There's you next book title Amy: "Fat Like Me." With echoes of the famous "Black Like Me" except with the trademarked Advice Goddess humor and steely-eyed look at eating in modren Murrica.

Fine, but what about the rural folk who can't afford to drive far - IF they have a car?

See the 2007 Newsweek article "Junk Food County."

www dot newsweek dot com/2007/12/10/junk-food-county dot html

First two paragraphs:

Fannie Charles, 46, lives six miles from the nearest grocery store in rural Orangeburg County, S.C. She doesn't own a car, so she pushes a cart along the side of the highway. (There are no sidewalks.) It's difficult, since she weighs 240 pounds and suffers from asthma and type 2 diabetes. That's why she usually goes only once a month. About once a week she supplements her grocery-store purchases with pricier, less healthy food from the convenience store, just a mile and a half away. At both places she forgoes fruits and leafy greens. "They're too expensive," she says. Skim milk is often unavailable. "I get the whole milk, or I'll get a little can of Carnation evaporated," she says. Though she often worries about going hungry, she is obese. "I'm
stressed. That's why I'm eating a lot," she says. "And I've got to eat what I have."

This is the real world of eating and nutrition in the rural United States. Forget plucking an apple from a tree, or an egg from under a chicken. "The stereotype is everyone in rural America lives on a farm, which is far from the truth," says Jim Weill, president of the nonprofit Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). New research from
the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health shows just how unhealthy the country life can be. The study, which examined food-shopping options in Orangeburg County (1,106 square miles, population 91,500), found a dearth of supermarkets and grocery stores. Of the 77 stores that sold food in Orangeburg County in 2004, when the study was done, 57--nearly 75 percent--were convenience stores. Grocery stores, which stock far more fruits and vegetables
than convenience stores, are often too far away, says University of South Carolina epidemiologist Angela Liese, lead author of the study, which
appeared in last month's Journal of the American Dietetic Association. "Oftentimes a nutritionist will just say, 'Buy more fruits and vegetables,' when, in fact, the buying part is not simple."

"At both places she forgoes fruits and leafy greens. "They're too expensive," she says. "

Bullcrap. I've shopped in little rural areas, inner city areas, and suburbs. There has yet to be a place that doens't have some fruit and veggie cheap. For the love of heaven, lettuce is maybe $.50 a head! COntrast that with chips that are, minimum, $1 a head. The woman is fat because she wants to be. She said she eats too much from stress. Bingo! ANd plenty of people used to walk farther than that for school. We've gotten soft in thinking we should never have to walk so much as a block. I walked 2 miles each way to the grocery store for a year in rural tenn when I had no car. I went every other day so I could carry the stuff home. No, it's not 6 miles, but it does allow me room to talk. If she went more often she'd not need the cart, and weigh a lot less too.

Oops, that would be $1 a bag.

Yeah Mom those typing fingers go out of control when you get wound up!

The lady didn't get to be my age and 240 and diabetic from not having a grocery store near her. I get frozen vegetables and so could she. As momof4 points out, chips are pricey -- as are all the packaged goods that put on fat. I would be shocked, shocked, if that woman didn't have a package of donuts on her counter right now.

I'll help the big brother government out just this one time and at no charge.

These people are victims of their own poor choices.

Amendment: Kids are victims of their parents poor choices.

