Getting enough calories each day is not a problem in North America. Obesity is a problem. Type 2 diabetes is a problem.

Getting actual nutrition is a problem.

Reuben is 100% percent right. Think for yourself. Be responsible for yourself. Act for yourself.

We elect representatives to gov’t that were happy to create and are happy to continue to fund a agricultural-industrial complex where nutrition is irrelevant. The topsoil has nearly been destroyed over the past century, we reduce our exposure to vital minerals through the use of chemical fertilizers. We focus our efforts on producing corn,soy,wheat and rice to the exclusion of the wide variety of other foods. We feed our livestock massive doses of antibiotics at the same time that the human medical community is trying to reduce the overprescription of antibiotics to humans…I could go on and on

And about organic food – Do you know what your grandparents called organic food?………..FOOD!

Wow, food without chemical & steroids & dyes & preservatives, etc….

The rant has endeth

It’s narrow minded to think that it’s just an issue of food choice for people; for many low income individuals it also comes down to money. There’s a higher calorie return per dollar at a fast food restaurant.

Not everyone can afford to be organic everything on the table. Many times 2nd quality food is considered a privilege.

People internalize messages they see over and over and over again; marketing does its job.

If you eat so called ‘junk’ food, your body winds up junk. There are a few fast food places you can get a fair meal if you chose carefully, but, they are few and far between.

THINK! Learn how to think, not what to think. YOU are responsibile for yourself. Not anyone else. Take control of your life. Read. Educate yourself. Put some effort into your life. Or, are you like the fellow that says, “I don’t know and I don’t care.”"Just give me my rocking chair.” (or recliner and remote) Thats not quiet good enough for me.

I think healthier eating is starting to creep into peoples conciousness, but most people are too short termism to care about it. The pay off for eating healthily is perceived to be so far down the line I don’t think people care so much about it.

I think there is massive confusion about what is healthy and what is not too. People get sucked into thinking something is healthy because it says it contains strawberries on the tin/bottle yet they don’t advertise all the other rubbish that goes into it.

I don’t know what the solution is, but there is definitely a problem there that needs solving.

It also offers high calories for low cost, which is mistaken as a “bargain” in low income areas. The high cost of organic is in part due to subsidies to traditional farmers. It’s totally counterintuitive, we should be encouraging organic farmers not mass production of crops that are nutritionally dull.

As i recall, Pret a Manger (http://pretamanger.com/us/menu/) did a bang up business in NYC during the lunch crunch, and you could get a pretty darned healthy lunch there if you picked wisely. How does it do in the UK?

Organic to Go (http://www.organictogo.com/) is starting to pop up all over in Los Angeles. Though the prices are outrageous, you can also score a tastey, relatively healthy lunch in a relatively speedy manner (presuming you choose to avoid their 400 calories cookies and such)

Poor and non-white neighborhoods have more convenience stores & less supermarkets than richer neighborhoods. Poor and non-white neighborhoods have more fast food restaurants. Poor and non-white neighborhoods have more liquor stores. Poor and non-white neighborhoods also tended to have fewer fruit and vegetable markets, bakeries, specialty stores, and natural food stores

So which came first? The chicken or the egg?

Supermarkets are in business to make money. Are we saying that supermarket chains are choosing to forgo profits by avoided poorer neighborhoods?

Not a simple question

link to a research study on this subject

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/525636_4

I am all for healthy eating though, and the thought of eating fast food makes me feel ill. I definitely think there is a case for governments to subside healthy food with taxes from unhealthy food.