Why is Trump going out of his way to make people suffer?

[southernhybrid]

Maybe we need a thread about SNAP. One problem is that most people have no knowledge of basic nutrition, and/or they were raised to eat a lot of junk food. I love vegetables and I usually just microwave them and then put a little bit of parmesan cheese on top for some extra flavor. I love beans and rice, two very cheap foods which are healthy. Chicken isn't very expensive and it's easy to bake, grill or stir fry with veggies. Eat whole grain bread instead of white bread. Peanut butter is cheap and adds some protein to the bread, as does melted cheddar cheese. Nuts are healthy and peanuts are very cheap, and healthy if eaten in moderation. That's a few examples of healthy, cheap food.

People are often addicted to sweets and sodas. That is one huge problem when it comes to obesity. Eating fast food is also a problem as well as eating at buffets. I donated to our local food bank twice this week and yes, the lines were full of obese people. That is probably because they have no idea how to eat healthy food. Plus sweets and soda are very addictive and often on sale at low prices. Obesity is a very complicated disease, and while I'm slim, I do my best not to fat shame. It's a disease and perhaps if we started teaching kids about nutrition at an early age it would help.

People are also not as active as they once were, and that adds to the obesity problem. Trump is obese himself, and eats a very unhealthy diet. He lies about his weight. He's a pathological liar and a very mentally deranged individual who sadly manipulated a lot of people into believing his lies. He has symptoms of psychopathy, so he's not capable of having empathy. It's believed that psychopathy is a disease of the frontal cortex, despite not being listed as a mental illness. I think it is one.

But, there is good news. So far, every Democrat in major races is winning, including the governor of Virginia, NJ, and several others in those states. The two Dems in Georgia who were running for positions on the Georgia Public Service Commission are way ahead of the Republicans. Mamdani is leading by a good margin with 36% of the votes in. And, of course, the fucking Republicans are claiming the election has been rigged with lots of fraud without a shred of evidence.

One more thing, Trump's approval rating in the most recent poll is 37%. I don't know how he even gets that much, but I know a few MAGAs and one big problem is they watch Newmax, aka Fox on steroids.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

From what I've seen, most of the SNAP recipients could do with some fasting.

No. Fasting isn't recommended for anybody. Your body can't cope with the swings. 7 days without food and you are at risk of things going haywire when you have food again.

Or is the goal to kill them with plausible (to the MAGAs, we would know better) deniability?

I know three people on benefits.

1) Mid 80s. Bad auto accident in his 60s ended his working time.

2) Cerebral palsy. She can to some degree interact with a specialized computer, but not to the point of being productive.

3) I don't know exactly what's wrong but her mental abilities are enough for minimal productivity at Opportunity Village type stuff, not enough to ever be actually capable of supporting herself.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Part of the problem is access to healthy food.

I highly doubt that access to healthy food is a problem for most Americans.

Healthy food almost universally requires either spending a fair amount more money or a fair amount more prep time.

 

[WAB]

Some people just aren't that fussy about food. One shouldn't assume that if a person has a careless attitude towards food that they are ignorant of basic nutrition.

My eating habits are awful, and my work experience is almost all in healthcare foodservice, as a cook, team leader, and department manager. I never base my food choices on what's good for me. Literally never. I eat what I like.

I am NOT saying that's a good thing. It's bloody awful! But it is what it is.

 

[excreationist]

If it's just about your weight I think what matters is calories, not necessarily what is healthy (but ideally both). I think sumos eat a healthy diet (besides beer and occasionally fried foods). I calorie count but it is to not lose weight (I need about 12,000 kJ/day to maintain 71 kg though the BMR is 7,000 kJ/day)

 

[TV and credit cards]

From what I've seen, most of the SNAP recipients could do with some fasting.

Assuming that wasn't just a crude statement.

Part of the problem is access to healthy food.

I highly doubt that access to healthy food is a problem for most Americans.

To dispel your doubt you could look at poor neighborhoods you are familiar with on google maps and see what is available.
If you want to understand why people do not eat healthy food you could read Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us.
And bear in mind, most fruits and vegetables are bred to look good not taste good. Further, if a person is on a tight budget they are out of necessity going to go for what fills them up not what keeps them healthy. I've been on one meal a day. Bet your ass I was going for an extra value meal at McD's.

 

[southernhybrid]

One more thing, other than the disabled, older adults and children, the few people I've known who received SNAP were working in full time jobs. One told me she was embarrassed about getting it. I told her if her cheap ass employer had paid her a living wage, she wouldn't have needed it. Sometimes SNAP is a type of welfare for cheap employers who don't pay their employees what they deserve.

