[Osmium]

The link is still there in the developed world, though perhaps not in the way you'd think: studies have shown that poorer people are more likely to be overweight. One is left to speculate as to why, but clearly if attractiveness is linked to later performance in life, then many of these people would start off at a further disadvantage as a result.

e.g. just this week http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21158087

[enraged_camel]

>>One is left to speculate as to why

There is no need for speculation, since we already know the answer: fast-food is both affordable and calorie-dense, which is why lower-income people consume it and become overweight.

Ever noticed how many fast-food restaurants there are in lower-income neighborhoods?

[pbhjpbhj]

>since we already know the answer: fast-food is both affordable and calorie-dense //

Fast-food is not affordable in the UK. It's substantially more costly than preparing your own food. There is no way that we could afford to eat fast-food more than a couple of nights per week; then we'd have to cut the quality of food on other nights considerably.

McDonalds for one adult costs about what we spend on a meal for 4 cooked at home (not including energy costs).

That said friends we have friends on benefits who eat fast food regularly. How they afford it I don't know. They have the heating on all day (with windows open, in winter) and things too, it's all a mystery to me.

[Evbn]

Are you sure, on a calorie basis? McDonald's is far more calorie dense than anything a sane human could make at home.

[pbhjpbhj]

I was going more on a regular meal portion than an analysis of calorie content, fat, salt, additives and such.

FWIW a medium bowl of noodles is 2MJ (according to WolframAlpha; tea tonight, but we had pork left-overs in ours +0.5MJ [or so, not on WA]), Big Mac is listed as 2.2MJ + 1.3MJ for fries.

So that's only 40% more calories.

Big Mac and fries is ~£3.50 in the UK.

Our food was about 35p per portion plus the pork which I'd say was 75p + cooking and cleanup costs [40p?].

On that basis we'll say £1.50 vs £3.50 for 40% more calories as a gross estimate.

So I'm not sure but ...

[Evbn]

I thought it was because the UK rains money on people, free housing and the like.

[001sky]

I would add, the chemistry of stress. Fast food is a counter-stressor, chemically. the body responds to the presence of fatty/salty/sweet/high-carb etc food in a metabolic way.