Claire Byrne: ''Obesity is a symptom of poverty''

IM0

For Forks Sake wrote: »

somebody must've eaten it. :eek:

it was the editor, the fat bastard :mad:

Xenophile

Xenophile wrote: »

Claire Byrne: ''Obesity is a symptom of poverty''

Poverty in early childhood where other siblings are involved, might be easily be a factor. Her comment is worthy of being researched.

To a greater extent, in a large family where children constantly hear talk of not able to make ends meet and there not being enough, in my view it ingrains itself a "scarcity principle" in the minds of the children, to the extent that they must pack in as much as possible in the unconscious belief that there is a real threat of hunger.

Much eating is comfort eating and in better off and better educated families the parent can nurture children psychologically rather than have the child try to deal with the "emotional emptiness" through nourishment which in poorer families will invariably consist of sugar and carbohydrates..........bread, coca cola, chips, burgers, and pizzas etc.

Logical Fallacy

Ste.phen wrote: »

Is she wrong?

Yes.

saa

In some ways but not necessarily, its a silly blanket statement. There are some elements though like I know it is harder to exercise when you cannot afford 600 euro a year for the gym, live week to week so you don't have to savings to buy indoor exercise equipment, you live in an area where you just don't go outside to exercise its not done and sometimes not safe but its education as well, and in fairness none of us really were educated properly in regards to food and exercise and why id be bothered with it kind of thing.

The food thing, I know white carbs, biscuits, crisps, frozen nuggets etc. are cheaper than buying more protein, fresh food, brown carbs, healtier snacks, unprocessed meat.

Its usually 2-3 times more expensive and I know there are ways to do a healthier shop but buying the healthier options in supermarkets is at a premium, or at least know how if I knew how to cook I would save so much money.

Tigger

saa wrote: »

The food thing, I know white carbs, biscuits, crisps, frozen nuggets etc. are cheaper than buying more protein, fresh food, brown carbs, healtier snacks, unprocessed meat.

Its usually 2-3 times more expensive and I know there are ways to do a healthier shop but buying the healthier options in supermarkets is at a premium, or at least know how if I knew how to cook I would save so much money.

no this is simply untrue.
if you can bake a pizza you can bake a chicken and some spuds and boil some veg.

later12

For Forks Sake wrote: »

Ah here you're giving her far too much credit, when she was on Newstalk even the most inept of politicians were able to run rings around her. Shouting the same question repeatedly does not serious political hosting make.

She probably reads this site you insensitive scamp.

Don't worry Claire, I still love you.
























No but really I do.

joewicklow

mattjack wrote: »

what's a knacker estate ?

A really long Hiace.

Logical Fallacy

Tigger wrote: »

no this is simply untrue.
if you can bake a pizza you can bake a chicken and some spuds and boil some veg.

Indeed, it's also untrue that buying unhealthy food is cheaper than healthy food.

This is the kind of myth thinking that has people like her saying stupid **** in the first place.

wintersolstice

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Don't forget the tracksuits

or the wearing of pyjamas to the shops!

Dudess

Wouldn't e.g. a white sliced pan be cheaper than a whole-grain loaf though? A packet of cold meat cheaper than fresh meat etc?

Crazy Horse 6

Who

Tigger

Dudess wrote: »

Wouldn't e.g. a white sliced pan be cheaper than a whole-grain loaf though? A packet of cold meat cheaper than fresh meat etc?

nothing particularly healthy about whole grain bread tbh
fresh meat is much cheaper than packet meat if you compare like with like
people just crave the 20% salt

a chicken costs about a fiver a packet of chicken slices weight about one tenth and costs 1.50 odd

Scanlas The 2nd

saa wrote: »

In some ways but not necessarily, its a silly blanket statement. There are some elements though like I know it is harder to exercise when you cannot afford 600 euro a year for the gym, live week to week so you don't have to savings to buy indoor exercise equipment, you live in an area where you just don't go outside to exercise its not done and sometimes not safe but its education as well, and in fairness none of us really were educated properly in regards to food and exercise and why id be bothered with it kind of thing.

