This experience which I am going to tell you about now is not so much based on facts as it is based on visually biased perceptions. Okay, people, let’s be honest about Tesco; something tells me that people with a lot of money do not really make their whole essential shopping there. I am not a classicist; I am intellectually a left-wing (VIVA CHE) and emotionally a materialist (VIVA GUCCI), my friend and I like to call ourselves champagne socialists. But me looking down on anyone for a reason as petty as money, is completely and utterly preposterous.
There.
Saying that, I have noticed something since coming to this beautiful warm country (…) - the class differences here, are huge. Unfortunately, it is not so difficult to tell apart peoples financial status here. This of course does not apply to everyone but I live in a town where the class differences are quite visible and there is always one thing that strikes me about one particular thing that indicates a certain financial status; the body weight.
In the olden days, a big belly and a double chin used to mean wealth. In today’s modern world, it means the opposite. A high weight is no longer associated with rich dinner parties, a flow of money and a nonexistent necessity of labour. Obesity is (unfortunately) associated with a lack of education, a lack of money and a lack of time.
The unofficial experiment I carried out in Tesco’s was to determine if people with a low income (not factual) were buying certain products and if they were overweight.
Obviously you cannot see if a person has a high or a low income merely by looking at them but I drew the conclusions anyways, not because I am heartless and biased but because I am stupid and silly and I love glitter.
And how did my experiment go? I found out that in most cases obesity goes hand in hand with a low income. And let me make it clear that it is NOT because people with a low income are stupid and buy 3 bags of crisps for 99 p or 3 bags of cookies for a pound. No, a lot of these people were buying food…”normal” food; Food covered in potassium, preservatives and flavour enhancers sprinkled with sugar and saturated fat for that extra za-za-zoom. And why do they but this?
Uhmm, I don’t know, maybe because meals like that for 4 people are very cheap instead of the organic environmentally friendly meal which doesn’t have all of those extra additives and STILL costs like three times the price.
The same thing applies to fast food and cheap meals out.
This is not a critique of the people. This is a critique of the food companies and the government. To the food companies, I suggest that you start making normal natural food for affordable prices so that people in any financial state can at least get food which hasn’t been messed around with. It’s sad to think that we live in a time era, where people with the lack of money are dying from obesity.
To the government: Educate people. I am sure that a majority of the people would reconsider their food choices if you actually told them what their food contains and what it can do to them in the long run.
This phenomenon where poor people are getting bigger and bigger can be seen in many places around the world today, just look at the US and Latin America, the same thing is happening over there.
Seriously people, HELP THEM. FOR EVERY POUND YOU DONATE TO ME I WILL MAKE SURE THAT AT LEAST ON HAPPY MEAL GET'S BLOWN UP. ZAPATISTA STYLE.
