While doctors and nutritionists need to keep the disparity between poorer neighborhoods and more affluent neighborhoods in mind, when suggesting healthier food choices to their patients or clients, Buying local produce as opposed to falling prey to the “organic” trend and patronizing local farmers’ markets are the best and most cost effective ways to eat healthier. Leafier products that minorities are familiar with… cabbage, collards, … and cutting back on trans/saturated fats cost virtually nothing. This, coming from someone who is currently struggling financially due to unemployment.

People suffering from obesity, or on the cusp… need to be more mobile. The problem just isn’t going to solve itself. We all have to start somewhere and do the best we can to look after ourselves… regardless of our size.

I do think Trader Joes should build stores in more urban neighbhorhoods. There’s never any excuse to put your health at risk.

I would not give vouchers to buy food but I would require nutrition education for those recieving government benefits to teach those who may just not know how to prepare healthy alternatives to grandmas fried everything.

Free helath clinics would be a good idea if people would use them for more than a way to get free condoms, but I digress.

My generation those who graduated from school in the 80’s took physical education out of the schools because it was thought to ruin the self esteem of children now the are trying to reverse their mistake.

Now onto the main issue I did not see the show but I am tired of shows like this that say you fat folks need to stop eating and exercise not to mention I have nothing to say if Star Jones has anything to do with it.

i also assumed that you were interested in other peoples as well, especially since you tweeted the link to me, so you didnt have to tell me that, it was a given

and actually no one taught me to pick up a piece of fruit. my mama bought it. we had it at school. i saw it on tv and in commercials and it looked good. so i tried it and liked it.

and while my mama would buy fruit sometimes, she still to this day does not eat much of it and she is a heart patient.

when i tell people that i eat a partial raw diet, they act like its the most unimaginable thing in the world to have a diet that consists heavily of fruits and uncooked vegetables.

i cant tell you how many times i have heard when i tell people i dont eat meat “well do you eat chicken?” as if chicken is not a meat.

so people need to stop the cop outs and craziness and take the lead in their own lives.

if people spend their lives waiting around for someone to come and help them they are asking for a life of misery.

and then the other excuse about where you live..i know people here in the city who grow vegetables on their window sills, so even if you live in mississippi, you have options.

its up to you to seek them.

and there are some people you can speak to until you are purple in the face and they still will not care or want to change, plenty of organizations do it on a daily basis.

is that not what opinions are?

secondly, i stand by my main point.

just because you have always done something or was never taught something, when you are grown YOU are responsible for your life.

You dont have to go to a specialty store to get anything. Like i said i go to aldis. aldis is considered low end, where all the “poor” folks shop and they have fruits and veggies that most of the time end up sitting on the shelves and going bad in certain neighborhoods here.

hell, i go out of my way at times to those particular hoods because i know the folks aint buying the stuff so i will have plenty to choose from.

so i wont sugar coat it. i see it everyday..

have seen it all my life.

i grew up in the the projects and folks would actually say silly ish like you “eat white” if you had a piece of fruit or preferred something healthy over the junk at the corner store.

And no matter where you live, most people have access to tv and newspapers and there are plenty of programs and articles that deal with health so if you choose not to seek out knowledge and information to better your own life, then you have and get what you have and get.

And Krys you asked “Why would they fight for something that they were taught was never wrong in the first place?”

How about because you want to live and not suffer from every possible disease and illness there is.