The food thing, I know white carbs, biscuits, crisps, frozen nuggets etc. are cheaper than buying more protein, fresh food, brown carbs, healtier snacks, unprocessed meat.

Its usually 2-3 times more expensive and I know there are ways to do a healthier shop but buying the healthier options in supermarkets is at a premium, or at least know how if I knew how to cook I would save so much money.

2 pieces of lambs liver; 79 cent.

Bad Panda

Claire Byrne can say what the f*ck she likes...the little ride.

Logical Fallacy

Dudess wrote: »

Wouldn't e.g. a white sliced pan be cheaper than a whole-grain loaf though? A packet of cold meat cheaper than fresh meat etc?

When comparing a healthy and unhealthy diet...like for like comparison simply isn't enough. You also need to look at total food budget and total eating habits.

Due to food allergies i need to eat gluten and wheat free (and dairy free...**** me i miss cheese) and i buy gluten free pasta and pita breads...which are abnormally expensive. Even with these additional items and their higher costs my food bill is still far less than it was when i was eating an unhealthy diet as there are no chocolate, biscuits, fizzy drinks or other bollix on my shopping list.

It's not really the like for like comparison that costs a lot...it's the fact that when people are eating unhealthy they tend to snack a lot more on ****e foods that cost a lot.

There is a massive **** in the foods you eat and their price points depending on whether you are eating a healthy or unhealthy diet...so a like for like comparison is flawed as many of the foods in each diet will not exist within the other.

PrincessLola

I thought it was generally accepted that poor people tend to be more overweight?

Consider a lack of education on nutrition, or the right cooking skills

Whereas rich people can swan around in gyms and afford lots of fancy vegetables and fruit.

Logical Fallacy

PrincessLola wrote: »

I thought it was generally accepted that poor people tend to be more overweight?

Consider a lack of education on nutrition, or the right cooking skills

Whereas rich people can swan around in gyms and afford lots of fancy vegetables and fruit.

There is a massive difference between being overweight and being obese though but even then there is no data that shows that poor people are normally more overweight than rich people, so yes, it might be generally accepted...but it's still wrong. It's just a lot of people being wrong about the same thing, which happens all the time tbh.

The below is worth a look.

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2011/08/the-poor-are-not-fat.html

Crazy Horse 6

I blame the single mothers myself.

billybudd

PrincessLola wrote: »

I thought it was generally accepted that poor people tend to be more overweight?

Consider a lack of education on nutrition, or the right cooking skills

Whereas rich people can swan around in gyms and afford lots of fancy vegetables and fruit.

It is accepted.

By jumped up ignorant, insensitive non-caring lazy journalists who put sensationlism over people, create a bias and negative wrongful insight into less forturnate parts of society.

By this tools rational these obese people are poverty stricken.

Mary harney

Brian cowen

George Hook

Dawn French

Matt lucas

Al Murray

the list could go on.

Chances are you will see the same amount of obese kids in Blackrock as in Darnedale, Typical D4 slob/snob.

LH Pathe

Poor her

paddy147

Sure Claire Byrne is a fat auld geebag herself.

She looks even worse in HD though.

iguana

Dudess wrote: »

Wouldn't e.g. a white sliced pan be cheaper than a whole-grain loaf though? A packet of cold meat cheaper than fresh meat etc?

No not really, not if you shop right.

Tayla

hondasam wrote: »

Poor people do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. People are not starving, but they are “food insecure.” If the only food available/affordable is fried foods, cheap /junk etc, then that is obviously what people are going to eat.

Why would the only food available or affordable be fried foods and cheap junk Aldi do 6 different types of vegetables each week for 29c each, if people can't afford fresh vegetables then canned or frozen vegetables are extremely cheap. The other basics such as rice,pasta,potatoes and eggs can be bought pretty cheap aswell. The most expensive thing would be meat but if you shop around there is good deals, it may not be the best quality meat but a lot of people can't afford that.

