- EAT A BAG OF LOW-FAT NUTRIENT-DENSE DICKS, JOHN MACKEY: The CEO of Whole Foods is a big fan of Ayn Rand, did you know that? Which explains why his solution to America’s healthcare crisis is for people to quit being so goddamn lazy and eat more healthy vegetables, which are easily procured for $4.99 a pound at Whole Foods! Meanwhile, a study shows that people on food stamps get fatter because you cannot buy healthy $4.99-a-pound vegetables when you are on food stamps. [Wall Street Journal, Science Daily]
YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO RICH TOO SKINNY OR TOO DUMB
August 12, 2009
{ 65 comments }
Can I pick up one of those low-fat dicks at my local sex shop, or do I have travel across town to my organic sex shop?
Well, that would certainly explain why I feel like I’m being judged every time I walk into a Whole Foods.
This editwhorial is from the Onion, right? I’ve seen editorials from Exxon on the joys of burning MORE oil that are less obvious than this one. BTW, isn’t this the same John Mackey who posed as a commenter to praise his own brilliant leadershit? Why, yes it is. No less a blatant advert-whore than Foolscap or whoever the fuck that blog whore is.
I’ve seen studies that point out that most poors can’t afford to eat well thanks to sugar/beef/corn subsidies which make shitty food cheap. Of course, those who benefit from same sugar/beef/corn subsidies are vehemently opposed to doing the same thing for veggies (lower profit margins.)
This dick is also anti-union. When they set up shop in Seattle they had the coop, unionized PCC directly in their sights. One of my few points of pride is that I was a PCC member when they were nothing but a tiny grocery on 65th St. The location that the Whole Foods dicks put out of business. As I understand, however, PCC is still going strong.
In fact, I shopped at PCC back in the days when sugar and beans were still stored in giant barrels that little kids could sneeze on. The white sugar always had a graffitied skull and cross bones on it, back in the early 70s.
Even most cheaper, non-organic vegetables at supermarkets are tasteless dreck, with attention only having been paid to their appearance, taste be damned. Fortunately I have a farmer’s market within short driving distance on Saturdays where I can buy vegetables with actual taste. Otherwise I wouldn’t eat any.
Please preemptively ban foolitics for the blog whoring sure to appear in 3, 2, 1…
Poor people should just do the responsible thing and starve to death. Any Randian can tell you that poverty is a symptom of worthlessness. Sheesh!
The behemoth store in Austin is definitely an eyesore and probably a nesting ground for particularly vicious subspecies of Touareg-driving yuppies. As for me, I’ll choose mortgage payment over super-fresh asparagus.
What’s doubly insulting is that WF takes EBT cards. But I’m certain that you can only afford to purchase 3 days worth of actual quality food for with which to feed a family.
Didn’t this guy dress up like a bum or some such foolishness to go and spy on his minions or whatever? Maybe he has a Jeebus complex, also?
Well, that’s the last time I walk into obnoxious-mart.
The average food stamp benefit is $227 per month for a family. For many people who rely on food stamps, the closest store is a goddamn 7-11, not f’ing Whole Foods.
John Mackey can toss my salad.
SKS said goodbye to fooltics in the other thread. Yeah!
Sara, welcome back from where ever you were. The number of posts already this morning is outstanding, and your alt-text is the best!
You don’t think that people on food stamps are fat because they don’t have a job, or any reason to get off their fat asses and do something.
Unfortunately many of our health-care problems are self-inflicted: two-thirds of Americans are now overweight and one-third are obese.
I may not be a mathmetician but methinks that 2/3 and 1/3 equals 3/3 or 100%. Funny, I swear I see some skinny people walking around town, even at the local Whole Foods. They must be Canadians with their socialized meds.
[re=384045]norbizness[/re]: Farmers Market – or garden.
I really do value this sort of straight forward advice which assumes the victim of whatever malady is wholly responsible for sorting himself out. Kinda like …
“Depressed?” “Cheer up!”
