“The most important predictor of obesity remains income level. Fast-food companies are dropping obscene amounts on advertising in low-income communities of color, and are targeting children. African-American kids see at least 50 percent more fast-food ads than do white children their age. A full 25 percent of all Spanish-language fast-food advertising in the U.S. is from McDonalds, and the average Latino will see about 290 McDonalds ads a year. In 2006, 9 percent of Upper East Side residents were obese, compared with 21 percent and 30 percent in East and Central Harlem and North and Central Brooklyn, two of the poorest stretches of New York City. Only 5 percent of Upper East Side residents had diabetes, compared to 10 percent and 15 percent in Harlem and Brooklyn. In these neighborhoods, between 1985 and 2000, the cost of fruits and vegetables increased by 40 percent while the price of junk food and soft drinks decreased by 15 percent and 25 percent respectively.” – Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, “Seeing Red”
The fat of the land
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2 thoughts on “The fat of the land”
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The calorie dense/nutritionally void food industry in this country makes me sick. And what’s a low-income mother to do, when a sackful of pears costs more than an entire meal for her kids—assuming she can get her hands on fresh fruit at all. She’s got to feed the family as best she can with what’s available. And as soon as someone like Michelle Obama tries to address the issue of health and obesity, the nutjobs on the right start screaming about our liberties, as if our right to fries is being infringed upon by those goddamn liberal vegetable-growers.
Swear to god, T. I hardly know where I’m living anymore.
you’re living in the hell known as the promised land. someday a real rain will come…