Here is an article from 2005 but the statement that they make would be more accurate than Claires.

wrote:

....a survey showed that children in disadvantaged areas were more likely to eat fast food than others.

Children in disadvantaged areas were also shown to be more likely to eat chocolate, sweets or crisps more than once a day, watch television and play computer games.

billybudd

Domo230 wrote: »

I don't know who this person is but at least for the western world she is correct.

Eating healthy is much more expensive than eating processed junk and many poorer people cannot afford it.
Our family can barely afford it.

Not true, its part of my job to know prices of all most all food items sold and truth be told if you put effort into it then its cheaper to eat non proccessed foods, its marketing that is the problem, there is more profit in processed food.

saa

Tigger wrote: »

no this is simply untrue.
if you can bake a pizza you can bake a chicken and some spuds and boil some veg.

Jaysus Christo I was exaggerating, I can cook I meant I was a better cook I would buy more basic ingredients..
I spend more when I buy from health food shops, the more expensive sprouted bread, more protein, fresh produce which can be on offers but a lot of people in the area im in rely on Centre for a lot of their food because of the lack of transportation and location and you're really limited but you can work with it if you want to.

I know I personally spend more on nutritious food than what my family bought the average stodgy Dunnes stores trolley of crap.
That doesnt mean its not possible I just said I save more money if my cooking skills were better............

saa

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

Indeed, it's also untrue that buying unhealthy food is cheaper than healthy food.

This is the kind of myth thinking that has people like her saying stupid **** in the first place.

I wasn't being sincere I think you need to relax LF..

Logical Fallacy

saa wrote: »

I wasn't being sincere I think you need to relax LF..

How were you not being sincere about healthy food costing more than unhealthy food???

Also my "her" was a reference to the person mentioned in the OP, not yourself.

saa

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

How were you not being sincere about healthy food costing more than unhealthy food???

Also my "her" was a reference to the person mentioned in the OP, not yourself.

Ah it doesn't matter but it was because I was both exaggerating and ragging on my cooking skills as its not a matter of healthy food being more expensive if you have the knowledge, so therefore its more expensive for me buying the more expensive items rather than knowing the cheaper way around it by knowing how to cook. Ha I didn't think that "her" was me, no one ever talks about me. :pac:

lamai

In poorer asian countries fat people are thought of as wealthy

billybudd

Domo230 wrote: »

Well please do tell how it can be done as from personal experience and much evidence it seems to be the other way around..

http://lowfatcooking.about.com/od/healthandfitness/a/Is-Healthy-Eating-Too-Expensive.htm

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2011/08/eating-healthy-is-expensive-64671.html

Those are based on American food life and even then its bull****.

I will give a few examples.

Do you realise you can go into smithfield main market and buy your fruits and vegetables for the week at probaly 30% less than tescos etc.

You can chnage your mentality of how you eat and what you eat, you do not need to eat meat everyday or fish everyday, pulses are a great sources of nutrients and with the right inexpensive ingredients such as tinned tomatoes, onion, garlic, celery, leeks can be turned into a nice casserole that will leave you as full as eating a snack box but with less calories.

You can buy bulk large bags of rice from the several african and chinese shops around these are of good quality and will last months are prced at a fraction of the price of uncle bens for instance or even shop brand bags.

several excellent butchers around meath street selling great quality fresh chickens, pork, lamb, beef etc at less cost than large supermarkets, excellent fish shop on meatn street selling lovely mackerel, sole, ray etc this week they had hake filets and plaice filets with no bones in them for 1 euro each, the hake was big enough for two people grilled and served with some buttered baby potatoes and some roasted carrots will cost you €2 for two people.

you could use online recipes to find out how to cook cheaper cuts of meat like ox tail, lamb shanks, offal, etc etc fx buckleys butchers on moore street have incredible meat produce at very reasonable prices. i could go on but maybe you get the general idea?

paddy147

lamai wrote: »

In poorer asian countries fat people are thought of as wealthy

....and are then eaten too.:eek::pac:

Delancey

I think Clare Byrne is a babe btw.