 

[TSwizzle]

From what I've seen, most of the SNAP recipients could do with some fasting.

Assuming that wasn't just a crude statement.

Part of the problem is access to healthy food.

I highly doubt that access to healthy food is a problem for most Americans.

To dispel your doubt you could look at poor neighborhoods you are familiar with on google maps and see what is available.

Plenty of obese folks wandering around Disneyland and on cruises. People eat crap for all sorts of reasons, saying they don’t have access to healthy food is a poor excuse and is a cop out.

If you want to understand why people do not eat healthy food you could read Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us.
And bear in mind, most fruits and vegetables are bred to look good not taste good. Further, if a person is on a tight budget they are out of necessity going to go for what fills them up not what keeps them healthy. I've been on one meal a day. Bet your ass I was going for an extra value meal at McD's.

Nothing wrong with a McDonald’s from time to time. But fat lazy fucks eating it four times a day is going to be a problem.

 

[excreationist]

To dispel your doubt you could look at poor neighborhoods you are familiar with on google maps and see what is available.

This video compares US convience foods to Japan. In Japan it is very easy to find convient affordable healthy foods including in vending machines. They also have smaller servings and have foods that are less sweet (less sugar). School lunches are also very healthy while US kids can have lots of junk food and soft drinks. This could train them to eat more junk food when away from school and when they grow up. Perhaps this is related to obesity in Japan being rare.

 

[ideologyhunter]

I thought it was common knowledge that food deserts are real and affect many impoverished Americans, especially in small towns and rural areas. If you live in a town with no grocery store, your closest food store is going to be a convenience store or gas station mini-mart, and your access to fresh nutritional food is going to be compromised. Mini-marts don't carry produce. They're going to have frozen junk like Hot Pockets or pizza bites, a few canned goods like Spaghettios, and boxed stuff like Pop Tarts or mac 'n' powdered cheese. I drive through towns like these all the time. Not all the parents have the time, opportunity or transportation to make regular trips out of town to shop for good food. A lot of people are in that bind; this has been covered in news reports and documentaries. It is a real and common dilemma for many people, both on and off the SNAP program.
A trio of docs, easy to access, and all made between 2012 and 2014, outlined the problem a decade ago -- and things haven't improved. The best one, especially on the concept of food desert, is probably A Place at the Table (2012.) Expanding the subject to sugar consumption are Fed Up (2014) and Overfed and Undernourished (2014). Watch any one of these films and you will have a good idea of how difficult it can be to eat healthy in this country, depending on where you live.

 

[Shadowy Man]

those lazy fatties should just move to a better location. But I guess they’re too lazy to do that.

</sarcasm> just in case it’s not obvious.

 

[excreationist]

BTW 42% of American adults are obese and 74% are overweight or obese...

 

[crazyfingers]

To dispel your doubt you could look at poor neighborhoods you are familiar with on google maps and see what is available.

This video compares US convience foods to Japan. In Japan it is very easy to find convient affordable healthy foods including in vending machines. They also have smaller servings and have foods that are less sweet (less sugar). School lunches are also very healthy while US kids can have lots of junk food and soft drinks. This could train them to eat more junk food when away from school and when they grow up. Perhaps this is related to obesity in Japan being rare.

My last 10 something years going to Japan I pretty much had 7-11 dinners every night. Yummy.

 

[Playball40]

From what I've seen, most of the SNAP recipients could do with some fasting.

Assuming that wasn't just a crude statement.

Part of the problem is access to healthy food.

I highly doubt that access to healthy food is a problem for most Americans.

To dispel your doubt you could look at poor neighborhoods you are familiar with on google maps and see what is available.

Plenty of obese folks wandering around Disneyland and on cruises. People eat crap for all sorts of reasons, saying they don’t have access to healthy food is a poor excuse and is a cop out.

If you want to understand why people do not eat healthy food you could read Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us.
And bear in mind, most fruits and vegetables are bred to look good not taste good. Further, if a person is on a tight budget they are out of necessity going to go for what fills them up not what keeps them healthy. I've been on one meal a day. Bet your ass I was going for an extra value meal at McD's.

Nothing wrong with a McDonald’s from time to time. But fat lazy fucks eating it four times a day is going to be a problem.

Fat does not equal lazy.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Fat does not equal lazy.

It does to people who don't know how to engage with nuanced subject matter.

 

[bilby]

Life is like a box of chocolates. It doesn't last as long when you're fat.

 

[southernhybrid]

There are many eating disorders, regardless of income or education. One is compulsive eating. I had a friend back in the late 70s who was very obese, which was quite rare in those days. He did lose over 200 lbs in less than a year. He did it be eating nothing but chicken broth during the day and then going to a salad bar buffet after swimming at the YMCA for an hour or two.