I'm happy for the people who live in the area described by Flanagan, but one anecdote does not outrule the general statement that in lower-income neighborhoods, produce is 1) more expensive if available at all. I live in New Haven, which used to have a Shaw's supermarket within a couple miles of walking distance from campus. It is the only supermarket within walking distance. When Shaw's was sold, new owners took over 16 of the 18 stores in the area. The two it did not take over were both in low-income, heavily minority neighborhoods. This even though the New Haven store was profitable, the new management, Stop & Shop, could give no reason why it did not purchase the two stores. Word has it that the company did not want to damage their image in tonier areas by having a store heavily frequented by minority customers. The store is now another eyesore on a block of empty stores, since a drugstore and a Staples closed a couple months before it did.
There is a small Asian market within walking distance, but when Shaw's closed it literally doubled its prices. Also, it now breaks up its multipacks so you don't have the option of saving money by buying in bulk. A small container of yogurt that used to cost 80 cents, and costs 50 cents at Target in a multipack, now coasts 1.60. It manages to find produce that looks good but is rotten despite appearance--I've been burned by its oranges, grapes, avocados, etc. Another, even more expensive store, changes 3.50 for yogurt, and one of its clerks was quoted as saying business has not increased due to Shaw's closing because it price-gouges students. I don't own a car, and most of my friends/fellow students are out of town, so have been eating ramen, hamburger patties, dried pasta, and burritos for the last month, and it's getting old. The city has not been proactive in seeking alternatives. One prominent local leader suggested that the disabled and elderly who do not have cars could go by bus to the nearest store, but that entails taking two buses and crossing a busy highway intersection with erratic pedestrian walk signals. I know because I've done it several times. Since each bus comes only once an hour, and the company does not seem to care if a bus doesn't show up, the trip takes minimum four hours on a weekend.

David: I totally agree with that last sentiment.

Yesterday I was in the car with my sister and I put on NPR. She got pissed and tried to put Sirius XM The Joint (reggae station) back on. But I told her I needed some talk radio so she relented. After a few minutes she was all riled up!!

They were talking about the soda tax and not ONE caller or host on the show said anything about personal responsibility. It was all sobby shit about how it's hard to be a parent with all the marketing aimed to get kids into sugary unhealthy stuff.

Not ONE person said "Well, I AM the one who buys it for them... I COULD say no." It's too hard to say no to whining brats when it comes to anything.

I'll admit it: it's hard to draw boundaries and say no. But it's also leading by example. My parents aren't as thin as Amy but they were never sluggish and didn't sit and eat cookies. There was always healthy food in the house as well at treats. We were encouraged to be active and my parents would go for walks and bike rides with us. If we wanted a treat we never had to ask - we just helped ourselves. At dinner we always had to have at least a few bites of veggies. It was very simple and laid back but all 3 of us kids eat a balanced diet and we're very active people.

Additionally, preparation is a big deal. I babysat for a family for a few years. The parents would say "make these green beans (or whatever) and try to make them have a few bites". So I made green beans the way I liked them: Steamed then covered in butter, garlic powder and red pepper flakes. The kids inhaled them.

The parents asked wtf did I do to their kids?! They were REQUESTING "Gretchen's Green Beans". So easy and cheap and it goes down the gullet!

I know Jody claims that Brussels sprouts are the Devil's doing but I swear I can convert anyone to liking them! And they don't smell farty :-)

Garlic makes everything taste better

All this to say, I'm missing my mid-morning, study break apple. (Your blog is my study-break treat, Amy.) Said apple now costs 6.99/pound at the Gourmet Heaven (I wish I were joking), the aforementioned price-gouging store and only nearby source of produce besides the rotten-produce-selling Hong Kong Grocery. So goodbye, fruits and veggies.
By the way, Caitlin Flanagan, while she writes beautifully, is known for her conservative bias and zeal for stirring the pot when it comes to hot-button issues such as whether women should work outside the home and contemporary sexual mores. I happen to agree with her take on the latter issue, but in general she seems to be more of a provocateur who aims to generate page views than someone who is interested in (less headline-friendly) nuanced analysis, common sense, and finding solutions. Even her fellow conservative Ross Douthat describes her as afflicted by "70s nostalgia."

Look, 90% of the reason poor people are fat is that 90% of what they buy comes in a box.

This is NOT rocket science.

Garlic makes everything taste better

Bacon makes everything taste better.

Look, 90% of the reason poor people are fat is that 90% of what they buy comes in a box.

This is NOT rocket science. "

But 70% of what's in the box is carbs ... yet nutritionists, backed by our government, would have you believe that it's 30% of the contents of the box (i.e. fat) that's causing all of the trouble. And should the printing on the box claim "LOW FAT" (now we're talking 90% carbs and 10% fat) then it's considered a health food.

No it's not rocket science, but that doesn't mean that the public isn't being misled.

"Fine, but what about the rural folk who can't afford to drive far - IF they have a car?"