“Unemployed?” “Get a job!”
“Fatass because you can only afford White Castle?” “Then cheer up, get a job, and stop eating that crap!”
[re=384053]widget09[/re]: Please say you’re joking. There have been a few studies showing that poor people tend to eat cheaper higher fat and sugar content foods because that is what fills them up for less money (one of them is linked above). Also, a lot of people on food stamps do work but qualify for food stamps because minimum wage still doesn’t get you above the poverty level.
Ah, health savings accounts and tort reform — why haven’t those tired old solutions been tried? Oh, right.
Health savings accounts are my favorite — essentially, you save up money in a jar under your bed. When you get sick, take the jar with you. It won’t be enough, so sit on the curb in front of the hospital and cry. Voila — health care for all!
[re=384060]give us a bob[/re]: “Depressed?” “Crystal meth!”
“Unemployed?” “Have a beer!”
“Fatass because you can only afford White Castle?” “Do some meth, have a beer and you won’t feel like eating that crap!”
[re=384066]SayItWithWookies[/re]: Oh but Mackey brags about providing high deductible health care to accompany that mason jar of wellness. And that combo is the answer to all the world’s health woes. Mackey’s a douche.
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Fund-Reports/2005/Apr/How-High-Is-Too-High–Implications-of-High-Deductible-Health-Plans.aspx
Also, it’s not ‘cash’ or ‘stamps’ one gets, but a debit card that most likely isn’t accepted at farmer’s markets or co-ops. I’ll probably getting one of those cards soon despite (or because of) the fact that i work full time at just over minimum wage.
The Whole Foods flagship store in Austin is exactly what you’d imagine a health food store on the Vegas strip would look like. So, so, so…much going on. But the chipotle chocolate gelato keeps me coming back for more, more, more.
[re=384066]SayItWithWookies[/re]: He does not say that all his employees are being ripped off. A medical patient who has a good corporate insurance plan is going to get a lower price for medical services.
People with catastrophic and individual plans not only pay more for insurance, but they pay more for medical services. We get screwed on both ends, the end.
“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out
of other people’s money.”
More like the problem with shopping at Whole Foods is that you run out of your own money in about five minutes. Am I right?
Seriously, in every interview that I’ve ever seen about health care Obama or someone from his administration has admitted that Americans need an overhaul in their lifestyle. Unfortunately, the people who are in the greatest need of a nutritionist can’t afford one.
I would say that I’d never buy food from Whole Foods again, but I have a feeling that if I didn’t stuff from companies whose executives have a shrine to Ayn (hey, that rhymes if you pronounce both words correctly, maybe) I would be naked and starving.
I like Trader Joes myself.
[re=384064]Cicada[/re]: I am almost always being sarcastic, in this case, you betcha!
[re=384066]SayItWithWookies[/re]: And I was confused about the part of the Whole Foods high deductible plan that Money not spent in one year rolls over to the next and grows over time. Does that mean if you don’t spend your full $2500 in one year you have to come up to that level before you start drawing down your $2500 for the next year? Yeah, fucking fabulous plan. Take care of yourself, don’t go to a doc for a few years in a row and you’re on the hook for ten g’s when you get cancer or something. Oh, but if you shop at Whole Foods you’ll never get cancer. Riiiight.
Asshole. Now I can feel virtuous about not shopping there, instead of just poor.
[re=384064]Cicada[/re]: I wonder how far you could get with your monthly SNAP benefits at Whole Foods? Probably a couple pounds of arugula and some overpriced jicama.
Fuck you, John Mackey, and fuck all the pretentious twats that make you rich enough to not need insurance.
[re=384101]widget09[/re]: Readjusting my sarcast-o-meter now.
x111e7thst: yes, that actually does approximate my present approach toward dealing with employment and diet issues quite well.
