What if we subsidized veggies, fruits, and low-fat meats by

[soccerballtux]

taxing grains and starches like noodles, white bread, and sugar?

This would end the "but it's expensive to eat healthy" and might encourage poor folk to start eating more nutritious meals.
Only fresh produce, no frozen veggies.

 

[glenn1]

Sounds reasonable but you'd probably have to provide training to people how to actually cook reasonably healthy meals. Sad to say but if you gave a basket of produce to many poor people they wouldn't know what half of it was, much less how to prepare it.

And I'm not sure what's causing your animosity towards frozen veggies.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Only fresh produce, no frozen veggies

Depending on the vegetable / preparation process, canned / frozen veggies might experience negligible nutritional loss. Heck, even cooking might remove some of the nutritional value. Why omit canned / frozen veggies, especially ones out-of-season?

 

[Nebor]

IIRC frozen veggies that are flash frozen are virtually identical in nutritional value to fresh veggies.

 

[Infohawk]

I think time is a huge issue for people. Most women work these days. It's faster to get junk fast food or frozen dinners than to cook a full meal with fresh ingredients for a family of four. People drive more and more and their commutes take big chunks out of their day. That's why some diet experts are pushing the idea of making time for meals, etc.

But yeah it would probably be a good idea to tax refined and processed foods at this point with the caveat that if the economy continues to deteriorate you have to allow people to eat cheap calorie-intensive food

 

[soccerballtux]

Depending on the vegetable / preparation process, canned / frozen veggies might experience negligible nutritional loss. Heck, even cooking might remove some of the nutritional value. Why omit canned / frozen veggies, especially ones out-of-season?

mainly because people boil them devoid of any nutritional content?

 

[soccerballtux]

That's why some diet experts are pushing the idea of making time for meals, etc.

why not just get the women out of the workforce? We lost a great deal of such cooking knowledge when they began producing for the country economy instead of the home economy.

 

[soccerballtux]

I think time is a huge issue for people. Most women work these days. It's faster to get junk fast food or frozen dinners than to cook a full meal with fresh ingredients for a family of four. People drive more and more and their commutes take big chunks out of their day. That's why some diet experts are pushing the idea of making time for meals, etc.

But yeah it would probably be a good idea to tax refined and processed foods at this point with the caveat that if the economy continues to deteriorate you have to allow people to eat cheap calorie-intensive food

Decent bread is $4.25/loaf where I buy it. Used to be $2.50. Veggies are definitely cheaper and have not inflated in price. They aren't traded on an open market like grain futures can be. In addition, if you restrict your intake, it's much cheaper to eat whatever it is you eat. That goes a long way towards addressing the "cost" issue [which I think is made up] of eating healthy.

 

[Howard]

why not just get the women out of the workforce? We lost a great deal of such cooking knowledge when they began producing for the country economy instead of the home economy.

One for each sentence.

 

[bfdd]

Uh... I don't eat low fat meats, everything I cook is in butter. I've lost 62 lbs since January 1st and I'm the healthiest I've ever been, minus my IBS. More like cutting out junk, processed crap, HFCS and lots of dense carbs. Though that's up to the person and I don't want to subsidize anyones live style.

 

[PeshakJang]

I say let anybody eat whatever they want, and end government subsidized healthcare.

People will either take better care of themselves, or die off, leaving the rest of us unburdened by their poor choices.

 

[soccerballtux]

taxing grains and starches like noodles, white bread, and sugar?

Uh... I don't eat low fat meats, everything I cook is in butter.

I don't want to subsidize anyones live style.

 

[soccerballtux]

I say let anybody eat whatever they want, and end government subsidized healthcare.

People will either take better care of themselves, or die off, leaving the rest of us unburdened by their poor choices.

this is politically unacceptable.
Taxing the empty carbs to subsidize veggies is something lefties and righties can both agree is "good for the gander"

 

[Schadenfroh]

mainly because people boil them devoid of any nutritional content?

Ahh, raw food advocate are we?

Do not boil vegetables, batter them and deep fry them! Green beans, mushrooms, asparagus, creamed corn, etc. and serve them with a great dipping sauce made from mixing horseradish with ranch dressing.

 

[PeshakJang]

this is politically unacceptable.
Taxing the empty carbs to subsidize veggies is something lefties and righties can both agree is "good for the gander"

No, because that's not what will happen. People will not eat healthier, they will simply buy the same things, then bitch about how much more expensive things are, until the government has to come figure out a way to help by giving them more money.