What their grandparents, and their great-grandparents, and their great-great-grandparents did? People figured this stuff out 9,000 years ago. It takes work and a good bit of skill, but if she's out in the country she already has the main indredient - land.

"Garlic makes everything taste better
Bacon makes everything taste better."
Fry the bacon down and throw the chopped garlic in. Add three or four grinds of black pepper and then the cut up brussels sprouts, cabbage, or collard greens. Add some water, about a tablespoon of cider vinegar and the same of fish sauce. Let this simmer down until the sprouts are tender. Adjust the salt.

People in the areas south of DC without grocery stores grow collard greens and tomatoes in their backyards. Their grandkids deride them as "Bamas" (

I don't shop at Gourmet Heaven either, because its prices are too high. I just do without the usual fruits and veggies. If I had a car, or a convenient bus, and a large fridge, I would be on my way to Costco in a jiffy. I make do on occasional shared rides to Stop and Shop, and stock up on things then, but as a student I have a small cube fridge and share a small dorm room and there's only so much it can hold, so I buy non-perishables on sale with coupons. I tell you, it's an incentive to work hard and find a good job when I graduate!
I never claimed to analyze Caitlin Flanagan as a human being, but as a writer whose reports should be taken with a grain of salt (unless that raises one's sodium intake to dangerous levels!). I've read her for a few years now and stand by my assessment of her as biased. Her nostalgia is relevant because it influences her take on social issues. As I indicated, I agree with her on other issues, but she has (as do we all) some wrongheaded viewpoints.
I attended a free workshop through the library where the leader showed how to prepare vegetables in various healthy, delicious ways, and it was so full that there was a waiting list weeks in advance. The Q&A was dominated by locals asking about about alternatives to the closed supermarket. There is pent-up demand for healthy food here, but no store within walking distance which has reasonable prices. That's my reality, food-wise. I understand that yours is different, and am happy for you that it is.
Amy, I usually appreciate your take on issues, but when the conversation degenerates to "I can do it, why can't they?" and snide remarks about doughnuts on the counter, it seems self-righteous and alienates people rather than promoting solutions.

Amy: I think what "a reader" is saying is that getting from the place they live to a well-stocked/affordable grocery store is semi-impossible w/o a car. So they make due with the store nearest one with affordable goods.

If a reader had enough cash, s/he might buy the expensive produce at the pricey store. But money and transportation are both huge issues here. Since s/he is a student, just up and moving doesn't seem reasonable.

A reader: does your school have an affordable meal plan? Cafeteria food tends to suck donkey balls but there are usually healthy options you can spice up with your own Parmesan or Mrs. Dash.

A commenter: "The [200+ pound rural] woman is fat because she wants to be. She said she eats too much from stress. Bingo!"

Plainly you need to follow Amy's advice to read Good Calories, Bad Calories. Conventional wisdom says that eating drives obesity. Actually, it appears that obesity drives eating. Particularly obesity driven by hyperinsulinism.

I'm going to guess that since this woman pushing the cart is a type 2 diabetic, wow, that must mean she has hyperinsulinism, because if she couldn't make insulin anymore, she'd be a type ONE diabetic. (It is not uncommon, by the way, for doctors to prescribe insulin to diabetics who are already making plenty. I could rant about that, but it's kind of a digression.) The mere presence of excess insulin is enough to be a major stressor in this woman's life. And it is definitely driving her hunger because every time she eats, that insulin surges up and just stores it all away before her lean tissues can make use of it. Bad scene.

I don't know, maybe you've noticed that it's pretty rare for a slender person to eat five Big Mac Value Meals a day, but not so uncommon for a 500-pound or more person to do it. Seems to me that if eating all that led to weighing 500 pounds, you'd see lots of thin people gorging themselves.

I mean, it's not like people start out Skinny Minis and then get fat overnight. Right?

Data point for Amy: My mother lives in Louisiana in a tiny farming town out in the middle of nowhere. There's a local charity that brings food boxes around to people too poor to do a lot of grocery shopping. I've seen what they bring her (I'd be sending her grocery money if I could afford it--this is someone else's Internet access), and it's disgraceful. She's a type 2 diabetic as well, and it's all rice, noodles, beans and other starchy stuff. They might as well feed her cupfuls of sugar.

