big Macs are used as a unit of measurement - "eg. [Meal] has as much sodium as six Big Macs" - and they come off as not that bad, in a relative sense.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:20 AM on September 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

Calories count, but so do nutrients: "The poor are eating less nutritious food than everyone else."

And, because I hope more people find this, ideas for nutritious eating on a budget: Good and Cheap (.pdf).
posted by MonkeyToes at 11:34 AM on September 21, 2015 [10 favorites]

And, because I hope more people find this, ideas for nutritious eating on a budget: Good and Cheap (.pdf).

That's a great link -- thanks for posting it!
posted by holborne at 12:05 PM on September 21, 2015

Quite frankly, the thing that is alarming is the amount of classism, racism, and sexism that is baked into our national discussions on diet, health, and nutrition.
posted by drlith at 12:21 PM on September 21, 2015 [15 favorites]

ONE EGG
posted by poffin boffin at 12:29 PM on September 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

ONE EGG

Is that a threat or a promise?
posted by Frowner at 12:42 PM on September 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

Also, I think they let you eat more than one, or none at all.
posted by Frowner at 12:43 PM on September 21, 2015

ONE EGG

Hey, it's un oeuf for the French.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:45 PM on September 21, 2015 [25 favorites]

the other day when i got home from the gym i was so hungry that i was afraid i might die before i finished preparing dinner so i had 4 eggs as an appetizer

the fact that i didn't drink them raw is the last bastion of hope to which i cling
posted by poffin boffin at 1:35 PM on September 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

What do you do at the gym? That's a LOT of eggs.

Although I once had six scrambled in a time of hunger and deep personal disorganization.
posted by Frowner at 1:37 PM on September 21, 2015

it was leg day.
posted by poffin boffin at 4:03 PM on September 21, 2015

I felt instinctively that I had better ration my energy use (partly in order to make it available to those around me), even though what I actually needed was probably mental strength and a run would have helped.

Yeah, exactly. I was well into my thirties when I realized that exercise actually yielded more energy. I wrongly had reasoned the same thing, that exercising would take energy from other things, but, in fact, I slept better, ate better, and was clearer-thinking when I got regular exercise. That's when I started to schedule it like I plan meals and sleep. I've been better off for it.
posted by Mental Wimp at 4:09 PM on September 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

So displays of cultural capital in the form of contempt for "disgusting" fast food intersect with an array of condescending and alienating notions of folk who live in poverty?

This is my surprised face.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 6:26 PM on September 21, 2015 [3 favorites]

Good and Cheap previously
Its a great cookbook.
posted by coleboptera at 11:41 PM on September 21, 2015