Food Stamps y'all

I came across an interesting article today about how legislators in South Carolina are proposing to treat benefits payments. They basically want to restrict food stamps to only be able to buy healthy food. For those of you that are not aware, in the US, food stamps are how the most common form of benefits are distributed. They are coupons with a monetary value which most supermarkets accept and they are currently restricted so you can buy all food and drink but not cigarettes or booze.

In the UK, the BBC had a poll last year where they asked people about this idea as with the soon to be introduced Universal Credit could be used to bring something like this about using a prepaid credit card. Generally, according to the poll, the majority of the people favoured some sort of restriction on what benefits could be used on.

So the case in point with food stamp restriction. I think it is a great idea. Three quarters of society in the US (and two thirds in the UK) are obese. Obesity is more prevalent in lower income families. Billions of dollars are being spent on trying to make people eat more healthily and billions more on dealing with the effects of obesity. Obviously there need to be safeguards over what constitutes “healthy” food but I think it could work. Some frozen and canned food would be acceptable, as only fresh food means more trips to the supermarket meaning more in petrol or public transport costs and time. The only issue is that all the big purveyors of crappy highly processed food will lobby the hell out of not carrying it through. Guess why? Fast food companies can accept food stamps! 

An Everest a Week

“...It's like climbing an Everest a week, then if you get to the top, there is a bigger Everest you need to ascend. To get down from the climb is easy. There is a fun water slide with food to take and munch as you go. If you stay on the ascent then you can't even see the furthest Everest, but you know it's there. And after that last Everest is not another mountain, but a very thin plateau. That's the path you need to take for the rest of your life. But there are fun fireman's poles to get down from there all the way along it...”

I am on a diet.

I have written that sentence in my head a hundred times in the last 10 years. Then I deleted it. Or ignored it. Or just gorged myself on a Taco Bell. I think I am doing better this time. At least, it doesn’t feel like so much of a diet. My best diet was when I was 25 and I lost lots of weight by basically going to the gym everyday and exercising until I felt sick and didn’t even want to look at food. Turns out it wasn’t that sustainable. I have been on my current diet for over two months now but the time has flown and I still have lost a lot of weight. Still, time will tell.

I use an app to count my calories. It is quite handy but not too accurate about homemade stuff or some other things. The one thing that has been really hammered home to me is how so many products are extremely high in calories. Most people know that Domino's has got high calories, but almost 300 calories per slice? I never really thought about it before when I polished off a whole large pizza (ten slices) over 24 hours or even in one night (!).  Plus dips and starters, it is literally a weekly diet killer. Alcohol too, I discovered, is highly calorific. I went on diets before, went to the gym, ate carefully, but had beer and wine, and maybe a pizza once a week too, and wondered why I was only losing a few hundred grams a week or even nothing at all. Turns out I was just eating up to around my maintenance limit. Well, tracking my calories has cured me of that.

But I can see how easily that approximately 60% of adults in the UK are obese. It’s maths, biology, chemistry and physics. More energy is being consumed than being used. Those poor bastards on programs like “Half Tonne Teen” didn’t become like that overnight and they certainly didn’t want to end up like that. Just a few hundred extra calories a day and it all adds up over the years. I think we have a severe societal issue which could become even more absolutely massive in a few short years. It is already stretching the NHS to its limit.

Problem is, well, we know what the problem is. However the solution is not easy. You walk into any supermarket and all the high calorie products are on 2 for 1 whilst the vegetables sit there unsung and lamented. A double cheeseburger from McDonalds is cheaper than a stew pack of vegetables. So what can we do? It could be as simple as just supplying effective information. Basic education. But as far as I know, we as a society already do that. People sleepwalk into obesity and it is very difficult to return to normal.