Actually, I’m surprised no one has mentioned the awesome free samples at Whole Paycheck market. I’ve always been able to gather together roughly a meal’s worth of nourishing, pricey foodstuffs (excepting the low-fat dicks) by hitting all the sample displays a couple times or so. Make sure your path to the samples is a bit random, lest they suspect.
Perhaps you should take Mr. Mackey’s suggestion to heart next time you try a sample of organic carrot soup from New Zealand. “No really! He said I could have the whole bag!”
I suggest doing what I do: go to Trader Joe’s.
I used to shop at Whole Paycheck, but since Trader Joe’s came to town, I very rarely go to Whole Paycheck anymore. TJ’s has literally
cut my grocery bill in half.
FU, Whole Foods!!! You suck!
I saw an 8-ounce jar of table salt at Whole Foods for $9. You are supposed to use it to wash the snot out of your nose. Elitist ass holes.
the really galling idea is that the ‘richest’ country in the world can afford to pump trillions into the black hole under the Pentagon, CEO’s bonuses, etc. but doesn’t give a good goddamn about her fellow citizens in need. Founded on Christian principles, my ass.
Christ, I can’t believe you whiners carping about how ‘expensive’ healthy food is. Where I shop carrots are still 79 cents a pound and so is cabbage. Bananas are 89 cents a pound (unless you want the organic, that is a whopping 99 cents. Apples a buck fifty. Potatoes are $4 for a ten pound bag. I eat a lot of this shit, so I know what I’m looking for. And just avoid Whole Foods altogether, they are just gouging you. They are marketing a “healthiness” advantage that is ephemeral, at best.
A 1/2 lb bag of Cheetos is $2.50 (on sale) and tastes good. The poors can eat better if they want to. But Cheetos taste better. They’re living high on those food stamps.
Mr. Whole Foods Guy is half right and half bright, like so many others out there.
My Northern “betters” find the level of obesity here in Alabama to be very amusing. However, there are large, rural sections of the state where fresh produce is not available at any price.
I have worked with dozens of black kids from west Alabama who have never tasted fresh broccoli or pineapple or blueberries. They many get tomatoes and carrots and onions if someone grows them in a garden. The gas station/convenience store where Grandmama buys her groceries may or may not occasionally have a bruised banana or browned Red Delicious.
Maybe I’m mistaken, but wasn’t one of the myriad, scattershot premises of that carefully researched work, “Liberal Fascism” that Whole Foods was an inherently fascist organization?
Anyone else notice that Mr Mackey quotes from the “healthcare experts” at Investor’s Business Daily?
I have my own Whole Foods deductible. I am now deducting myself from ever again entering one of their stores.
So does that mean we should be giving them fewer food stamps to encourage them to lose weight?
[re=384155]Lascauxcaveman[/re]: You live near an honest-to-goodness grocery store. Back when I lived in the shitty part of town with the other poors, the only “grocery store” in my neighborhood sold boxes of mac n’ cheese for $1.99 and single bananas for a $1. They also sold tomatoes for a buck apiece, but that was about it for fresh produce. If I wanted to go to Safeway (the closest actual grocery store), I had to take the light rail and a bus to get there.
Also, it isn’t Cheetos that poor people fill up on, those are fucking pricey. Poor people eat ramen, pasta, hamburger helper, canned meats, stuff like that. Stuff you can buy a lot of for a few dollars. They might treat themselves to 99 cent specials at McDonalds too, but McDonalds doesn’t take food stamps.
Middle-class obese people are the ones who fit your description, not poor people.
[re=384094]trickyrick[/re]: People with catastrophic and individual plans not only pay more for insurance, but they pay more for medical services. We get screwed on both ends, the end.
My ‘catastrophic’ health coverage costs me $167/month and has a $2500 deductible, which works great because I’m pretty healthy. I kick in $2000/year to the health savings account, and have spent about $300 out of pocket for 2 doctors visits (+labs) over the last three years (migraines caused by high blood pressure).
