Hot Cheetos are a public health menace

[Emergent]

I had a woman come in for abdominal pain the other day. She accompanied by a husband and 3 small children. I walked into the room after reading the triage note in the computer.

There she was, a woman who had the appearance of someone with unhealthy eating habits. On the gurney was a large, opened bag of hot Cheetos. The family came prepared! The only thing missing was the 20 oz bottle of Pepsi.

Naturally she got a the huge workup, and by all appearances, I'm guessing it was a taxpayer funded one. And while I'm on that subject , why in the world are items like hot Cheetos allowable under the federal food stamp program? Oh, multinational corporation lobbyists of course.

[Aunt Slappy]

Wow, this thread took a serious turn.

Granted not all of the post was pretty but my word, we all do laugh at some questionable choices. For instance, had a young person with anaphylaxic allergy to tomatoes. He was eating a taco at home when he realized it had tomatoes. He called EMS and while he waited for them, finished the taco. Fortunately, he was ok after an icu stay, but he did earn the name of tomato at the nurse's station. Maybe I'm a horrible person but flaming hot cheetos while in the er for abdominal pain isn't that much different.

Thank you for the break from all the sour-faced saints in here.

[dbabz]

I remember one incident long ago during my teaching days.

I had a single mom, low income, who typically sent her kid to school with, well ... crap. Frozen pizzas, donuts ... with the occasional apple.

She caught me one day, I must have had a look on my face? Or maybe she was just used to explaining herself. She said, "I'm just so used to saying 'no' all the time to him ... 'no' to toys, 'no' to trips, 'no' to cool new shoes that everyone has, ... at least I can say 'yes' to the treats."

I felt like such a judgmental orifice. Until I walked in her shoes .... As someone who doesn't have to worry as much about money, who works a steady job, whose husband makes good money blah blah blah ... I don't place the same value on food as someone in her shoes might. I can say "yes" to the aquarium, "yes" to those new shoes ... and "no" to the Cheetos.

Some of our patients certainly do bring in on themselves. Flaming hot Cheetos will tear your stomach to shreds, I'd agree But the rest of the post is just in poor, poor taste.

(And yes, I judge. But I really do try to check myself at the door ... and I really would hope someone would call me out and say, "hey, too much" or " easy now" if I was out of line)

I've heard similar stories and it makes sense if you think about it for half a minute. Kid who's homeless but has the latest $250.00 Jordans? That's something the parent CAN give the child. May not be able to give them a house or stability, but can give them the occasional luxury item. From this perspective, this is a perfectly rational decision.

Here's what I would say to a parent in the scenario above (not so much as a nurse, just as an average citizen.) Even if your child eats a bag of flamin' hot cheetos or a sleeve of mini donuts every day, it is not going to impact his/her health that significantly as long as other healthful strategies are in play--sufficient sleep, good nutrition (other than the above mentioned foods) and exercise. Those things will feed the body. Who knows? Maybe the flamin' hots feed the soul.

[dbabz]

Update: I wrote the above while eating half a bag of Sour Patch Exploders. I feel like crap now and they weren't even that good....

[Southpawdown]

Off topic but Viva..I LOVE the quote you have at the bottom of your post.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

I patient just brought me in a bag of "Takis" Fuegos. Talk about timing, I had never heard of them prior to this thread.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

I patient just brought me in a bag of "Takis" Fuegos. Talk about timing, I had never heard of them prior to this thread.

Serendipity! Lol. Unless you don't like them; then it would be a horrible coincidence. :)

[Guest219794]

Regarding low income people and nutrition:

I think there is a false dichotomy presented by several posters- Essentially a choice between "cheap" junk food and organic locally sourced micro-greens from Whole Foods.

I am curious when shopping for food, and pay attention to what is in other shopper's carts. The garbage people buy is not cheap. Occasionally I might see a cart with generic pasta and sauce, dried beans, rice, and whatever meat and produce is on sale. But that is the exception. I eat really well, and the carts full of junk cost more than mine. That's including my Stonyfield farm yogurt.

