Fork Full Of Noodles with Krish Mohan-176-Obesity & Food Waste

We have a huge obsession with making things larger, except people. We have a lot of fat-shaming that happens with people of larger body build. “Yo mama so fat joke” are some of the most popular jokes in every playground for the last 30 years! But obesity is a problem, especially in America, because of the culture of excess that bred into us. Eat more, do less, that’s basically America’s new slogan.

It was “All for One, One for all”, but then slavery happened and we had to change that. Then it was “We the People”, and we still had slavery so that was embarrassing. Most recently it was “If you see something, say something”, but that just led to people pointing things out. And now it’s “Eat more, do less!” Which is getting us closer to being a country run by Walmart!

Now before everyone goes off the rails on this video, I should say that there are genetic components to someone being on the larger side of life. And I went with a pun there, because I am watching my words more carefully than the ⅔ of Americans that have the medical condition of Obesity, watch what they eat. And I’m definitely watching my words more carefully anyone is watching the Capitalistic system that creates this epidemic in our society.

Obesity is defined as having an excess amount of fat in ones body. There’s a standardized amount of fat that the body needs for insulation, energy storage and shock absorbency and when people start to accumulate more and more fat, it can cause a lot of medical issues like sluggishness, cardiac arrests, diabetes, and in people around you fat shaming…which then leads to a culture of Call-Outs and Shaming the Fat Shamers…which leads to a vicious cycle of anger and no one is helping the person that is eating another fast food burger for lunch and is about to have a heart attack!

This is the other side of food waste. Like I mentioned earlier 1 in 8 Americans go hungry but about 2 in 3 Americans are obese because of poverty. With the price of Organic Food as high as it the only options most poor people have is Fast Food, which I doubt can make the claim to be healthy. If they do, it’s propaganda and we should see if they’ve been colluding with Russia to make sleepier Americans that can’t vote. And if that’s case the corporate Democrats and Republicans will really be in a pickle about who to blame about the Trump Presidency, since the pickle in a McDonald’s Burger has them in it’s teeny little pockets.

Something else most poor people can’t afford is time. Working 40 hours a week means you don’t have time to cook. According to Nutritionist, Jessica Shapiro, the Bronx is one of the unhealthiest neighborhoods in the state of New York, which is more than just New York City, because the people don’t have the access to food, but also don’t have the time to cook their food. The Bronx is one of America’s food desserts. Its ok though, instead of crack the government has decided drop Cacti on Bronx to give them all the advantages of the desert.

The organization Jessica Shapiro works for, Montifiore, is working with bodegas in the Bronx to make sure there are some healthy options available for the people. But it’s not just enough to make sure it’s healthy, but it also has to be affordable. Remember these people can barely afford time, which is something the universe gives out for free and through the invention of labor and punch cards, corporations are turning a profit on it!

Now according to Amy Shapiro, a different nutritionist from Manhattan, having frozen and canned foods is a step up from the fast food dessert choices that most low income communities have and picking a day to cook for the week can help make healthier choices. It has come to from adjusting lifestyles.

A large issue in all this is that the access, knowledge and options are limited to lower income folks. And the mere fact that we have the career choice of nutritionist means there’s an issue. An issue that people want to make healthier choices but just don’t know how and where to go to make these choices.

Education on adjusting one’s lifestyle is alleviating one of those problems. The job of Nutritionists should just be more than telling poor people to adjust their lifestyles but giving them options of a better lifestyle in their price bracket. Or they can can partner themselves with farmers that have an excess of fruits and vegetables they can’t make a profit on and give it away to these low income communities. Let’s feed our people first, instead our livestock. But it’s hard for corporations when the lines are blurred and you can’t tell the difference between cattle and humans, because it’s all consumerist livestocks.  

But maybe instead of asking poor people to adjust their lifestyle, we can also start asking the culture of consumers to adjust theirs. And maybe a system hellbent on consumerist gluttony can adjust it’s lifestyle to a logic based economy. From deviating from our gluttonous vanity and using technology to get food to those who need it, while adjusting to make better, more egalitarian food choices, with the right sized portions, can lead to a world that is fed properly and create new systems that are actually progressive, instead of ones with apologies as empty as the calories they serve.