Obesity and poverty...

The thing is that nutritious foods don't have to be expensive. In my case, my boyfriend and I spend about $300 bucks to feed four people for a month-- cheaper than what was spent eating out-- and that's just shopping at a regular grocery store, no discounts, coupons, etc. And there are cheaper places you can get groceries to feed 3-4 people for 2-3 weeks for about forty bucks-- I know 99 Cents super stores sell groceries for that price because that's what my boyfriend and I spent when we were vacationing in Cali. If you are so poor that you can't afford forty dollars for groceries, there are food banks that will help you get food (ex. feedingamerica.org). There are plenty of people and organizations willing to help hungry people who can't afford food.

In many situations it is sheer laziness on the part of the parents... My parents were sometime very broke when I was growing up. Wanna know what I ate during the "Poor Time" in my child hood?

Bananas and oatmeal for breakfast (oranges or other fruits when we could afford them) boiled eggs and raisins for snacks. Lunch was usually peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat bread and Dinner was rice and beans with shredded chicken, or corn bread and beans, or something else cheep but homemade.

My point is that even with a 30 dollar a week budget, my mom managed to feed all of us 6 children healthy, nutritious foods. I never ate junk food or McDonald's... My mom told us they were too expensive.

Granted this was only a few years of my life, but thanks to my mom being willing to actually COOK nit just shove processed trash at us, we all stayed healthy and energetic and had no health issues! Laziness is the main cause of childhood obesity.

"Sure kid, I could take 40 minutes an make some chicken and rice for your dinner...maybe mix in some frozen veggies, but instead I'm going to shove a frozen pizza at you and keep watching Oprah!"

GEEZE! (Yeah I'm pissed and I might sound "rude" or "judgmental" but I grew up watching my friends mom's letting their houses get FILTHY, never ever cooking, just dumping Cheetos, Frosted flakes and hot dogs etc on the table when kids said they were hungry... and guess what... almost every one of those kids grew up to have weight problems!

If you are too poor to afford rice, beans and frozen veggies (I see them for 99 cents bag here) then you are WAY too poor to afford McDonald's, frozen pizza and doughnuts!

I will probably be bashed for this... HOWEVER, I'm putting it out there anyway.

I agree with you 110% and have thought for a very long time, that we need to find a way to help the people we have living here in our own country, and slow down on helping the other countries. Part of the reason we are falling apart as a country is because we have stopped looking inside and taking care of our own. We MUST fix the things that are broken here before we can go to other countries and fix what is broken.

When we were a stronger country, helping others was vitally important, but in doing so we have lost sight of our own countries needs! I find it extremely sad.

Ok, I'm going to get off of my soap box, because I could go on forever with this :sad:

No argument here either - in the UK a lot of people are starting to think the same thing about our overseas aid programmes especially as a lot of it goes to countries you could hardly describe as poor now, it's just we've historically always given them millions of pounds.

As others have said though, it seems to be more of an educational thing than money. If you haven't been taught about nutrition or how to prepare food from scratch then you may find yourself buying the lasagne for £1 and thinking that's a good dinner.

A lady on the news a couple of days back was showing the presenter how she feeds her family for a silly small amount of money each week. Shopping smart in regular supermarkets and using her freezer well, she was turning out really good nutritional dinners for less than £1 each person, in one case I think she was making bean burgers for 46p!

Spend money to educate the people rather than just giving them more money to spend on more over-processed junk.

I was reading through the thread about who is to blame for obese children. The unanimous consensus is that it's the parents' fault. While I agree to a certain extent, I think people are forgetting a few key pieces of info. Let's take a look at Mississippi. It's the #1 poorest state in the nation. It's also the #1 most obese state in the nation. It's also the #1 most hunger stricken state in the nation. How could that be? How can people be starving AND obese!? It doesn't make sense. Or does it?