She has a point in that obesity is increasingly a condition of lower Socio Economic groups.
A guy I know is heavily involved in Hill Walking / Orienteering , he was telling me that he recently he took a group of schoolgirls on a hike and when they stopped for lunch the girls with '' good accents '' were eating pasta salads and fruit while the other girls were stuffing their faces with crisps , Mar Bars and Fanta.

It is interesting that a hundred years ago thinness was seen as a condition of poverty ( in WW1 the average army recruit gained 2 stone weight in military service ) - now obesity is seen as sign of a low income.

muckwarrior

PrincessLola wrote: »

I thought it was generally accepted that poor people tend to be more overweight?

Consider a lack of education on nutrition, or the right cooking skills

Whereas rich people can swan around in gyms and afford lots of fancy vegetables and fruit.

What a load of shite. Do you think people need a college education to be able to throw a few vegetables in a pot of boiling water? If you can't afford a gym the only alternative is to spend the day sitting on your hole? Do you think that in order to eat healthily you have to spend loads on "fancy vegetables and fruit"?

Solair

She is correct if she's talking about Ireland or any developed, relatively wealthy country.

Cheap, low quality food tends to be high carbohydrate processed and high fat

Fresh vegetables and good cuts of meat in Ireland are surprisingly expensive.

A bit of Education would go a long way too. Many families learn their habits from the previous generation of fish n chip addicts.

ntlbell

Dudess wrote: »

Wouldn't e.g. a white sliced pan be cheaper than a whole-grain loaf though? A packet of cold meat cheaper than fresh meat etc?

white sliced pan's and cold meat don't make you obese tho.

ntlbell

Solair wrote: »

She is correct if she's talking about Ireland or any developed, relatively wealthy country.

Cheap, low quality food tends to be high carbohydrate processed and high fat

Fresh vegetables and good cuts of meat in Ireland are surprisingly expensive.

A bit of Education would go a long way too. Many families learn their habits from the previous generation of fish n chip addicts.

most butchers will do meat for roughly a month for 20e or so

how is this expensive?

sbsquarepants

Come on, what are the odds of looking like claire byrne and reasoning like stephen hawking?
She looks real purty on the teeveee:D

PK2008

Hmmm, she could be right- I believe Ethiopia has one of the worst diabetes problems in the world

sbsquarepants

billybudd wrote: »

Not true, its part of my job to know prices of all most all food items sold and truth be told if you put effort into it then its cheaper to eat non proccessed foods, its marketing that is the problem, there is more profit in processed food.

Of course it is. If any product, food or otherwise is processed, someone has been paid to do that processing. Same when it's advertised, does anyone really think that captain birdseye works for free, or pays for all those tv adds and shiny boxes out of his own pocket? This money has to be recouped - therefore the processed food has to cost more than the unprocessed version.

Auvers

she has a point the Mississippi Delta is one of the poorest places in America and also has the highest rates of obesity in the world

suicide_circus

Tiocfaidh Armani wrote: »

Fatty food is cheaper so therefore she is right.

NO.

fuit, veg, rice etc are extremely cheap but they take time and effort to prepare.
Fatty processed foods are easy, therefore the lazy povos eat them and their children balloon and then the fat lazy bastards blame 'da govinment' and demand more money from the tax payer to buy mobility scooters.

suicide_circus

Dudess wrote: »

Wouldn't e.g. a white sliced pan be cheaper than a whole-grain loaf though? A packet of cold meat cheaper than fresh meat etc?

thet are not obese because they eat white sliced pans and cold meats. they are obese because they eat batter burgers and chips and do no exercise.

