dogsmilk wrote:
I think one thing that hasn't been mentioned so far is the pleasure dynamic. Like despite the fact junk food is bad for us, we're drawn to high fat/sugar foods because 'in the wild' such things are an important source of energy. If you're poor, you're limited as to what you can to make life more pleasurable and sitting on the sofa wolfing down KFC is a cheap way to get some satisfaction and comfort. You can't afford to book yourself onto a yoga retreat to either discover your inner self or to go on a detox slimming quest. Restricting yourself to a healthy diet can seem much more appealing if you're about to hop in the 4x4 and pop to the tennis club.
It's like when people moan about beggars spending it all on drink - if I were homeless, I reckon getting shitfaced would be a pretty attractive option. It helps you forget your shit life and you're not exactly going to be investing your money in blue chip stock.
Poverty means restricted outlets for sources of pleasure and junk food is a cheap source of pleasure. It can also be demotivating to be poor - if you're unemployed you might have all the time in the world to learn to cook really healthy cheap food and the time to shop around, but you also might not feel motivated to care that much if you're stressed about money, feeling down about your dead end life and bored shitless filling in applications you never hear back from. Sitting watching Jeremy Kyle and eating a pot noodle might be much more what you feel like doing than trying out a new recipe for lentil casserole. Similarly, after hours swiping goods through the till at Asda to barely cover the bills, you're probably going to fancy getting pissed or stuffing your face with cake. You're not going to be thinking about how that bikini is going look when you hit Hawaii next week.
Welcome to England (and many other places like it).
