A Fast Food Ban?

Honestly, if it isn’t one thing it is another.  This goes back to the post the other day about taking responsibility for your own health.  Well, I guess Southern L.A. doesn’t believe that it can be done and have decided to do something about it.  Check this out…

Big Brother is watching you! And if you happen to live in Southern Los Angeles, he is also keeping a close eye on the restaurants in your neighborhood.

The City Council in Los Angeles unanimously voted to place a halt on the development of new fast food restaurants in areas of Southern and Southeast Los Angeles. The moratorium would affect a 32-square-mile region of the city with about 500,000 residents.

Many of the residents of South Los Angeles don’t own cars, so they have limited access to fresh, healthy food. The ruling is intended to help attract healthier restaurants to this part of the city and give city planners enough time to analyze the current development trends.

According to statistics from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, a full 30 percent of adults currently living in South Los Angeles are obese—as compared to just over 19 percent for the metropolitan area of the city and about 14 percent for the Westside. Furthermore, 73 percent of the restaurants currently in South Los Angeles are fast-food eateries—as compared to only 42 percent of the restaurants in West Los Angeles. South L.A. also has fewer grocery stores than the rest of the city, according to the Los Angeles Times.

For the purposes of this piece of legislation, council members have defined fast-food restaurants as “those that do not offer table service and provide a limited menu of pre-prepared or quickly heated food in disposable wrapping.” Casual dining restaurants such as Subway and El Pollo Loco are exempt from the moratorium. The legislation also wouldn’t affect fast-food restaurants currently open in South L.A., though it would make it difficult for them to expand or remodel during the coming year.

But the moratorium isn’t official yet. The mayor still has to sign it into law, and it is expected there will be legal opposition from the California Restaurant Association. Representatives from the fast-food chains say they are being unfairly targeted. Plus, they argue, today’s fast-food restaurants do offer plenty of healthy items on their menus.

Whatever happens, it is likely that this piece of legislation could set a precedent.

I don’t know, but I think I proved it Monday when I wrote the post about salads.  Seriously - some of those salads had what, like over 1,000 calories?  And they are worried about fast food being bad for you?  When is it right to not give people - make that American’s - the right to choose to be fat or not?  Let’s face it, South L.A. isn’t the hotbed of opportunity or anything.  They simply don’t have the funds to spend money on a “nice” dinner out.  Is it so wrong to give them the ability to enjoy a little treat with some of the cheaper fast food places?  I honesty think that the fast food is not the reason that these people are obese - it is because they don’t have much money to begin with so that they are forced to eat much of the processed foods that are cheaper then organic or healthier foods.  I have talked about this time and time again - it is expensive to eat healthier and when you are feeding 3 or 4 kids on a very blue collar limited budget it just isn’t feasible to buy organic meat and lots of fresh vegetables that are rising in cost as we speak.  Sure, some of them are doing great and doing the farmer’s market and so forth, but many of them are just trying to survive.  Is it so wrong to have affordable restaurants (albeit fast food restaurants) that they can take their kids to for a “night out?”

As you can see I’m pissed about this.  Don’t tell me what I can and cannot eat.  If I choose to eat a Big Mac then so be it!  I’ll suffer the consequences and deal with the aftereffect… but if they think that fast food is the reason these people are obese then look again at the area.  It is the processed foods, the big bulk meal choices to make at home and the cheap food that they need to buy to keep their family fed.  I say if they want to spend $15.00 taking their family out to eat so that they can enjoy it once in a while, let ‘em! 

They themselves are the reason that they are obese. They can’t push the blame off on anyone. I think the council might have been better served had they made the decision to offer incentives for other establishments to open in that area rather than limit the places that could open there. Here in Florida, in certain places, they have limits on how many fast food establishments can open up in an area. This encourages mom and pop type places to open as well as specialty restaurants. I think THAT is a perfect solution. I hate nothing more than driving down a road and seeing a Burger King on every other corner.

The best part of this whole deal, at least someone is recognizing that we have an issue in this country finally.

I agree with the idea of incentives for mom and pop restaurants to open… but don’t you think that any of the obesity is due to the fact that they work for $7.00 an hour to support an entire family and have to buy the cheapest foods possible?  Do you really think it all has to do with fast food?

Look how much you said you spent at the co-op to get healthier foods - do you think it is feasible for them to spend that kind of money?

I just don’t believe that it has only to do with fast food at all.  And I don’t think that they are putting the blame on anyone - in fact, I don’t think it is “them” that are complaining - it’s the government.