EGAR

What exactly defines *poverty* in Ireland?

Plenty of obese people where I live and nearly all of them are farmers .

Not exactly poverty stricken.

fishy fishy

Ste.phen wrote: »

Is she wrong?

thats a question for mary harney i reckon :rolleyes: or maybe lenny henry's wife

they are the only two "poverty stricken" people I know...oh ya, besides Claire Byrne herself a couple years ago.

Noopti

She came out with some stupid ****e on Newstalk Breakfast when she co-presented that. I was on the verge of never listening to it again, when one day she was gone......for good. How I rejoiced.

Well, I totally see how this is the case in America. I lived in a working class neighbourhood in New York and the local stores had no fresh fruit or veg at all, just junk food. You could get veg at the supermarket (20 mins walk), but it was ridiculously expensive. I remember peppers being something like $2 each. Now and again, I'd be desperate for a nutritious meal but the ingredients for something like a stir fry, risotto or lasagne cost an absolute fortune. We could get a couple of Mexican meals delivered to our front door for under ten dollars including the tip, but we spent much more on fresh food. Social welfare is really bad over there as well, so a lot of poorer people are working all hours in really ****ty jobs. I worked in a hotel and didn't get out of work until past 11pm. There was no way in hell I was going to go home and cook at that time, so I always ended up getting fast food on the way home. I definitely knew better, but when you're starving and need to fill your belly, you take whatever is around. And I'm someone who generally understands nutrition and eats well. A lot of people don't really know any better or prefer not to know what this food is doing to them.

I'm not sure how this translates to Ireland, given that a lot of 'poor' people aren't working at all and have endless hours to prepare food and shop around, but I'm sure there are lots of similarities. You only have to go to Tesco to see how cheap the rubbish food is. Tins of dodgy meat, cheesy corn snacks, pot noodle things all going for well under 50c. Frozen chicken nuggets, waffles, pies are much cheaper than fresh veg and fresh meat. If you're working, have little time and are on a limited budget, you can see the appeal.

fishy fishy

Bella Moldy Movement wrote: »

Well, I totally see how this is the case in America. I lived in a working class neighbourhood in New York and the local stores had no fresh fruit or veg at all, just junk food. You could get veg at the supermarket (20 mins walk), but it was ridiculously expensive. I remember peppers being something like $2 each. Now and again, I'd be desperate for a nutritious meal but the ingredients for something like a stir fry, risotto or lasagne cost an absolute fortune. We could get a couple of Mexican meals delivered to our front door for under ten dollars including the tip, but we spent much more on fresh food. Social welfare is really bad over there as well, so a lot of poorer people are working all hours in really ****ty jobs. I worked in a hotel and didn't get out of work until past 11pm. There was no way in hell I was going to go home and cook at that time, so I always ended up getting fast food on the way home. I definitely knew better, but when you're starving and need to fill your belly, you take whatever is around. And I'm someone who generally understands nutrition and eats well. A lot of people don't really know any better or prefer not to know what this food is doing to them.

I'm not sure how this translates to Ireland, given that a lot of 'poor' people aren't working at all and have endless hours to prepare food and shop around, but I'm sure there are lots of similarities. You only have to go to Tesco to see how cheap the rubbish food is. Tins of dodgy meat, cheesy corn snacks, pot noodle things all going for well under 50c. Frozen chicken nuggets, waffles, pies are much cheaper than fresh veg and fresh meat. If you're working, have little time and are on a limited budget, you can see the appeal.

no excuse for you.......ever hear of "brown bagging" it. i.e. making a lunch/dinner to take with you. This is what I read from your post.
Its okay for me to eat junk food because i am working, but you shouldn't be eating junk food 'cause you are not work but are too lazy to shop for it.

in reality - you yourself were too lazy to organise yourself so you wouldn't have to purchase junk food. A little organisation goes a long loong way.

