I get the gist of all the paleo diet primal anarchy bent, but this is completely un-realistic for poor people. I find that persons with published books like “primal fat burner” to border on being elitists in their promotion of things unobtainable by most.
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I get why people come to your conclusion.
However, if you remove all the stigma and media behind primal eating, it is just eating simple foods with
out the extra “crap” or processed chemicals.
“Poor” people use to be the one’s who had to grow, find their own food or hunt for it. Take up foraging, and learn to hunt small animals or fish? It is feasible.
And I don’t read those books because they are promoted to lure in the elitist people to buy into the newest paleo trends.
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I don’t agree that it is for today’s poor. The poor of the past didn’t have enough work so they had time. Today’s poor have multiple jobs and no time. The dynamic has really changed. And I think a lot of it has to do with housing speculation that has caused investors to make housing so expensive that a person has to work so many hours just to have a space to sleep.
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Yes, clearly the worst off are the working poor, and which are the most poor that can be reported. I’ve often wondered if homelessness is easier or better than working just to eek out subsistence.
Even houseless folks struggle with low to no options to forage, private property being the biggest concern, then non edible invasive species, native species replaced with worthless ornamental plants in landscapes. Dumpster diving is usually carb heavy- and meat that is in the dumpster is iffy at best (I had a canned tuna episode - while technically within sell by date of 1 week - put me down for many days).
Rural areas like the Midwest and Great Plains can be virtual deserts, all grain and it mostly inedible. Also to mention a severe shortage of wildlife to hunt in many areas and some wildlife that is hunt-able, needs permission from landowner, state hunting tag/license etc.
it frankly depresses me a bit to see all this paleo centric viewpoint with all of its hand selected data, and it being the possible cure to many’s ailments- but yet it’s clearly unavailable except to a select few
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The current system does suck.
It’s not set up for the average person to be successful in the modern world.
Still, there has to be something that can be done to alleviate some stressors. We still have some control over a few aspects in our lives. Still trying to figure that out… but not giving up
I’ve read that health and wellness is the new rich person fad. It’s a caste marking to not be healthy and it shows your poverty.
I have a very long and strong interest in nutrition and anthropology. I also hear you on the struggles of the working poor. Elitist as it may be, precious few of our species would want to ignore information that would allow them to obtain a superlative longevity. I am a low income person with a disability and yet I have never compromised once on nutrition; I prioritize my health, as it is more important to me than any possession. I also chose not to have children and now I am carless. My apartment has so few possessions one would wonder if it was because of poverty. It is foremost a choice because I don’t want stuff, I want to be out in the world. My luxury is reading material and good food. That’s it. Just my choice. I only live in my shoes. Pay now or pay the doctor later.
Money, where does it come from? Where does the native area come from?, it is all nice but show me poor people and show me their situation
I agree it can feel challenging. I buy most of my food from Grocery Outlet. I spend the average amount per month on groceries for an individual in the US, which is $165-345. But I actually spend somewhere in the middle, like 200-300. Here in Oregon the food stamp max is $195 for a single person. I eat “paleo” on that budget. Mostly it’s not organic, nor free range, etc. I just feel it’s better than nothing in that regard. I think the biggest problem with poverty isn’t the budget, per se, but the lack of knowledge and habitual systems already in place for healthier living, and lack of access to healthy fresh food to buy–most urban zones these days only have 7-11 type shops with sugary, carb-rich snack foods. It’s all that is readily and easily accessible to most. Lack of knowing how to cook your own food, the time and energy to cook your own food, etc. It takes a lot of energy to change direction when you already have habits in place that perpetuate themselves: unhealthy foods make you have less energy to change your habits. Forget about foraging or gardening in that system. That’s already an advanced kind of understanding of subsistence, which is even harder to shift to if you are already stuck in unhealthy food habits. People really only force these changes when they are scared shitless due to failing health or feeling very inspired by something they learn or hear about. For me it was both.
Sure, I get food from what I shop at the store for the most part, while I really am stuck here without an effective way out. I would go out and be independent from this civilization. Some like to ask, then why don’t you? In most ways it is the same as it is for others, there isn’t a good way to go out in isolation to have the independence from civilization. I would rather have effective planning for it, with others who would be with me and are compatible for it. I would have things to bring, specifically seeds, and cuttings, with good land in mind to go to for that. There are obstacles to reaching these things, and I am not really young now. Sustainability would be important, living in civilization is not, so it must work with the alternative way to be found apart from civilization, being isolated would not be that, it would be for a group becoming a community. While here in civilization, buying food, it is best to not buy anything from animal agriculture, it is so bad to this world and should not be supported. I should grow things myself, but until I manage to do that getting produce will have to do. I avoid processed things for the most part.
I can’t speak to the access, or lack there of, to foods that fit into a paleo diet in food desert areas of the USA, but as far as strategies for extremely frugal paleo eating in my area, I get most of my calories from rendered super high quality fat that I get from farmers markets that will double my food stamps, I’ve been to many farmers markets across the country that will do this. I get about 170 a month which I can basically double and I can normally get pastured pork and beef fat at around 2.50 to 4$ per lb. you lose some total weight raw to rendered in the process but not a lot, fat is around 3500 calories in a lb. It can be quite cost effective if you are privileged enough to have access to it. Even carb and sugar rich things, it’s hard to find that calorie to dollar ratio. I also have found a kind of inaccesible elitist essence around health and food quality focused communities, and also that doesn’t mean there aren’t cracks to be found in the food systems that can make eating like that more accessible for some .