Every time I see someone suggest that a new low-carber donate all their carby stuff to a food pantry now, it makes me angry.

It's nice that a head of lettuce is fifty cents but let's be honest, the health problem here in the United States IS NOT due to a staggering lack of vegetables. The Hispanic people in Compton mentioned in Amy's article are probably still fat, if they're anything like the ones I run into around town, even though they eat plant foods. More access to vegetables isn't going to change anything. The real problem is that poor people have too much access to starch, and not enough access to healthy meats and healthy dairy. It's the meat and cheese and cream that are actually expensive, and that's when they're worth anything after the poor animals have been wrung through the CAFO system.

Besides, have you checked out the calorie counts on vegetables? Supposedly because they are low-cal, they're healthier. First off, it's not calories making people fat. (No, it's not. I could explain why but this comment's long enough already.) Second off, even if it were calories making people fat, your body has a baseline need for enough calories to fuel your lean tissues. If you try to go as low cal as possible, you're going to wind up sluggish and starving, especially if you're eating things that drive your insulin to store what little energy you're getting. High-cal plant foods are no solution either; most of them are high-starch, which only exacerbates already-existing obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes.

I promise you that our leaner ancestors did not spend all their time munching on salads. They ate everything swimming in animal fat, just like Amy does. But if we insist on continuing to ignore the hard evidence, obesity will continue to be a problem.

Hi Gretchen--Thanks, that's exactly what I was trying to get across. The dining hall is open during the year, but closed for summer--can't wait until it reopens. I work summers on campus, so during the summer we make our own meals. No problem until the supermarket closed this spring.

Another factor in obesity is failing to use a scale. I'm amazed at how many of my friends say they almost never weigh themselves. One was recently shocked to discover at the doctor's office that she'd gained 24 pds in a year (after quitting smoking). Granted, she didn't appear to have gained quite that much weight, but still, it shouldn't have been a total surprise. Had she been weighing herself more regularly she would've realized this before she had a major amount of weight to lose.

Skinny people weigh themselves, and studies have shown that they usually have a weight maximum that they stick to. If the scale reads that number, or close to it, they cut back on their eating for a few days (or low carb it). It's that simple if you keep a check on it. Much easier to drop 3 or 4 pds than 24 pds.

My friend, Sergeant Heather, the most glamourous woman I know, has been encouraging me to grow stuff to eat (or as I see it, farm)

We tried to grow an herb garden on the balcony. Then the landlord saw the hanging planters and told us to take them down, citing some building rule about outside appearances. They all died when we tried to transplant them. Now all we have is the tomato plant, which we hope he can't see from that angle.

I eat so much better now that I have a car than I did before, so I can understand the problem. Yes, I could have walked 20 blocks to Pathmark in the freezing cold and hauled back as much as I could carry after a long day at work, but it was so much easier to pick up whatever the bodega on the corner carried. That was entirely me being a lazy ass, but I understand the impulse.

All I can say, Amy, is that you're a walking advertisment for bacon. The pork industry should hire you as a spokesperson. :)

Here in Alabama, very few people live in "urban" areas, and most of our poor live in rural areas. There are no apartments in those areas, so people live in houses and trailers which ALWAYS have plenty of land around them. But the poor people rarely EVER have a garden. All the people we know/see with gardens are also working people (we have a garden!) and people who have retired from a lifetime of work.

The poor people here are FAT FAT FAT because they are just LAZY LAZY LAZY. Too lazy to make a garden too lazy to prepare food rather than open a box/bag, too lazy to work. They'd rather sit in the door of their trailer and watch the Hispanic illegal immigrants drive down the road headed to the jobs they work.

There. I said it.

re. brussel sprouts: cut in half, toss with olive oil and salt, roast on a pan at 425 until browned. HEAVEN.

This is so annoying! There should not even BE poor kids, because poor people should not have kids until they are no longer poor. The ones who do must be stupid and lack self-discipline, which is probably why they are fat AND why they are poor. So I REALLY don't want them having kids.

I'm cranky today. Even after pulling a ton of money out of my IRA, howcome it still managed to lose $5K in the last two months? And the unemployment outlook is bad, too. So now the question is, what do we do with all these poor people and their fat kids. God, I don't know. I just think it sucks. Maybe they should stop being part of the problem? At least none of them are going to beat me in the job competition.

