Simply put, you should not be drinking your calories. Juice, while not as bad as pop, is not good for you. It's just not as bad. If you want fruit sugars, eat some fruit!

Now, this isn't a call to cut unhealthy things out of your diet. (Goddamned near) everything is ok in moderation. But when I see people chugging back 1L of juice like it was water, I still facepalm.

Maybe some motherfuckers just like juice.

I have a friend that drinks 4L of milk per day. It's most of his diet, actually. He's a greater athlete than I. :sweatdrop

I would like to point out that for low-income families it is actually much cheaper to eat "bad" yet extremely filling meals consisting of bread, pasta, potatoes, and low-grade meat products than it is to spend a lot of money on "good" foods like fresh vegetables. Even the vegetables that they would be eating are probably canned and therefore loaded with sodium.

This is taking into account if they actually have time to prepare their own food. If both parents are working, it is no surprise that junk or fast food takes the place of even "unhealthy" prepared food that would still be better than a bucket of KFC.

If you're single, though, it is probably more than possible to eat healthier, as has been mentioned. I would just like to point out that for low-income families the same thing does not necessarily apply.

EDIT: This is not to say that your average low-income family does not exacerbate the problem by making poor choices even within their more limited budget, but there are other factors other than poor choices at play.

Time really isn't as big of a factor. With slow cookers and rice cookers, and other automated kitchen appliances (that aren't really that expensive), it becomes much simpler. Hell, even making a soup from scratch generally doesn't require a huge time investment, you just put it on and go about some other work.

Honestly, its a very weak excuse that reeks of ignorance.

QFT

Add to this that poor communities tend to be stuck with crappy grocery stores and/or convenience stores. Add to that that many poor people have to rely on public transportation to get around and it becomes even harder to shop anywhere decent. Not to mention transporting enough groceries for an entire family when you don't have a car is a pain in the ass, even for short distances. (I've made my shoulder sore several times just carrying home groceries when I lived somewhere where there were no buses. >_>)

Here's a few tips from Blue:

- Buy meat on sale and freeze it. Then prepare in a slow cooker later. Toss it in at breakfast, eat it for dinner. Easy.
- Want fruit? Get apples. There are many kinds and all of them keep forever. Seriously, they will stay good for literal MONTHS.
- AVOID BERRIES! They're healthy, but unless you're eating them the same day or freezing them (which is tasty, especially for grapes), they don't last long and waste a lot of your money.
- Soup is incredibly easy to make, even in large amounts. Chop up some cooked meat and fresh veggies, put in a giant pot, and as long as you keep it hot or cold, with nothing in between, you'll have good food.
- Skip cereal, eat oatmeal. It takes longer to cook, but it holds you over longer.
- Frozen is just as good as fresh.

Flash frozen foods tend to be fresher and taste better then packaged meats in a chill case. They also don't have to be treated with chemical preservitives so they last longer in pre-freezing environments and look fresher.

Flash frozen chicken and frozen veggie blends have been my friends for years now. Depending on your place of grocering, you can usually get a 1 pound bag of veggie blends for a dollar a bag on sales. Vegetable stew blends and single-veggie bags tend to be much cheaper.

Nothing beats shopping a day or two after New Years, if you can manage. A lot of packaged food goes on rock-bottom sale then because they want to move the stock out to make room for expected big shipments (at least out store does).

I just doublechecked and it's not past its expiry date.

It's probably something else that reeks.

I just wanted to add, depending on your specific grocery store's stock, giant bags of frozen berries can be pretty awesome. The Loblaws by my place puts 2kg bags on sale once a month or so and it's pretty reasonable, and naturally they keep. I use them to make fruit shakes now. As hypocritical as it sounds given this thread, it has replaced my juice-drinking. :p


Also second the oatmeal. I make a big batch of it and store it in the fridge, it lasts a week or more. Just plain oatmeal. It's hella cheap and is really filling. The plain stuff is really bland though, so I toss in sliced apples, cinnamon, or brown sugar for some taste.