CP19348
It is also a problem of not knowing which foods are inexpensive but nutritious and not knowing how to prepare those foods. I don’t know how the situation is in the United States, with those food stamps or whatever, but welfare recipients here do get enough money to allow for a nutritous diet. The problem is that they do not know HOW to stretch their budget while still keeping it nutritious. Of course, poor people cannot afford all the skinless chicken breasts and calorie-reduced Weight Watchers products on the supermarket shelves. Many meals which are cheap and easy to make are unhealthy. But there are so many foods which are inexpensive and very healthy: rice (the REAL kind), pasta (it comes in whole wheat too), legumes (kidney beans, chick peas, lentils, etc.), all kinds of grains, potatoes, carrots, etc. A vegetarian diet for example can be quite cheap. But, you need to know what to do. How to make a good, satisfying meal with lentils is not something your social worker usually tells you. So you reach for whatever is easiest (hot dogs, chips…) and it’s often high in fat and low in nutrients. I used to work in a food bank and we put in the food hampers whatever we got from supermarkets and other sources. When we got okra, we put a bag of okra in every hamper. Many people took the okra out of their hamper and left it behind. They probably didn’t know what it was or what to do with it.