If you go to the grocery and buy enough fresh, whole food to feed a family of four for a week, you'll likely spend no less than $200. Good, fresh, real food is terribly expensive. Crap food is not! A cheeseburger, fries, and coke at McDonalds cost $3. A salad at McDonalds cost $6. Fresh produce and meat is expensive compared to ramen noodles and Vienna sausages. It's next to impossible for people living in poverty to eat healthy food!

I don't know how to fix that, but I know that something needs to change if we're going to solve the obesity epidemic in this country!

It is the epicenter of the obesity epidemic and in urban poverty areas, it can be very difficult to eat well. I don't know why some folks don't try and grow their own vegetables. Mississippi has lots of arable land. Americans also have to be willing to take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and not wait to have stuff provided for them. Vegetable gardens not only provide healthy foods for consumption but they also provide physical activity!

If poverty was the cause of obesity, then 3rd would countries should be having the same issues.

While some of the stats are legit, you would think that making less and having less meant one would eat less. Unfortunately that's usually not the case. And lots of people would rather have "fun" stuff like computers and phones to spend their money on rather than actual whole food.

Before the cell phone boom (I'm not against them), how did families keep in touch or safe if they were away from each other? What's my point? Lots of families have phones and pay well over $150 a month for them rather than actual food.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Your logic is flawed. In third world countries, people don't have immediate access to cheap food like substances. In third world countries, people still know how to prepare real food.

In North America, the problem is that convenience food is readily available and cheap because people need it- single working moms don't have a lot of time to prepare meals, so they don't teach their kids how to prepare meals. So when their kids grow up, they don't cook for their kids and rely on cheap, readily available convenience food. It's a vicious cycle.

Agreed!

Hi MFP's,

I am a candidate for a Master of Public Health with a specialty in epidemiology (epidemics,pandemics, chronic and infectious disease) and I have a background coordinating an NGO that dealt exclusively with food insecurity and improving the health and social outcomes of food insecure individuals. Poverty plays a significant role in both childhood and adult obesity.

This issues of food insecurity, food deserts (areas where fresh healthful food is inaccessible or otherwise unavailable) and obesity are intertwined in such a way that individuals without access may have to depend on boxed meals, fast food or other non-perishable options to ensure they are able to sufficiently feed themselves and their families until they can next access food. This is especially true for those who live in food deserts (which are typically populated by the poorest factions of the population). To make matters worse those who depend on food banks will often receive food that is filled with sodium, fat and preservatives and is often very calorie dense. Many food banks do not deal with fresh produce or perishable items and only collect or buy and distribute non-perishable goods. Often food banks could not maintain a stock of perishable foods even if they could collect those items because of the need for refrigeration of some products and because of the perishable nature of fruits and vegetables they may not be able to buy them in bulk or from farmers where they would more reasonably priced. On a regular basis food banks have to delegate funds, would they rather purchase X amount of canned soup or pasta and sauce or some significantly lesser amount of fresh vegetables, being able to feed more people will more likely win out over fresh more varied foods

Another underlying issue is that high fat high sugar foods, along with being inexpensive are also highly palatable and well advertised. As a result children will be more likely to want and ask for items like chips(crisps), boxed macaroni and cheese, Oreo's and other cookies, and sugary cereals like Fruit Loops, Cap't Crunch etc. that are loaded with refined sugar, refined flours, fat and overall are not very nutritious but are addictive. Parents and caregivers play a large role in childhood obesity because they provide and prepare food for young children and as a result they can choose whether or not to buy these items. However, parents may also feel that in giving their children these high fat, high sugar items that they are asking for they are making up for other areas where they may feel their children are being deprived (i.e. not being able to play in organized sports because of cost, not being able to spend much time with their children because of their busy work schedules, not being able to afford new toys, clothes etc.) This is not to say that that type of behavior is correct or that this is the case for all overweight children or parents living in poverty.

Put simply, we live in an environment where cheaper, easier more palatable food is less expensive than healthier alternatives, not to completely shift blame but we need to consider the roles played by the food industry and governments in the cost of food especially fresh food and the provision of (IMO) inadequate social assistance for those living in poverty. This is not to say that I necessarily think we should pour more tax dollars into welfare systems but perhaps subsidize the cost of fresh or fresh frozen healthful foods to make them more appealing and making regularly eating fresh unprocessed food financially feasible for the population as a whole. Though food deserts would need to be examined in order to improve livelihoods in those areas but overall if this were the case, perhaps we would not be facing such a widespread overweight and obesity epidemic in the west (the global north).