To steal a page from Lesley's playbook: There. I said it.

And I'm going to try those brussel sprouts, too.

Flanagan's observations are correct, as far as they go: in California, fresh and reasonably-priced produce is widely available, even in poor neighborhoods. If not via a big grocery store, then from one of the many small Asian or Latin American markets, which often have pretty good produce at prices that beat the local Safeway. Where Flanagan's case goes awry is in the older cities of the East Coast; there, the grocery stores within walking distance of poor neighborhoods tend to have poor quality and overpriced produce, and the small neighborhood stores may have little or none at all. It's not that there are no options for people in say, Southeast DC, but they are far worse than what one finds in California. This is not surprising, given that California produces such a vast proportion of our fruits and vegetables. Options tend to be bad in rural areas as well, but again are not nonexistent.

That said, I'm willing to stipulate that poor people in the U.S. can buy reasonably nutritious food on a very limited budget if they are careful shoppers, spend their money wisely and cook at home (I recently read a piece about eating reasonably well on $30 a month). It is clear that they do not do this, however. The interesting question to me is whether there is anything to be done about it. We heap scorn on fat people and judge them harshly, perhaps deservedly in most cases. But that doesn't seem to be fixing the problem. Most people don't set out to make terrible choices about what to eat, but many do anyway. Obesity is far more a problem of the U.S. than other developed countries, so the problem does not seem to simply be our wealth and the plentitude of unhealthy options. Is there any fix here that doesn't involve unpalatable (and likely unconstitutional) government intrusion into people's lives? I'd be interested in hearing others' thoughts.

Of course, keep thinking that a 15-minute walk is "exercise"... that drive-thrus, elevators, TV remotes, carwash, etc, aren't the cause. Lazy Americans. Keep buying "weight-loss" diet drinks and say a good chunk of your problem is in your genetics anyway.

Someone asked what to do with them

I say 'Soylent Green - Now wth MORE LARD

Gretchen said:

They were talking about the soda tax and not ONE caller or host on the show said anything about personal responsibility. It was all sobby shit about how it's hard to be a parent with all the marketing aimed to get kids into sugary unhealthy stuff.

Not ONE person said "Well, I AM the one who buys it for them... I COULD say no." It's too hard to say no to whining brats when it comes to anything.

I'll admit it: it's hard to draw boundaries and say no......
_______________________

It's not that hard, I'm guessing, if one simply punishes kids for WHINING. (As I suggested in another thread.) Just make it clear to the kids that whining includes not taking no for an answer. Also, punishment doesn't have to be immediate - IF the child is three or older. One can say, for example: "We're not going to the movies tonight because you asked me twice for the same thing after I'd said no."

What's scary is that this has been out of vogue for decades. To quote from a very well-known book on health on sociology: ""It's almost impossible to get my kids to eat well with all that advertising on TV for junk foods. If I don't get their favorite sugar-coated cereal, they keep pestering me until I do."

That was about 40 years ago! Yet, there was no indication that there was anything unusual or wimpy about the mother's attitude.

Then again, TV had only been common for about 15 years when the book was written, so that likely made a big difference in that parents still weren't used to the idea of a much bigger commercial culture that was all the more indifferent to the common good than before. Not to mention that even "doctors" were working in cigarette ads in the 1940s and 1950s, so I'm guessing the average person of that time wasn't that well-versed on nutrition, either.

To clarify: I meant that even BEFORE TV became widespread, parents didn't necessarily know how to feed their kids right anyway. (And American home cuisine could be pretty bad - thank goodness for Julia Child.) The health-food movement started in the 19th century, true, but it didn't really come into full bloom until the 1960s or later.

@lujlp: I get it, and you certainly have a strange sense of humour...

yellowpages.com comes up with over 1200 results for grocery in New Haven. I don't know where you live, but there's plenty of grocery stores in New Haven. If taking the bus is too inconvenient for you, then get a bike.

Barring that, Stop and Shop delivers. Get all your dorm buddies together and make one big order and have it delivered.

Grow your own food.