I take 2 blood pressure medications that cost me $19/month out of pocket. So over the past three years, I’ve spent just shy of $7000 on my premiums, deductibles, dr visits and medications, and put another $6000 in the bank. Zoinks! $13 large in just 3 years! Expensive!
But wait a sec, the best other plan available to me would be to join my wife’s employer-provided insurance plan at $400/month, so with those co-pays and a $250 deductible, that would be just a hair under $15,000 the last three years, and I wouldn’t have that $6000 in the medical savings account either. (The benefits chart is pretty much identical to my wife’s more expensive plan, going up to a million bucks of coverage in certain cancers and whatnot, so once you get past the $2500 deductible, there’s really no difference.)
So as I said, if you’re relatively healthy, the high-deductible plan + medical savings account pencils out pretty well.
[re=384167]Clamps[/re]: 830,000 Canadians are currently waiting to be admitted to a hospital or to get treatment, according to a report last month in Investor’s Business Daily.
An impeccable source.
[re=384155]Lascauxcaveman[/re]: the poors aren’t buying food but calories and time (and yes fruit). Go into your local inner-city grocery store and look what’s on sale, what looks fresh, and what looks easy to prepare. The suburban stores with better selections (and higher prices) are a 20 minute drive away (1.5 hours by bus).
I could either take this to the next level and ask for everybody’s tax forms, or just plot a vacation out of Anecdotia.
[re=384207]Lascauxcaveman[/re]: Oooh. You have a lovely pre-existing condition there in your HBP. What are the chances that if you have an unfortunate medical crisis that your catastrophic coverage might be denied and that you be dropped like a hot potato?
[re=384226]scotack[/re]: [re=384196]Cicada[/re]: I’ve lived in some inner city neighborhoods and have never been more that a 15 minute walk from a grocery store that sold basic vegetables you could eat, if you wanted. Maybe not your big Safeways or QFCs with huge selection and rock-bottom prices, but something. I know that’s not true for some, but I suspect most poors have similar access.
So, as applied to the majority of poor fatties, I don’t buy the no-access argument. I think it’s more a matter of taste.
[re=384289]Lascauxcaveman[/re]: Well I guess your anecdotal evidence trumps my anecdotal evidence, which is the problem with relying on anecdotal evidence to inform you on any topic.
You don’t have to take my word for it, it’s a pretty well established concept that has been researched. Here’s one link it took 5 seconds to find with Google:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16776877
There are others, just search “poverty healthy food access”.
I think poor people tend to be uneducated, as well, and don’t know how to eat properly. I have to make my monthly Walmart trip soon, to buy dog food, and dread the idea of getting caught amongst people too fat to walk, so they’re riding scooters while they buy dozens of Walmart brand pizzas, no doubt from China, on sale for a buck apiece. And lot’s of high fructose soft drinks.
And, trust me, they vote for Repubicthugs because Sean O’Rushbeck and Jeebus says to.
Without a doubt, this country would be healthier if fucking Iowa didn’t host the first caucus. Oklahoma takes a beating, justifiably, but really–Iowa and all that corn? It’s killing us and no one who’s running for prez on either ticket will dare to just say no to all that corn syrup.
I also love how Republicans see everything as being fixed by nothing more than more tax cuts and tax incentives. Like people who can’t afford health insurance are needing those tax deductions.
And whine constantly about the deficits, if Democrats do the spending. If trickle down worked, by now I’d be drowning in money, not debt.
[re=384045]norbizness[/re]: Last time I ate hippie stuff from Wheatsville, it made me sick. Last time at Whole Foods, I was almost run over by a lady in a Mercedes. It’s the hobo life for me.
[re=384207]Lascauxcaveman[/re]: The problem is, “relatively healthy” doesn’t mean much. I was sure I was relatively healthy. Then my legs went numb, and I found out I had MS. Your $6000 wouldn’t go far for meds that cost more than $1000 per month.
