I see this a lot up here where I live. Even if you wanted to get excercise it would require either driving to someplace else or walking in the streets. There are no parks around here, the stereets don't have sidewalks and there is pretty much nothing in the way of recreational activities. Also, the only places to buy food for at least 20 miles are convienience stores, the nearest supermarket is down the road and even then they're pretty limited. The point is, it's not a simple problem with simple solutions.
It doesn't cost money to be reasonably healthy. It's just the people with money are generally also the healthy ones. Note that obesity and smoking are most prevalent in the lowest classes. The people with the least money eat too much crap and have £5/day habits...it's hardly suggestive that of money being the problem. Intelligence is the issue here. Smart people stay reasonably healthy, and smart people have good jobs.
It's multifactorial and circular. Smart people make healthy choices, because they generally had smart parents who taught them self-discipline (very important here) and a healthy lifestyle through years of modelling and experience (also very important). They also have been taught the value of health and that they have control over their lives, and are more likely to seek out information. They also have better access to healthy foods (try find fresh vegetables on a sink estate) and have the skills to cook healthy food. They then pass all these factors on to their kids in turn... As Spec indicates, money is not nearly as big an issue as people think. You can eat quite healthily (if not excitingly) on a fairly tight budget, provided you don't have a two-pack-a-day (or sixpack-a-day) habit. Example: one of my mental health clients was overweight and poor, and depressed for both reasons. He had six spoons of sugar in his tea. Because he was unemployed and bored, he had a lot of cups of tea, which amounted to a pound of sugar a day. After I pointed this out to him, he cut down --and promptly lost two stone in a few months. He saved £15,-- a month in sugar. He also smoked 40 a day. So did his wife. A brief calculation at the coffee table demonstrated to them that in terms of cigarettes alone, they blew about £4000,-- a year. This was a couple who lived in a bare-floor flat moaning all day that they could never afford to do anything, go anywhere or buy anything nice.
The thing is though, very few people can really claim to not be aware in these modern times of ours that you shouldn't drink too much, that smoking is bad for you and expensive, and that you need to have a healthy diet (which means not consuming a pound of sugar a day - yuck, btw). People have free will, and they have the information to make informed and smart choices. There comes a point where we have to say "ok, these people may be poor, but they have all the same information as those who are rich and healthy, they've just chosen a different choice and that's their problem."
Stupidity makes people obese.. So in a generation or two, it will even out.. (Guess who will die of diabetes and overweight first huh?) I'm saying it this way because I see FAT parents with FAT kids all the time.. And they complain they can't get their kid to eat proper.. "Oh, my kid doesn't like vegetables.. And I can't starve him, so I have to give him what he wants" Well tough luck madam puddinginstretchpants.. Guess what he'll do when you start saying no to McD for a change and serve him what his body NEEDS instead of what he wants.. He has a choice.. Eat or starve.. Eventually he will eat.. That's how I learned not to dislike anything.. And for the record, yes, I can eat anything I damn please. 2 pound steaks or a salad.. Makes no difference on my scale.. I have a high rate of fat burn.. As long as you eat varied, you can stay averagely healthy.. Some days My diet consists of a big fat juicy steak with little or no vegetables and loads of sauce. Other days I only want a piece of dark bread with a bit of sausage on it.. Guess what.. I'm healthy as I am.
It is slightly more complicated than that, but basically you are mostly right. Personally, I espouse the words of Caitlin Moran: "The obese child dies at 54, and the pensions crisis disappears"