 

[Fear No Evil]

Loliliberals: Legalize drugs, ban foods.

 

[PeshakJang]

Loliliberals: Legalize drugs, ban foods.

It's always funny... when it comes to things like junk food or guns, we need to ban them or legislate them out of existence because people cannot be trusted with them... yet when it comes to drugs and high-risk sex, we need to educate people to engage in them safely... since they're going to do it anyway.

That's the diseased thinking that #occupies liberals' minds.

 

[bfdd]

if someone is subsidizing the food i eat, i want them to stop. you don't understand what i mean? i do not want to subsidize anyones life style and choosing what you eat is a life style choice.

 

[Fear No Evil]

"Choice" is only a right to liberals when injecting their body with drugs or scraping babies out of their uterus.

 

[cybrsage]

Did you know that some vegetables and fruits become more nutritious when you cook them? Some vegetables require fats to also be ingested in order to be benefitial:

July 27, 2009
Tomatoes are certainly nutritious — a good source of the antioxidants lycopene and beta-carotene. But consider this: if you eat a tomato without adding a little fat — say a drizzle of olive oil — your body is unlikely to absorb all these nutrients.

A recent study in the Journal of Food Science suggests that some cooking methods may be better than others. Researchers at the University of Murcia in Spain cooked 20 different kinds of vegetables six different ways. Then they analyzed how well the foods retained antioxidants. They found that microwaving helped maintain the antioxidants, whereas boiling and pressure cooking led to the greatest losses.
Green beans, beets and garlic all did well with heat — maintaining beneficial phytonutrients after most kinds of cooking. The antioxidant value in carrots actually increased after cooking.
Experts explain that boiling may allow nutrients to leach into the pan water that people end up tossing out, especially with water-soluble nutrients such as Vitamin C and the B Vitamins.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106968683

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Because we don't legislate for whats best for the people we legislate for whats best for the corps + lobbyists.

 

[zsdersw]

Not all vegetables are the most nutritious when raw. Carrots, for example, are better for you cooked than raw.

 

[zsdersw]

I say let anybody eat whatever they want, and end government subsidized healthcare.

People will either take better care of themselves, or die off, leaving the rest of us unburdened by their poor choices.

This.

It's always funny... when it comes to things like junk food or guns, we need to ban them or legislate them out of existence because people cannot be trusted with them... yet when it comes to drugs and high-risk sex, we need to educate people to engage in them safely... since they're going to do it anyway.

That's the diseased thinking that #occupies liberals' minds.

There's plenty of hypocrisy on your side of the table when it comes to personal freedom, too.

 

[Leymenaide]

taxing grains and starches like noodles, white bread, and sugar?

We do subsidize meat veggies and fruit. Ever hear of the highway system. Massive - western irrigation projects. I have to pay for irrigation in the east. The grain that goes into meat production is subsidized. I know farmer after farmer in the mid-west who claim they have paid their entire cost of production from programs before they plant a crop.(corn) The rich take care of the rich. That goes for mega –agra.

 

[Texashiker]

This would end the "but it's expensive to eat healthy" and might encourage poor folk to start eating more nutritious meals. Only fresh produce, no frozen veggies.

Its not that fresh fruits and veggies are too expensive, its that food in a can is convenient.

When mom and dad come home from work, its easier to fix little johnny a can or ravioli then it is to fix a fresh cooked meal.

Our whole system needs an overhaul to fix a lot of our problems.

A few years ago there was a discussion in the news if all of the women in the US would stay at home with the family, this would create a workforce deficient, and wages would have to go up.

I have nothing against women working, but when both parents went into the workforce, this drove the number of available workers up, and drove wages down.

There have been theories that womens lib did more damage to the family then ever intended. Its one thing for women to get an education and enter the workforce, its a whole other thing for companies to have people begging for a job.

To fix the obesity issue and junk food issue, the man or woman of the household should stay at home and take care of the nest. This would reduce the number of people looking for jobs, drive up wages to attract available workers, and ensure someone is at home to take care of the kids.

~ EDIT ~

If you want to subsidize something, give a tax break to people who plant a home garden and grow their own food.

If you have a farm, you can write seeds, fertilizer, farm tools off your income taxes. But everyday people who live in the suburbs need some kind incentive to grow their own food.

The US needs to return back to a simpler lifestyle, and part of that means growing your own food. Why should the focus be on buying food from the grocery store? By buying food, people are not learning anything. We need to get people back to planting, growing and eating their own food.