1. budgetary constraints don't play a role amongst the non english speaking Vietnamese families that sell fruit and vege at my local Sunday markets. They are slim people who earn very little, and have to feed many mouths with it. I have been a guest at a large Brisbane Buddhist community with over 3000 members, many of whom do not speak much english and who are mainly working poor, relying on family for financial and social security. I can tell you the overwhelming majority are not overweight. The SDAs in the AHS studies have a significantly healthier diet than non SDAs living in the same streets and working for the same employers. This is why I don't share your views.
Many Mexican rurals are having their land taken from them, have to pay drug cartels in produce or cash, or have to move due to cartel violence.
The SDAs didn't need government intervention. And what intervention are you talking about? You want a govt official to hold a gun to people's heads 3 times a day when they decide what they are going to put in their mouth? I suggest you explore or open your mind to the power of people and their beliefs to control what they feel is uncontrollable. Read the history of Alcoholics Anon, and their very effective strategy for kicking alcoholism.
We've been selling similar dietary guidelines for 40+ years, but the majority still don't know what they are or abide by them. Recall that 98% of Australians do not eat the minimum recommended amount of fruit and vege. Why is that? And don't tell me budget. My poor Asian migrant friends do it every day. Like I said earlier, people today eat more for convenience, emotional comfort, and hedonic pleasure. They are lazy and entitled. Surely you must have seen a lack of self discipline and people living within their means over yoru lifetime. I certainly have. And as I also said earlier, people are watching less television so how can you keep saying its advertising that's responsible? In fact, I cannot remember the last time I saw a McDonald's television advert. And guess what, in 1978, McDonald's Family Restaurants was one of my clients! And we blitzed television with advertising, week in week out...and Ronald McDonald was out on the streets and in the stores every weekend, it often being my boss!
What's happenign now in this secular reductionist society, is people have turned their back on what the power potential within every individual. There seems to be this heavy oppressive cloud of apathy and helplessness hanging over Australia. We all want to blame someone else, rather than looking more simply at things..... i.e. like my Asian migrant friends who grow a lot of their own stuff, and support each other within extended family and religious communities. Many Australians turned their back on religion and replaced it with what? I ask you is it serving them well? I see into several migrant communities around Brisbane and I can tell you it is their religion that provides the framework for trust and cooperation between members. This gives them a survival advantage sorely missing in much of Australian society. But hey, religion is uncool! The privileged elites have dictated it!!!!
In addition to the Vietnamese Buddhists, I have many friends who are members of a Sikh community nearby. Their rate of obesity is a bit higher than the Vietnamese, but they are still a lot lower than the Aussie average. Once again most are not well off.
I leave it to a bright fella like you to work out why these groups have lower obesity rates. .....ummmmm....ok....no I won't! I'll tell you !
They have strong beliefs that counter populist culture, and these beliefs effect their dietary choices. BUT!!!! not only that. The rate that the children of these communities get into trouble with the police is much much lower than normal. In fact, I've spoken to the elders of both groups many times, and they don't know of any of their members getting into gangs or crime. But both groups are over-represented with high academic achievers in local schools.
Mate! BB my boy! Stop underplaying the freedom you have to live life differently, to eat differently.
BTW, I haven't had a drink of alcohol for 9 days! and have lost the taste for it! And the hunger pangs have calmed right down almost to the level they were in the US. And I didn't need the gubmint to ban alcohol or hold a gun to my head! Go figure!!
I think my adopted father said his was 9 at one stage. Anyway, she lived until 92yo. It makes me wonder how long she would have lived without her operations and Big Pharma. I suspect the current unusually high AU average life span has got a lot to do with meds and medical procedures.