_feedback_

I really think buying fresh is cheaper than the frozen/processed muck.

If you have a look in the freezer of a supermarket, you'll struggle to see anything for under €2.50.

One thing I often see being thrown in to trolleys is a massive bag of oven chips. That must be a minimum of €3. You'd get 5 or 6 bags of baby spuds in Aldi for that price, or more if they are on offer.

It's not about price, it's about laziness, innit.

working fool

Chuck Stone wrote: »

I have a hard soft spot for her.

Here's a pic of her caressing her puppies.

Sorry to go off topic
But is the guy on the left the original robocop that went mad ?

BickNarry

Some stuff I put together when looking at poverty and class. But this is After Hours......

Studies of ghettoization within the African American community in the United States focused on how spatial organisation can impact on people’s experience of poverty - also focuses on how the poor are perceived as outsiders

Massey and Denton argues that ‘most of black America is condemned to experience a social environment where poverty and joblessness are the norm, where most families are on welfare, where educational failure prevails, where social and physical deterioration abound’ (1993)
They argue that this not only has an impact on people’s physical experience of material poverty, but that children in these areas has a lack of access to role models for more other life experiences.

Wilson (1991) argues that the aspiration of ‘youngsters who grow up in households without a steady breadwinner and in neighbourhoods that are not organised around work.. are more exposed to less disciplined habits that are associated with casual or less frequent work.
The notion of social exclusion originates with Townsend’s concept that poverty affects social participation – essentially the idea that the poor are an excluded group in society

Townsend (1993) argues that the poor are socially excluded if they cannot obtain ‘the conditions of life – that is, the diets, amenities, standards and services – which allow them to play the roles, participate in the relationships and follow customary behaviour which is expected of them by virtue of their membership of society.

Links material inequality with social participation and citizenship.

The social exclusion model has increased the focus on poor neighbourhoods because spatial exclusion is the most visible and evident form of exclusion.

Wilson (1992) suggests
1. the ghetto poor are not only marginal in the labour market but their economic position is reinforced by their social milieu.
2. living in a poor neighbourhood can result in feelings of social isolation

Neighbourhood Effects (Bauder, 1992; Corcoran, 1995)
1. Socialisation models suggests that a concentration of poverty affects residents through peer-group influences spreading anti-social behaviour and through lack of positive neighbourhood role models
2. In some countries, such as the USA, local services such as schools and community welfare services are funded through a local tax base, so in areas with more poor people, there will be less resources and more demands
3. Network isolation theories suggest that poor people become disconnected from the larger group in society who are in employment and their moral and social cultures
4. Broken windows hypothesis argues that accumulating physical neglect can ‘tip’ a community into lower social controls. ‘Vandalism can occur anywhere once communal barriers – the sense of mutual regard and the obligations of civility - are lowered by actions that seem to signal that no-one cares’ (Wilson and Kelling, 1982).

These deprived communities often have low social cohesion because high concentrations of poverty erode social capital, making it harder to combat community problems as they arise.

This can also impact on the individual’s sense of empowerment because they lack control over their environment and security.
Housing relocation programmes in the USA which offer vouchers for housing relocation show that moving children into low poverty areas means that they are less likely to display problem behaviours

Buck (2001) found that in the UK people living in deprived areas have less chance of getting a job, of leaving poverty (and greater risk of re-entering poverty) than people in non-deprived areas, even when controlling for individual characteristics.
However, Byrne (1999) found that rather than the population of these deprived areas being permanent, there is a very high rate of turnover in terms of residents because ‘if people can they will get out’

Burchardt et al (2002) argue that assessment of the long-term data indicates that rather than there being a permanent underclass, there is in fact a permanent overclass, people who never move into poverty and always manage to protect themselves from it.

Byrne concludes ‘social exclusion is often equated with permanent unemployment but that is a relatively uncommon condition. In contrast, the phenomenon of chomage d’exclusion, the cycling from unemployment to poorly paid work is more common