Get a freezer for $100 from Lowes, and make monthly trips to Costco or BJs and fill that shit up.

People want government to make life easier for them by forcing businesses to do things for them. Maybe if the inner city folk were a little more business friendly then companies wouldn't be so hesitant. Maybe if city governments weren't so interested in graft, there'd be more small markets.

Life isn't convenient, easy, or fair.

Adapt or die.

'Soylent Green - Now wth MORE LARD

Mmm, tastes like bacon. Sick humor makes me less cranky.

That's not lard, that's stored energy. The good news is, the energy transfers. The bad news is you have to....well, we won't go there.

Venison burgers topped with thick bacon, guacamole, and jalapenos. Trader Joe's garlic fries. (Sorry Amy, gotta have 'em, starchy carby things notwithstanding)

I did read a horrifying analysis of what would happen to our diabetic population should we ever have a SHtF scenario. Projections that we would lose 90% within 2-3 months when the insulin supply is interrupted. 60% of the American population will develop diabetes by the time they reach elderly status. Makes you think, huh? Gotta love pharmaceuticals.

Oh, and as to the bullshit about kids refusing to eat something you put before them? Only in America. Spoiled kids should be hungry more often, isn't that the best seasoning? In this house, if you won't eat it, you're not hungry enough. But you will be, because it'll keep until breakfast.

Just wait till you get a VAT. I live in Europe, everything is hella expensive. 17% VAT on all food bought at stores and open market stalls.

the apt fridges in Europe are tiny itty bitty so buying cold stuff in bulk is out, if you can get things i bulk. and things like deodorant and shampoo comes in small little bottles and costs 3 times as much as they do in the sates.

I shop at the "cheapest" store here, apples are 2.49 Euros for about 6 of them. one small bundle of lettuce is about 2 euros or more!

I don' have a car, I buy what I can fit in tow grocery bags and my backpack. I walk to the store even in winter when it is -40, and stores close at 6PM so If I have to work past 6 I have to wait till weekends to shop.

I miss America, esp California. I used to eat very healthy there making minimum wage when I was struggling through my internship.

Our relationship with food is messed up in America and won't even begin to enter the discussion regarding poor people and grocery choices. I will say that Amy is on the money when it comes to the low/no carb diet. Every doctor I visit including the cardiologist all say the low carbs is the healthiest diet, especially when it comes to issues with joints and arthritis.

I've been on the Atkins diet for 8 years. It's awesome, and every time I hear some Internet expert or YouTube genius talking about how "it's been medically proven to be unhealthy," I want to slap them with my past 8 years of blood profiles.

Cholesterol from 242 to 173. Triglicerides well within normal range, and body fat from 24% to 11 (up to 13 during the holiday season).

And I'm 50. Low-carbs is the way to go!

I am going to take this opportunity to vent here. My weight got a little out of control for several years after I left the Army and was exacerbated by a non functioning thyroid that was not treated aggressively enough until 18 months ago, but I have been doing much better for the last five years. I certainly watch the carbs. Mostly because they make me so freakin hungry. I have a cousin who came to visit with his 11 year old son. The cousin is very overweight, only a year older than I am, and has high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes. I have neither of those conditions and am 54 years old. The 11 year old is also becoming grossly overweight and whines constantly for junk food. If he was offered something healthy he would not eat it and would continue to whine for candy or a trip to McDonald's. I don't think he was ever actually hungry because my cousin bought him crap every time he squeaked. The kids mother died of cancer about a year ago and I am sure part of the food thing is because the dad and others feel sorry for the poor little motherless boy. He is doing the kid no favors in either the short term or the long term. He was here for a week. I disliked the kid so much that I am not even willing to take him for a few months to see if I could get him on a decent diet and straighten out his manners. It is just too painful to be around him. Isabel

I did read a horrifying analysis of what would happen to our diabetic population should we ever have a SHtF scenario. Projections that we would lose 90% within 2-3 months when the insulin supply is interrupted. 60% of the American population will develop diabetes by the time they reach elderly status. Makes you think, huh? Gotta love pharmaceuticals.