I don't know what anybody else's exact income is, and I don't know who gets government assistance. I have spent 35 years working with people of various income levels, and can probably make an educated guess as to their financial status by making some observations. Probably occasionally wrong, but mostly right.

By my observation, people on limited incomes often make unhealthy, expensive choices.

Occasional treats and junk food are a reasonable part of a healthy diet, and I don't see how the government can effectively ration how much somebody buys, or how a list could even be made of foods that can be purchased with government assistance.

Nonetheless, I do see the irony of publicly funding consumption of poison labelled as food while publicly funding the medical damage caused by that garbage.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

By my observation, people on limited incomes often make unhealthy, expensive choices.

Unfortunately here your observations are subject to your implicit bias: those with means want to assume that those without means are without means due to their own bad decisions.

It it is as simple as looking at the readily available data and publications. Poor families are subject to limited access to full-service markets, limited access to a vehicle to do their shopping with. Overall healthy food is more expensive and more perishable. The healthy foods that the poor have access to tend to be of poorer quality. And the poor have far better access to fast food than healthy food. Add to that the building of generation on generation of less healthy choices.

Its convenient for most of us who have never had to go without a meal to assume that others made their own grave, but largely that's not the case.

And for those posters that like to joke around about social justice warriors and sour faced saints: I'd much prefer to be that than a bigot, I take it as a compliment over the alternative, including complacency.

[Guest219794]

Unfortunately here your observations are subject to your implicit bias: those with means want to assume that those without means are without means due to their own bad decisions.

It it is as simple as looking at the readily available data and publications. Poor families are subject to limited access to full-service markets, limited access to a vehicle to do their shopping with. Overall healthy food is more expensive and more perishable. The healthy foods that the poor have access to tend to be of poorer quality. And the poor have far better access to fast food than healthy food. Add to that the building of generation on generation of less healthy choices.

Its convenient for most of us who have never had to go without a meal to assume that others made their own grave, but largely that's not the case.

And for those posters that like to joke around about social justice warriors and sour faced saints: I'd much prefer to be that than a bigot, I take it as a compliment over the alternative, including complacency.

"Unfortunately here your observations are subject to your implicit bias: those with means want to assume that those without means are without means due to their own bad decisions."

Implicit bias? Not sure where you got that from. I don't think that those without means are in that situation due to their own bad decisions. My upbringing, education, and life experience prevents me from thinking that way, There is a lot of blame to be spread for the condition of poor people in this country, but the last place I would lay that blame is on the poor. As you acknowledged, many are "building of generation on generation of less healthy choices." (But I don't think that was your inherent bias, just acknowledging bad choices having bad effects.)

But, rice and beans at home is cheaper than McDonalds, and carrots are cheaper and healthier than Cheetos- that is just a mathematical fact.

There are some low income populations in this country that do eat inexpensive reasonably healthy food, prepared at home. In my observation, they tend to be new immigrants, being fed by people raised in other countries. Many face the same challenges of obtaining real food, but make different choices.

[Kitiger, RN]

This will be the whole world if nothing is done to stop it.....

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27498[/ATTACH]

That was a great show!

[BostonFNP, APRN]

But, rice and beans at home is cheaper than McDonalds, and carrots are cheaper and healthier than Cheetos- that is just a mathematical fact.

Be honest here: have you ever read any research on this topic? It can be rhetorical but it is something to consider. I am willing to wager most people commenting here have not. There is a vast amount of research and data on this.

I hesitate to suggest a single article to read, but if nothing else, people should consider reading this:

Drewnowski, A., & Specter, S. E. (2004). Poverty and obesity: the role of energy density and energy costs. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 79(1), 6-16.

I'd be happy to provide the full text to anyone that can't access it. It is an older article that has been reaffirmed by major papers dozens of times and has been cited nearly 3000 times in other scholarly work.

[VampyrSlayer, CNA]

Oh hell. Like it's your business what she eats. If she wants to feel like crap and get sick, that's her prerogative. All you can do is educate.

This post reeks of a superiority complex.