I'm not sure if it's my place to feel any way about this, because it really isn't my business. I would also like someone to define this "slop"? Honestly microwaved meals at least where I am are perfectly ok basic food, there is nothing wrong with them.

I'm also going to question if people that "refuse to eat anything but slop" actually meaningfully exist. Every person on a more restricted diet I have ever met has had some reason for it, like my kid who is ADHD and never was able to eat all that much variety even though it was on offer.

There is a lot of elitism around food tbh and many foods that are "slop" to some are just food to others. There are also people who are sensitive in ways that only allow somewhat restricted diets. Then there is depression, alienation and other pretty big things that probably play a role in how motivated people are to cook for themselves. Stress, disability, age, being overworked and so on.

Also some people can't cook, maybe nobody taught them or maybe they just don't care about food that much, which imo is fine. In this day and age we can buy perfectly ok ready meals, so is this really a problem if somebody chooses to do that?

There are also differences in access to produce depending on where you are in the world.

There are also a lot of racist brainworms around food that often show up in the whole foods eating circles so I would also consider that when putting value judgements to foods. Maybe not do that at all?

I assume they might be depressed so I am extra nice to them.

Common autistic trait

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The vegetables, fruit, and bread in my small town grocery store are literally molding and rotting on the shelves. Frozen things are sometimes the only thing I can safely feed my family unless I can drive a half hour to a bigger grocery store, and then those things are rotting after 3 days instead of the next day.

The empire is crumbling.

Don't give a shit. People are free to eat whatever the fuck they want.

Mostly I feel angry on their behalf. Individual responsibility is a myth, and they're victims of capitalism too. Food decisions aren't just based on money. Cooking requires time, effort and skills that are fading from society as a whole, mostly due to people being tied up in generating revenue for someone else. There's the education angle, whereby people may not be actively aware what they're eating is slop; industry is constantly trying to dilute labelling laws and advertising regulations to enable this. There's also the issue of availability outside of financial circumstances; food deserts and food swamps. Then there's shelf life; hyper-optimised "just in time" supply chains have fresh fruit and veg hitting the shelf at peak ripeness, and keep it under misting sprays (that actively reduce shelf life) so it looks great and sells fast, but doesn't last more than a day or two in the fridge at home. Why would you buy a lettuce that'll be dead in two days when a microwave meal lasts functionally forever.

There's also psychosocial modelling aspects that are both leveraged and molded by marketing to make it seem "normal" and "acceptable". There's habits, which are again molded by marketing, especially to children. This also ties into the comfort factor via nostalgia. I'm sure most people have a favourite garbage food from childhood. It's probably not just one of the above factors, but it's definitely not as simple as "get money, eat better" -- the entire food system is basically aligned to make sure people eat as much slop as possible. It takes a disproportionate amount of time, energy and know-how to circumvent that as an individual.

everyone is focusing on the "I just can't be bothered, I have too much else going on/am too depressed to care/etc." type of person, which is probably more common (it's basically me most weeks) but I assume you're asking about people who legitimately just have an extremely bland restricted palate and don't like to try new things outside of it, which I think is a separate category really.

I try not to make any assumptions cause it could just as easily be mental health or allergies or other things outside their control, but I do know one or two people who don't fit into any of those categories and are just like, big adult babies about it and try to drag everyone else with them to have pizza or chicken tenders or burgers for the 50th time because they don't want to have anything else or ever try anything new. Those people I think are a bit lame in a group setting, but harmless

this likely applies mostly to western, dual or single income adults trying to keep afloat with no household support:

i think time and exhaustion from work, family, etc are the #1 factors after financial means

it used to be convenience but i think that's cover (by the corps that sell the slop) for "everyone is so drained and few can afford professional chefs"

"Financial means" is not really much of an exception to make. I'm sure there are some number of people who eat trash because they don't care that it's bad for them because they're too tired to cook well for themselves and they kinda just want to die anyways, I'm sure there are some number of people who because they're autistic or something can only tolerate a limited number of foods, I'm sure there's some number of people who could afford financially the ingredients to eat well but are kept from it for other reasons.

So the winning move is not to judge people based on extremely limited information. Who knew!

Trump sucks down McDonald's grease balls but has the means for fucking beef wellington 3 times a day... No accounting for taste I guess. Be a shame if all that processed shit gives him health complications tho.

I have some resentment, personally. Not that there aren't valid reasons for it, especially in our broken system, but I have a highly restricted diet (dozens of deadly food allergies), so I can't eat out ever (due to cross contamination being a roll of the dice), and even most prepared foods I can't have.

So I spend a lot of time and energy, cooking delicious, cheap, vegan meals for myself, despite having a blue-collar job. And it does bother me, seeing people who can eat 'whatever' just eating slop.

Even when I feel like shit, and eat 'slop', it's generally a stir fry, something like rice, (frozen) veggies, and sauce, thrown in a pan for five minutes. I rationally understand the various reasons people might not have the energy or cooking skills for even that, but emotionally, it does bother me.

The left is coming to take my pizza rolls

you mean, like this?

https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/avoidant-restrictive-food-intake-disorder-arfid/

I learned about this because I worked with a guy that had extremely narrow food tastes and was curious enough to ask a friend of mine with a bunch of credentials in the area.

My personal reason for attempting to eat healthier (enjoy that chipotle every once in a while) and the reason i encourage others to do the same, is that a poor diet has worse outcomes on health.

For one i want all my loved ones and comrades to be healthy and feel good in their bodies. But honestly the bigger scarier part is that no one cares if you are in poor health. The US govt could not care less that you are in poor health as long as it isn’t cutting into your ability to work. The medical field will profit off of your poor health, insurance execs will get their bonus, your employer will give you a little bit of sick time if you are dealing with health issues and will cut you lose if they exceed your pto.

Food inequality is not an individuals choice nor is living in a food desert but please if you have the option take care of yourselves comrades. This whole thing has me thinking we post healthy budget meals on here.