Obesity due to not making enough money? No, I am sorry. I don’t agree with that. What I am saying is that I think the government that got involved maybe should have provided incentives for healthier places to open. There are PLENTY of options for healthy cheap food out there. Hell, even McDonalds has healthy choices, if you make the choices to order them that way. The problem is, most people won’t make that choice. I don’t think it has to do at all with the amount of money a family makes.
My co op costs me 45 bucks every other week. I may spend another 50 or so at the grocery store to supplement that. So, for my family of 5, eating healthy, I don’t think that it’s expensive at all. You just have to want to make the changes.

I’m with Queenie on this. My parents certainly did not make a lot of money, but we were fed healthy foods. You don’t have to buy organic meat and fresh vegetables to be healthy. Organic may be better, but it’s not essential.

Frozen veggies still have plenty of nutrients in them - maybe even more than some of the fresh vegetables you buy in the store. There is lots that can be done with canned tomatoes, beans, lean meats.

I think a lot of it comes down to education about nutrition - actually caring about what you are eating and feeding your family. Knowing how to cook and having the time to cook.

My mom did not work outside the home, so she was able to cook meals from scratch, make homemade bread, etc. Any desserts we had - cookies, cakes, pies - were also home made. We had very little junk food in the house, and rarely ate out at restaurants unless we were traveling.

Healthy eating doesn’t have to be expensive, but it does take effort and it takes time. It also requires the discipline to leave the junk food at the store, and to go home and make a healthy meal instead of hitting the drive-thru.

I proved it in my Lets Do Math post in my blog this week. Its cheaper to eat at home.  I figured it out and for $8.65 I can feed my family of 3 with a main dish, 2 veggies and a side dish.  Try getting that in a restaurant.

Now I like going out to eat but I don’t expect the restaurant or government to tell me what I can and can’t eat.  We need to take responsibility for our own actions.

:( I have 3 more weeks before the produce stand closes…

yea this is the stupidest idea. I make really good money for a single gal and i have a hard time eating healthy! It’s expensive. When i was poor, i ate fast food. i was also thinner. go figure.

I am going to try to make a point here:

Lets see...a bag of Doritos costs about 3.50 now right? Do you know for 4 bucks I can get a black bean and rice bowl from Chicken Kitchen that is big enough for two? I guarantee that hub and I are more satisfied with the rice and beans than we are with that bag of Doritos.

Twinkies? They are about 4 bucks a box now too right. TWO extra large bags of salad from my grocery store produce department for that.

Can of soda and a bottle of water cost the exact same. However I will wind up paying 4.99 for a 12 pack of Cokes and only 4.99 for an entire CASE of bottled waters.

My entire family of 5 with a trip to McDonalds costs us an average of 30 bucks. That 30 bucks is almost enough to buy my ENTIRE produce co op share that lasts my family two entire weeks.

12 pack of Coronas which is our beer of choice down here in Miami, costs about 13.99. 13.99 buys enough Talapia/Cod for an entire dinner for my family cooked on my grill at home. Add a couple more bucks and we can toss in veggies as well.

Please don’t tell me that it is more expensive to eat healthy than it is to eat junk food. You just have to make the choices.

Whoa… pretty hot topic you got here today ladies. 

I won’t get in on the politics of it… but just to say that the overwhelming majority of fast food is crap.  Period.  I don’t eat, my family doesn’t eat it, I don’t think anybody else should eat it and I’d be happy if they banned it EVERYWHERE.  People would be forced to eat healthier (and healthy food is not unafordable, it’s just more work and that’s people fear… the work and effort it takes to be healthy).

That said...I’m not welcome here anymore am I?

First of all - Jas you are always welcome

Second - I’m not talking about the fact that they are buying twinkies, lol. 

I’m talking about people in South L.A.  People who have 4 maybe 5 kids.  People who make 7.00 an hour maybe less if they work under the table.  These are the people that do not buy twinkies and doritos - they buy large boxes of macaroni or huge frozen lasagnas that feed 6 and 7 people.  That is what I am referring to when I say that it is hard to be poor and to be healthy. 

Processed food doesn’t mean junk food - it can also mean food that feeds large amounts of people for cheap.  It is easier to buy huge bags of rice and potatoes then it is to buy lots of lettuce, peppers and tomatoes.  Starches lead to obesity as well and some of these people eat the starches to feel full. 

I love that everyone has some great opinions about this - it makes it fun But I’m not saying that they can’t take responsibility for it - what i’m saying is something you have to play the hand in which you were dealt and I still fully believe that they may think of a night out as going to mcDonald’s - that isn’t what is making them fat… it is the food at home (not junk food necessarily) that is making them fat