Many people living in poverty, even overweight and obese individuals are malnourished. I like to assume that all parents inevitably want the best for their children but simply may not be able to provide the foods that they need to have a healthy varied diet. So we can all assign "blame" as we see fit but as we look at the more holistic picture we may recognize that it is not as cut and dry as we may have thought. I really appreciate whoever posted this topic, its great that we have started the conversation about overweight and obesity and its contributing factors. Many of you have made really great and nuanced points that will contribute to a better understanding of the issue for all of us who read the forums. Keep up the great work MFP's!

Brit

I recently went to a talk about food security. Basically, it talked about the ability of people living at or below the poverty level, and their ability to feed themselves and their families. Basically what it came down to is this: if a single mother with two kids is on income assistance, she receives $1124 a month.

Now by my calculations:

Monthly income: $1124
Rent: $ 700
Basic telephone/cable: $ 65
Electricity: $ 40
Bus passes $ 122

So that leaves Mom with $197 a month to feed herself and her two kids. That's $49.25 a week, or $7.04 a day.

Where I live, 4 liters of milk costs $7.49. A 2 liter of pop is $1.49. A loaf of bread costs $2.29. A box of Kraft dinner is $1.09.

In this lecture, they talked about the "basic food basket" which is the food that one would need to buy to follow Canada's food guide for healthy eating. The cost in our community to meet those basic requirements was over $80/week for this hypothetical mother and her two kids.

If a parent is trying to feed herself and her kids on less than $50 a week, of course they are going to eat a lot of boxed meals.

Another issue addressed was the fact that in the cycle of poverty, a lot of times parents just don't know or have the skills to prepare healthful meals, so even though you might be able to cook a healthy stew for $15 that would feed them for three days, Mom might not have the skills or the tools available.

So my point, after this rather long post, is that I do agree, poverty certainly plays a role.

Is it sad that this single mother of 2 living on assistance and not working makes less than $100 less than I do a month and I have to pay $100/week for daycare so I can work? Oh and I can't afford cable or internet or anything. With my income, IF I hit my monthly bonus, I save $20/week for groceries. Some months that $20/week goes down to $20/month. It's not exactly easy to find food for that amount of money...

I think it has more to do with education about food, access to farmers markets, and laziness.
It's been proven eating healthy costs less at the grocery store. I can go to Sprouts and leave with 5 bags full or vegan milk and yogurt, fresh organic veggies and spent 30$. Fast food for 2 costs 15$ for one meal.

I feel the biggest player in why those in poverty spend money they have on "junk" rather than healthy foods is education and media advertising. Just watch TV for a hour or drive through a town and look at the billboards and shops and you will be inundated with messages for for convenience foods. Those in poorer neighborhoods already have issues with schools teaching what the children need and I am pretty sure nutrition is low on that list and probably never even covered. So if a person we up poor without proper education on such issues they haven't been give the tools to know how to make better choices. Throw in then that they are working two minimum pay jobs just to keep a roof over their heads and the lights on the marketing of these so called convenience foods comes into play. A product will say now made with whole wheat and they will think oh well that must be healthy which in reality it's still loaded with sugars and lacking other nutrients.

Lets also not loose sight of the fact that a lot of us got fat while not in poverty. Because we liked to eat more than we could expend. Some reasons for it are sweeping across all income levels.

Call me a conspiracy theorist but I think ultimately greed is to blame. The people at the top don't want the world to be healthy. I know we can all make our own choices but they prey on weakness etc. You could then argue that you don't want the "government" controlling what we eat (even though they already do). World hunger and homelessness could probably be wiped out if we actually tried, but then who is we? someone else? someone in power? we couldn't possible make a difference? Think of smoking, it makes people sick and offers no benefit whatsoever. Here in Canada we have free health care and if you become sick from abusing your body then you are covered. It doesn't make very much sense to us but the the drug companies etc. love it.