Luckily, I have great insurance through my employer, and I’ve only had to fight with my insurance company a few times. (Hooray for always picking the most expensive plan, just in case!)
Point is, all the fresh produce in the world didn’t keep a shitty disease from showing up and blowing my whole concept of relative health out of the water. High-deductible insurance isn’t worth the risk.
[re=384056]ShamWow[/re]: obese people are also overweight. so if 2/3 of the population is overweight and 1/3 are obese, half of the 2/3 of the population that are overweight are also obese.
also, fuck whole foods. also.
[re=384339]Baconbits[/re]: unfortunately there are many auto-immune illnesses for which there are no known contributing causes (like MS, type I diabetes, lupus, etc). their instance when compared to the prevalence of heart disease and type II diabetes is miniscule.
we can empirically show that being overweight/obese (esp central obesity) and the immediate physiological changes that it causes (hypertension, atherosclerosis) inordinately predisposes individuals to type II diabetes, heart disease, and other developed leading causes of death in the US.
as far as gambling with acquiring an auto-immune disease or getting hit by a bus while crossing the street, i’d agree and say it’s not worth it for anyone.
i give up. America(ns) is too dumb, self-centered and ideologically driven to give a rat’s ass about its poor and middle class (who deserve all the shit they bring on themselves) to succeed at something most of Europe, Canada, and Massachusetts has already found a way to do. And even if we were creative and (as according to legend) inventive to enough find a way and money for the pursuit of happiness for all Americans doesn’t mean we should. Poliphilosophy trumps mercy.
[re=384351]DollarStorePregnancyTest[/re]: Oh, I’m aware that heart disease and type II diabetes are preventable and much bigger risks to the overall population. I was just reponding to the suggestion that a high-deductible plan might be worth for “healthy” people. There’s just no way to know whether you’ll still be healthy tomorrow.
Perhaps if the US FDA wasn’t so completely whored out to Big Ag/Chem, it might do its job to protect and regulate the food supply, and perhaps even identify junk food then propose appropriate taxes on it, which (IMO) should be used to fund 1) a Medicare programme for Children which they could keep for the rest of their lives and 2) fund more widespread physical & health education programmes in US public schools.
If the next generation was raised to be active and healthy, would they not be healthier and cheaper to insure as adults?
[re=384155]Lascauxcaveman[/re]: Christ, I can’t believe you whiners carping about how ‘expensive’ healthy food is.
And even with prices as “good” as those, there is no way one can’t afford to live off food stamps. Food stamp benefits calculate a household’s size, its net monthly income, and (inflation-indexed) maximum monthly benefit levels (and in some cases, adjusted for geographic location). So, a 4-person household (earning less that $1500/month) receives a maximum allotment benefit from the Department of Agriculture of $441.
Let’s go shopping!
Banana = .89/lb = 5 bananas = $2.50
Apples = $1.50 = 5 apples = $3.00
Cabbage = $.79/lb = 1 head = $3.95
Potatoes = $4/bag = 14 potatoes? = $4.00
Chicken = ON SALE! $1.50/lb = medium sized whole chicken = $8.00
Total = $21.45
So, OK, that’s one meal and a snack for four people. Let’s just say you have to pay for one of these a day: forgetting breakfast cereal, bread for lunches, Lawry’s seasoning salt, juice, or milk for toddlers. In this experiment, we also leaving aside that fact that cheap cabbage has almost no nutritional value and that people should be limiting their intact of heavy starches vegetables like cheap-ass potatoes. Forget all of that.
The total is still $645 for the month.
And that’s betting that the grocery store near you has low-price, low-cost options all month long; that there are no unexpected school or park closings and you have to feed the kids an extra meal, that nothing goes bad, etc. etc. It’s called food insecurity. And when you live with it, you don’t drop all you’re food stamps on green “time bombs” with their high price tags and one week expiration dates.