Need to distinguish between Type I vs Type II diabetes here. Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetics get that way because an autoimmune response destroys the T-cells in the pancreas that produces insulin. As far as we know, it is not caused by diet; the causes of autoimmune disorders like Type I diabetes are poorly understood (see: lupus, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and others). Type II diabetes is the version caused when the body no longer responds properly to insulin; high sugar/highly glycemic diets do a lot to cause Type II diabetes. Adult-onset diabetes is usually (but not always) Type II.

I'm guessing the study you mention about losing 90% of diabetics within a few months of insulin supply disruption refers to losing Type I diabetics, who are fewer than Type II, who probably comprise most of that 60% figure you cite.

Amy, you should stop buying those bacon bits from Costco...and start buying that applewood smoked bacon from trader joes! Best bacon in the universe!

Aside from that, cooking your bacon from scratch allows you to save all of that grease in a container in your fridge!

Than you can use bacon grease as your cooking oil for you vegetables, stir frys, saute's etc.

You think cooking your beans with butter is good...

...try it with rendered bacon grease AND butter!

Saturated fat heaven.

Praise the Lard! :-)

BJ's has applewood smoked bacon, 3 pounds for $10.

BJs/Costco/Sams are a very good way to shop if you have the freezer space.

I've got a 14 cubic foot upright for just that purpose.

It's loaded with burgers and fish and bison (and pizza, but don't tell anyone I told you that).

Here is one you have to try sometime Hot bacon dressing

The amount of sugar is optional - just enough to break the sourness. Put over either shredded cabbage or shredded fresh spinach it is delicious.

It may very well be that some areas both urban and rural exist where decent food is currently hard to come by at an affordable price. That should be all the more reason for those folks to not sit around waiting for Big Brother to drop some fake manna, but instead to get up and start gardening, farming and hawking produce. And to tell Big Brother in no uncertain terms to back off and stop taxing, regulating, and harassing small business to death, or else the mother of all pitchfork marches will commence.

Just one more point on the unavailability of healthy food in some market locations. What a store carries is generally market driven. This is not a situation where "if you build it they will come." If a retailer has attempted to stock fruit and vegetables and healthy dairy, and the products just rot on the shelves, he is unlikely to continue doing so. Healthy stuff and fresh stuff generally has a short shelf life. Where you find stores carrying lots of healthy produce it is because the demand dictates it and they have enough customers to make it economically feasible. Just basic economics. When I was a kid I remember the grocery stores only had fresh citrus fruit around Christmas time because that was the time of year when people were willing to splurge and pay the extra bucks that it cost to bring the fruit 1200 miles from California and Arizona. It was a big deal to get an orange in your stocking. That gradually changed as shipping got cheaper with more refrigerated trucks and better packing methods but it took a while before you would see those sorts of foods year round.

"Not ONE person said "Well, I AM the one who buys it for them... I COULD say no.""

How true. My mother is on a salt-restricted diet, with kidney disease(mid-stage) She made herself violently ill this week by eating pickled jalepino peppers and cheddar cheese. Why is they in the house?

Isabel, that's sad. My niece eats a lot of junk food, candy, cookies etc and she's now about 230 pounds at 17. It just upsets me so much.

Amy, I started Dr. Eads' diet in April and have lost 15.5 pounds. I feel great! I used to be hypoglycemic, I couldn't go 30-40 minutes past a regular meal time without eventually falling asleep. My morning blood sugar was below 60, and this was since when I was a kid. I remember fainting in school. I was skinny all my life, and gained weight when my estrogen levels went wa-a-a-ay up last year. Despite lifting weights, walking and being on the gym diet (no carbs after 3pm, alcohol and sweets only once a week) I was gaining 1/4 to 1/2 a pound a month for a year. I took the bull by the horns and bought Dr. Eads book, I felt I just had to do something.

An interesting benefit that I hadn't expected is that my blood sugar is higher in the morning (but normal....54 or so was awful) and stays within 100-117 all day, no spikes or drops like I used to have. I measured it 3-4 times a day for a week out of curiosity, as I wasn't light-headed anymore. When I think back to what we ate as kids, it's not surprising. Cap'n Crunch for breakfast (sugar bomb), peanut butter and Fluff for lunch (another sugar bomb) and snacks and soft drinks etc. Baby formulas for preemies when I was born had corn syrup added, as well as condensed milk. I'm sure they don't do that now, but I think back and think that my 'sweet tooth' was pretty much a result of what we were being fed.

