[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by packs

That is just not true. If you're eating something like fast food regularly because it's either cheap enough for you to feed your entire family, or you just don't have any energy left to cook otherwise after your day, you're consuming empty calories. Empty calories come from food with no nutritional value, like fast food, again, for example. You can limit your portions all you want but you will still gain weight disproportionally and your health will suffer just the same. It's because a lot of the food we eat in this country is low quality food.

Another important factor is the dearth of available "healthy" food options in many of the poorest (often urban) areas of the country. It's easy for those who have never struggled with poverty to say things like "just eat healthier, stupid" - I'd wager that many of those claiming this position have never even been to a "food desert" much less lived in one.