CEO of Whole Foods John Mackey said that our national obesity problem is the result of consumers making poor choices and indulging food addictions. Several SJWs went crazy calling him names and swearing at him for blaming the victims. Newsweek has the story. Here is his comment:
In some sense, we're all food addicts. We love things that are rich, that are sweet. We love ice cream. We love popcorn. We love French fried potatoes. And the market is providing people what they want. I don't think there's an access problem. I think there's a market demand problem. People have got to become wiser about their food choices. And if people want different foods, the market will provide it.
Mackey is of course correct that if poor people wanted healthy food and sought it out, the stores in their neighborhoods would carry healthy food. I'll bet if several people a week asked their neighborhood bodega for kale, it would carry kale. The local merchant carries what people seek and have the cash to buy, end of discussion.
The SJWs are correct that Whole Foods is not aimed at the poor, they are not the WF target demographic. It caters to affluent "foodies," "greenies," and those who virtue signal or culture signal with their exotic food choices.
The sad truth is that healthy food is often not as immediately gratifying as unhealthy food that has too much sugar, salt, grease, and carbs. In a hardscrabble life with few joys, eating greasy/salty/sweet food is a little burst of instant pleasure.
Pizza is an almost perfect example of unhealthy-but-delicious food - greasy, salty, and loads of carbs. So are chips of various sorts, most markets have most of an aisle devoted to them. Why? Because they sell, require no waiting or prep, and taste good.
Sad truth. The same self-discipline that gets virtuous folk to eat healthy food also helps them be not-poor. The same self-indulgence that directs poor folk to unhealthy food helps them stay poor.