In the end who is to blame for obese children? well it depends

Who is to blame for poverty, well that depends too...

Telling someone it is simply their fault that their children are fat is kind of a slap in the face unless you are going to offer some sort of help.

Is everyone saying that the people here who are obese are lazy?

I agree to some extent but we didn't have money growing up but to us McDonald's and Pizza were only eaten to celebrate a birthday or something (LOL), my dad said it is to expensive. My mom cooked all the meals, which included meat/chicken/fish, but that was only 1-2 times a week. We had vegetable soup, beans, lentils, fruit, milk, cereal, etc and we were so healthy. It was when I started making money that I would have more fast food and I gained weight. I am back to cooking my own meals and I come to the realization that I am also saving money.

You have to shop smart to get the right food at the right price. To do this you have to have some sort of information available to them which is what they lack. They go for the cheap and easy route and the kids learn from this and continue this pattern.

<---- college degree, under the povery line, lost 100lbs eating healthy

Thank you.

I think it is offensive to equate poverty with lack of knowledge and education. Due to the struggling economy, even people with PhDs can be under the poverty line. I know of many intellectuals that have had trouble making ends meet. This type of thinking is stereotyping plain and simple and it is sadly quite prevalent in this entire thread.

On the other hand, I do agree with the interesting posts about this topic.

That aside, I really don't think the obesity problem has a single cause. It's a combination of our economy, lack of education in nutrition, change in our nations food supply(large companies selling boxed crap for dirt cheap and promising up that it's healthy), and our great American love of excess.

IMVHO the place to start is kids. They need to have mandatory nutrition classes and the old school home ec classes that teach basic skills of cooking healthy meals. These need to be continued from grade school through middle school through high school and make at least one nutrition course mandatory to college students. We require them to learn basic things like math, English, and biology... why shouldn't we expect them to learn how to take care of themselves with food. We need to have a working understanding how food effects our bodies and how to fuel it properly.

It's frightening to me to watch TV Shows like Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and see kid who don't know where butter comes from.. or honey... or what an actual potato looks like.... how on earth can you hope to stop the obesity epidemic when the kids are CLUELESS on what food is?

I will probably be bashed for this... HOWEVER, I'm putting it out there anyway.

I agree with you 110% and have thought for a very long time, that we need to find a way to help the people we have living here in our own country, and slow down on helping the other countries. Part of the reason we are falling apart as a country is because we have stopped looking inside and taking care of our own. We MUST fix the things that are broken here before we can go to other countries and fix what is broken.

When we were a stronger country, helping others was vitally important, but in doing so we have lost sight of our own countries needs! I find it extremely sad.

Ok, I'm going to get off of my soap box, because I could go on forever with this :sad:

AMEN!

My thoughts are that there are so many reasons why we have such an obesity problem, it's almost impossible to narrow it down to just one thing. Yes, parents do a lot to encourage one type of eating or another. But, poverty is also a strong factor! I recently watched "Food Inc." that opened my eyes to this. A family was in the grocery store and the younger girl asked if they could buy some pears. How much do you get for a pound? The dad asked. You got 2 - maybe 3 if they were small pears. Nope, sorry to expensive the dad says. This family is forced to decide between healthy eating and the dads diabetic medication. If the dad doesn't get his medication, then they won't be making any more money but the way their eating I'm sure isn't helping his health issue . . . . a vicious circle. And we spend so much looking outside our own when we have HUGE problems within.

If they are really THAT strapped for cash though, it's not difficult to find a can of pears that was preserved in it's own juices (which means no HFCS or sugar substitutes) for $1, maybe a little more? They can still get pears just perhaps not fresh... or thay can wait until they are on sale because fruit and vegetables always go on sale. People just have to be willing to wait and look or buy frozen or buy canned. Or find a farm co-op where they can get produce fairly cheap (at least that's the case around here).