So basically, all that to say, Mackey is still wrong about everything.
[re=384492]problemwithcaring[/re]: First sentence should be “can afford to live,” dammit!
I sure have a hard time accepting the argument that it’s lack of diet/organic/health foods that make people obese. In ’71 I started school after Vietnam on the GI Bill at $110/month and another $80/month from going into the reserves. My wife had a part-time job selling dresses at $2-3 per hour, and was also in school. We ground our own flour for homemade bread and bought at the damaged canned goods store. Between the 2 of us we spent $26-30/month for food (I found some old receipts a few years ago) and we weren’t fat. If cheap food gives you more calories, that’s a good thing – just eat less of it and save your bucks for something else.
It was a bit of an eye-opener when we had a general store out in the country for 8 years. We accepted food stamps and WIC (Oregon women with children support program). WIC was great; only nutritious foods were allowed. Not even 1% of the food stamp purchases went outside the junk-food category. I agree with those commenters who point out lack of education (and enthusiasm for taking care of yourself) as a larger factor in obesity than whether or not some fancy expensive “healthy” food is affordable.
Sorry, can’t think of a funny.
John Mackey said:
“Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.”
John Mackey meant:
“Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have cut into HMO profits by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by HMOs and pharmaceutical companies and not by patient needs.”
Fixed.
[re=384207]Lascauxcaveman[/re]: Why is it that the people who talk about how affordable health care is are the ones who describe themselves as “reasonably healthy”?
Yes, we KNOW that health care, including insurance premiums, is less expensive for reasonably healthy people.
If we were all reasonably healthy, then there wouldn’t be a health care crisis.
Also, too: “Healthy” is not a synonym for “healthy lifestyle”. No matter how carefully my sister manages her diet and fitness, she still needs the insulin she’s been injecting since 1979, when she developed Type 1 diabetes (the kind that you can’t fix with lifestyle changes).
Ya know, we Canadians (like the Brits), get a little tired of our healthcare system being bashed by know nothing (yeah, I’m talkin’ to you Mackey) Americans. I’ve lived on both sides of the border, and I’d take our Canadian system any day. I, nor anyone I know, has ever waited for urgent or emergency care here. A key difference in Canada, is that, after almost 50 years of universal health care, we`ve lost the raging self-entitlement so prevalent among upper middle class and wealthy Americans (who seem to manage to control the healthcare debate). The `extras` that Mackey talks about include chiropractic, naturopathy and homeopathy – so yeah, if you do want these services, you do need a health spending account, or supplemental insurance. Most Americans I know would love to be able to get that far with their health care.
So let me get this straight – because government pre-health care (food stamps) fails to provide enough money for healthy food, you claim that we are better off ALSO getting the government food-stamp equivalent of health care to take care of us with the same level of quality when we do get sick.
Are you denying the whole country would be better off eating better? Even people on food stamps can afford seeds – the Obama family has a garden, are we not better off if everyone followed the model they set in that regard? Would not our entire society see a huge jump in well-being just from taking simple, cheap steps to eat better and therefore live better? Instead of a bill literally too large to read so most senators are not bothering, how about we take simpler steps first – fix the government health care plans we already have (like Medicare), and tilt the food stamp program to healthier living by also handing out garden boxes and seeds.
Are you interested in really helping people, or just in forming big government programs that make it look as if someone is being helped?
“Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat. We should be able to live largely disease-free lives until we are well into our 90s and even past 100 years of age.”
Dammit, I agree. Purée of paper towel with just a touch basil, broiled bookcase, chick weed broth, and oak bark sammiches, and a tossed salad of dandelions and road tar nuggets are plant-based.
And Mexican Brown, coke, hash brownies, belladonna, mescaline buttons and cigarillos. Also.
Let the former Wehrmachtian duo of Karl und Theo fill your bellies with epicurean delights; eff Whole Paycheck…
Let’s see how this looks….
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