'why ARE they', sorry.

I just had guests check out of one of my vacation houses. They stayed the night, but this morning complained that they couldn't walk up the steps. There are about 6 steps in front and 3 in the back. Both are morbidly obese and they never asked if there were any steps when booking. They also complained that the air-conditioning wasn't cold enough, which is probably because they have so much fat. I'm sure they'll demand a refund, which I'm not going to give them. It's a holiday weekend.

It's really a shame to see people this impaired by obesity, but worse when they try to make it somebody else's fault.

Just to follow up on something (OT) that Isabel alluded to: if you have thyroid problems, get your doctor to refer you to an endocrinologist! I am hypothyroid and the specialist got me to the correct level on synthroid right away but when my dad got Graves disease and they irradiated his thyroid, his GP took a year and a half to inch him up to the correct level (18 months of exhaustion on top of the months before the Graves was diagnosed). GPs have clearly had the negative effects of hyperthyroidism pounded into their heads and they will not be aggressive about getting you to the correct dosage.

I also have Hashimoto's but am in the one percent with the most aggressive form of it. It is very rare for men to get it. I have had to have two surgeries in the last ten years to remove large benign tumors that formed in my thyroid tissue. the first grew around my windpipe and was choking me. The second formed a few years after the first surgery and the tumor this time squashed my right lung was was pushing on the arteries that fed my heart. The older endocrinologist that I first went to did not believe in treating my thyroid aggressively enough and I was always exhausted, hungry and cranky(and the tumors continued to grow)despite being on medication that put my numbers in the "normal" range Hashimotos is an autoimmune disease and it can come and go. Mine came and stayed but I was probably genetically doomed as my mother also has Hashimotos and my father had horrible rheumatoid arthritis starting in his late 30's. I am not sure a low carb diet is a complete cure in all cases but it sure can't hurt as we know that the endocrine system is very complicated and there is a lot of interaction between your thyroid, your pituitary and your pancreas and they all have a profound effect on your metabolism.

Brian, I appreciate the advice. In general, YellowPages.com turns up a lot of related by irrelevant results or duplicate results. There may be thousands of grocery stores listed, but New Haven just isn't large enough to hold that many, so am not sure what's going on there. There really are only the two mentioned in walking distance of me, and I walk several miles per day. I would grow food but there is no yard or garden (I am growing some seedlings on my windowsill that a friend gave me last week). Biking wouldn't be worth it for groceries because the whole point would be to stock up with more than I can carry on a bike, so as to save time and trips (it would take around 2 hrs round trip). Another friend echoed your suggestion of ordering online and when more people return next month I plan to look into that. As to the demand angle, I don't understand why supermarket wasn't snapped up by some buyer, because it was always full when I went, and one news report said it was profitable.

*****Hate Costco's bacon. I get the grocery store bacon for $3/lb, so pretty much the same price. Albertson's sometimes has really good bacon even cheaper!*****

Safeway (and probably every other grocery store, but I haven't really checked) usually has a "clearance bin" in the meat section. If you keep your eye on that thing, you can get some AWESOME deals. Sure, it's going out of date in a day or two, but if you freeze what you're not going to use right away, it keeps for quite awhile. I've gotten $6/pk bacon for $2 and $1 tubes of Jimmy Dean sausage. YUM!

"Baby formulas for preemies when I was born had corn syrup added, as well as condensed milk. I'm sure they don't do that now, but I think back and think that my 'sweet tooth' was pretty much a result of what we were being fed."

Yes they still do. They have to have that sugar to fuel all that growth. Breastmilk is largely sugar. They also need fat, and protein. I am a super-fan of Sprouts baby food, because it will have 11 grams fat per serving, where gerber etc has maybe 3. I shove fat on my kids with a shovel. They are still rail thin. I add whipping cream to bottles even.

I see. I remember a flap about it in the late 80s or early 90s, so I thought that perhaps the practice had been discontinued. I breastfed our son (born in 1983) and so have no experience with formula.