Yep, but I can still cook a meal myself for much less. It just takes "effort" which costs nothing at all.
What qualifies as a food desert? A cluster of blocks without a corner grocery doesn’t by itself warrant the label; an entire neighborhood, or a cluster of neighborhoods, without a mainstream grocery store—such as a Jewel, a Treasure Island, or an Aldi—almost certainly does....Chicago’s food desert lies entirely below Division Street, affecting a population that is overwhelmingly African American: about 478,000 blacks, compared with some 78,000 whites and 57,000 Latinos, according to Gallagher’s calculations.So, well over half a million people in Chicago live in neighborhoods where they have no easy way to get any fresh groceries at all. In order to do so, they'd have to have access to a car (many don't), or take public transportation (the poorer neighborhoods have the least amount of public trans options, and they run on sparse schedules at best), and have the time to 1) get to the grocery store during business hours, 2) shop, 3) get home, 4) make meals. So please, do tell us again how easy and affordable it is to shop at the grocery store and cook your own food.
“When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored and miserable, you don’t want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit ‘tasty.’ There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you. Let’s have three pennorth of chips! Run out and buy us a twopenny ice cream! Put the kettle on and we’ll all have a nice cup of tea!… Unemployment is an endless misery that has got to be constantly palliated, and especially with tea, the Englishman’s opium.”posted by electroboy at 1:32 PM on March 10, 2010 [6 favorites]
Some people are more sensitive to the effects of sodium than are others. People who are sodium sensitive retain sodium more easily, leading to excess fluid retention and increased blood pressure. If you're in that group, extra sodium in your diet increases your chance of developing high blood pressure, a condition that can lead to cardiovascular and kidney diseases.I can't find the exact numbers right now with a cursory search of Google, but I recall that only about one-third to one-half of the population is actually sodium-sensitive, and only about half of all cases of hypertension can be helped by reducing sodium intake. From a public health perspective, it makes a lot of sense to craft a campaign that tells everyone to moderate their sodium intake--after all, heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S., and there's little "harm" in eating a low-sodium diet from a health perspective but potentially huge benefits in combatting heart disease (over the past half-century we've made huge strides in reducing the prevalence and lethality of heart attacks in no small part by starting to aggressively treat hypertension).
“That’ll be rare nasty,” says the cook.I suggest someone serve Assemblyman Felix Ortiz a meal made without any salt...
“That doesn’t signify,” says she.
“Very well,” says the cook.
Well, the wedding-day came, and they were married. And after they were married all the company sat down to the dinner. When they began to eat the meat, that was so tasteless they couldn’t eat it. But Cap o’ Rushes’ father he tried first one dish and then another, and then he burst out crying.
“What is the matter?” said the master’s son to him.
“Oh!” says he, “I had a daughter. And I asked her how much she loved me. And she said ’As much as fresh meat loves salt.’ And I turned her from my door, for I thought she didn’t love me. And now I see she loved me best of all. And she may be dead for aught I know.”
Sodium is a nutrient found in table salt and many other foods. While the body needs some sodium to function, too much may lead to high blood pressure, a major risk factor for stroke, heart disease and kidney disease. Most Canadians consume more sodium than may be good for their health.
Sodium is needed in the body to regulate fluids and blood pressure, and to keep muscles and nerves running smoothly. The amount of sodium considered adequate to promote good health in adults is 1,500 mg per day. The United States Institute of Medicine (IOM) is commissioned jointly by the USA and Canada to establish the nutrient reference values that are used to set policies and standards. One of these reference values is the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL), which is the highest intake level that is likely to pose no risk of adverse health effects. Based on the IOM's UL, Health Canada recommends that adults do not exceed 2,300 mg of sodium per day.
Pretty sure this isn't as simple as a "rich/poor" dichotomy. Everyone is getting the overload.
Since Health Canada recommends people aged 14 or older consume no more than 2,300 mg a day, that Red Lobster meal packs more than three days worth of sodium, in one sitting.
Dr. David Lau, an endocrinologist who specializes in diabetes and obesity, says many Canadians eat far more salt than their bodies need.
"The majority of Canadians eat twice the amount of salt we recommend, if not three times," he said.
Selected meals at fast food outlets are also among the saltiest, the CSPI notes, singling out the Half Chicken meal at KFC, the Bean Burrito at Taco Bell and the Beef 'n Cheddar sandwich at Arby's.
In our tea-party flavored times, some might argue that government shouldn't have a role in righting the balance between cheap, unhealthy foods and more expensive, healthy ones, but such thinking ignores the role that federal policy already plays in food pricing.- Why A Salad Costs More Than A Big Mac
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Well that's pretty sane.
posted by Artw at 11:06 AM on March 10, 2010 [16 favorites]