He told me that he simply could eat just a small serving of ice cream. He felt like to had to finish the entire container once he opened it up. That was one example he gave me of his compulsive eating. Sadly, my friend starting regaining the weight back and the last time I saw him he had probably gained back about half of it. Imo, that is an eating disorder, and it seems as if this is common these days, although I don't think we understand why. Plus, when one gains and loses weight again and again, I've read that it can slow down one's metabolism on a permanent basis, making it far more difficult to lost weight.

I also think restaurant food is a big problem If you ever read the caloric content in chain restaurants, it's extremely high. For example, once in awhile we eat at the local Applebees. They have a salad which has over 1300 calories and that doesn't include the bread sticks it comes with. When I order that, I take half of it home, but I've been obsessed with maintaining a healthy weight for most of my adult life. Not everyone has that discipline.

When I go to a nearby buffet, I eat one piece of chicken, some kale salad, some collard greens and maybe a small serving of beans, with a very small piece of pie. I order water with my meal. But, I see other mostly obese people take huge servings and go back many times to fill their plates. If I lacked discipline, I would never eat in such a place.

Obesity runs in my family. One of my grandmothers was quite obese. One of my sisters had weight loss surgery and she was one of the rare success stories who kept the weight off. My other sister weighed over 300 lbs, then lost over 100 on Weight Watchers. Sadly, she was diagnosed with kIdney cancer about a year later. Obesity is a huge risk factor for kidney cancer. There is some evidence that obesity has a genetic link in some cases. I was lucky as I am a lot like my late mother who was thin for most of her life, gained some weight in middle age and then lost it, just like I did.

None of the people I've known who are obese are the least bit lazy. Other than the sister who died from cancer, the others all worked full time, some in very stressful jobs. Several of my close friend are obese and none of them are lazy.

Another thing that most people don't understand is that skipping meals slows down your metabolism, it's better to eat several small meals a day instead of one large meal in most cases. I am skeptical that fasting diets work, at least not for most people. I was slightly overweight in my 40s, so I ate small meals at least 3 or 4 times a day and took very long walks on my days off from work.

I started doing aerobics about 16 years ago. At one point, my weight was too low, so I slowed down a bit and got to what I consider a good weight. We don't know enough about why some people over eat, why some people are prone to obesity etc. I know it can be hard to look at someone who weighs 5 or 600 lbs and not judge them, but fat shaming is probably the worst thing to do if we want to help someone who suffers from obesity. I will admit it's hard for me to understand how someone lets themselves get that overweight, but we don't have all the answers. The new weight loss drugs seem to work but we don't know the long term side effects. I do think that physical exercise is vitally important for many health reasons, even if one is obese. There are quite a few obese women in my aerobics group. I'm just glad to see them getting some physical activity.

One more thing, people who suffer from diseases like RA, usually take a lot of steroids, which usually leads to excessive weight gain. I also learned recently that the drug Lyrica aka pregabalin also causes most people to gain a lot of weight. It's an anti convulsant that is also often used for pain control. So, in some cases, medications cause weight gain. Of course, with the Republicans cutting back on M'caid and making the ACA unaffordable, it will be more difficult for people to get some of these potentially life saving drugs. Obviously our health care system, which was never that great, is getting worse now that we have a cruel incompetent man in charge. The obesity epidemic is making health care far more expensive, so I hope medical science will find more about the causes and ways to fight obesity.

Are we off topic enough yet?

 

[ZiprHead]

Life is like a box of chocolates. It doesn't last as long when you're fat.

Fuck you.

I'm fat and I absolutely hate chocolate.

JK

 

[TSwizzle]

Fat does not equal lazy.

Well what does being obese fat say about most people? I think it says they spend too much time sitting on their fat ass playing on their PlayStation stuffing their face with Ring Dings, Twinkies and the like.

 

[excreationist]

fat shaming is probably the worst thing to do if we want to help someone who suffers from obesity

It might hurt their feelings but it could be effective at least at first. I think the worst thing you can do is to say nothing and offer them food (being an "enabler"). Other possibilities involve suggesting different alternatives and not buy them food that is too high calorie. Fat shaming could make them anorexic but you'd get a bit of notice if they had been obese and they're approaching a normal weight. So once they reach normal weight make sure they don't lose any more weight at all - even a couple of kgs. I think there are different degrees of fat shaming - some can be indirect. You could talk about being "healthy" (that implies it is bad to be overweight).
BTW in the book quoted in post #40 it says:

Obesity, he realized, isn’t the fire. It’s the smoke