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In light of the government trying to fix fat people by making unhealthy food less accessible again, it's time for a twitter bitch.
I have been in my life, very poor, and I ate unhealthily during that time. My parents, health conscious vegans, visibly fretted at this and furiously argued that cheap, healthy food was available to me.
They are not unique. Every time someone brings up the point that the reason poor people eat unhealthily is the high cost of healthy food, some dickwad will pop up and start chanting "lentils and beans! Lentils and beans! You can eat cheap and healthy with lentils and beans!"
Point 1: A lot of 'cheap' healthy food is a lot less cheap than it looks because the calorie count is so low. When you are very poor, what is relevant is not 'price per kg' but 'price per calorie'. There is not the variety people think.
Point 2: When you are poor, the only thing you can afford on a regular basis are basic necessities, which means your only avenue for pleasure is through those basic necessities. Rent. Utilities. Food. Clothes. Toiletries.
Problem is, renting a nice house is more expensive than a shitty room. Good internet and unlimited hot water - costs money. Nice clothes - costlier than primark. Lovely Lush shower gel - So Expensive. And then there is food.
Food is the one area where the really cheap stuff is and nice, or often nicer, to consume than the expensive stuff. It is the one area where poor people can reliably have a nice time.
When you ask poor people to 'lentils and beans' you are asking them to give up their one, reliable source of fun and pleasure. Maybe forever. Poverty rarely has a set end date.
I cannot express how much of an unfeeling dick move it is by the government to try to raise the health of its most poverty stricken by trying to price them out of the one source of happiness they can reliably have, rather than trying to fix income equality.
