Connection between Obesity and Poverty

The rate of obesity among many states especially in US is increasing at an alarming rate. Obesity is caused by lack of healthy diet, consumption of food with high level of cholesterol, lack of physical exercise among other causes. The relationship between obesity and poverty is close. Poor people are mostly at risk of suffering from obesity due to lack of accessibility to nutritious foods. Other causes of obesity among poor people are due to lack of nutrition education, unsafe environment for physical activity or recreational facilities, marketing strategies and low socio economic status among others.

The quality of diet contributes to the developing of obesity. The quality of diet is dependent on the socio-economic status of the people. Poor people have low levels of income and this hinders them to afford or access to proper diet (Marrie, 2010). Many poor people will therefore, buy foods that are not healthy. On the other hand, people from higher socio-economic status are more likely to consume nutritious foods compared to those with low level of income because they have the ability to purchase them. Foods likely to be consumed by people from high socio-economic status includes low fat dairy products, lean meats, whole grains, fresh vegetables, and fruits as opposed to those that are consumed by poor such as more refined grains and fatty foods that are cheaply accessed. Therefore, this is a clear reason as to why obesity is high among the poor compared to the rich.

Lack of recreational facilities and physical activity among the poor contributes to the high number of obese people in many countries, America inclusive. Most poor or low-income families live in environments or backgrounds that are not conducive for playing. Such neighborhoods are dangerous in terms of security, infrastructure and environment. This therefore, deters such people to engage in body or physical exercise making many of them to become obese. Furthermore, accessibility to recreational facilities to most poor families is restricted. Poor people have no accessibility to such infrastructures because, they lack money to put up such facilities or lack funds to use such facilities. This therefore, contributes to many of them becoming obese as their body are not taken through exercise.

Lack of accessibility to nutritious and fresh foods by the poor is yet another problem that has contributed to the ever-increasing cases of obesity among them. There are many corner stores and fast food retailers as opposed to supermarkets, which may provide fresh foods (Pollan, 2006). Therefore, these retailers stock their stores with products that are low in nutrients and high in fats that harm the health of the people. People in such neighborhood will have no choice but to continue buying foods from such stores and retailers. Therefore, these foods contribute in increasing the prevalence of obesity in such areas. Areas where people are wealthy are served with big supermarkets that provide fresh foods; hence, they are exposed to good diets explaining the low level of obesity in such areas.

Additionally, food advertisers and marketers that agitate for consumption of poor nutritious foods usually target people from poor backgrounds. In most cases, children are highly affected since they are lured easily to purchasing and eating such foods (Pollan, 2006). Fast food industry is one of the largest industries that promote consumption of low value nutritious foods. These advertisements are designed in a manner to appeal and stimulate adoption or use of such foods hence exposing such people to unhealthy diets. This also explains the reason why the prevalence of obesity is high among people from poor backgrounds.

Inadequate supply of food also contributes to increase in cases of obesity. People, especially those experiencing economic problems will often opt to cheap foods instead of quality foods. Therefore, to supplement their food needs, people often opt to feed on cheap, fatty calories starch, and sugary foods, which increase their susceptibility to suffer from obesity (Pollan, 2006). Therefore, this explains why poor people suffer from obese. Other kinds of cheap foods with high amount of calories include junk food, processed foods and sodas with high levels of calories.

Lack of education on the right kind of foods among poor people is another reason why the rate of obesity is slightly higher compared to people that are educated. Education is directly related to the level of income among many countries. Those people who are likely to be poor come from families with low levels of education and income. Therefore, people who do not have knowledge on the best foods to eat end up eating foods that contribute to their obese. They lack knowledge on the right food to eat and therefore end up eating those foods that are high in calories and fatty as opposed to balanced diet.

The fact that obesity is higher among the poor is supported by a report that was released in America. The report notes that an approximate 33% of the adult people in the U.S who earned less than $15,000 were obese compared to 24.6% of people who earned averagely $50,000 (Correll, 2010, p. 20). This statistics shows that indeed there is connection between the poverty index and obesity. However, it is has not been concluded that obesity is only associated with the poor but there are some people from wealthy families who suffer from obesity. Such cases are attributed to poor food choice, or poor diet and lack of physical activity. This makes the amount of calories in the body increase leading to obesity. Even though the diseases vary among racial groups, a problem can affect both the poor and the rich.

Obesity is a health problem that can be managed. It is important that appropriate health policies are adopted by the necessary organs to ensure that the problem is solved (Correll, 2010, P. 20). The government is one of the important institutions that is required to come up with a comprehensive health policies that will ensure that the problem is managed. For instance, the government should come up with policies aimed at reducing the production and supply of foods with high levels of calories. This can be done through regulations and providing stiffer penalties for those who produce and advertise such products. Another way is use of stickers and warnings that aim at alerting the consumers of such products about the dangers of consuming such foods. This will help in changing the consumption behaviors of people. The government should also reduce the prices of nutritious foods in order to ensure that even the poor can access the foods at cheaper prices. Education programs should also be rolled out to the people, especially to those who are poor in the society, on the appropriate diets that they should consume (Garry, Boyd, & Amirul, 2012). This programs and campaigns will play a great deal in sensitizing the people on the dangers of consuming certain products, hence help reduce the number of people suffering from obesity (Garry, Boyd, & Amirul, 2012, P. 150). For instance, people can be educated on the foods that they should consume and warned on those that they should shun away from such as fatty foods with a lot of calories, sugar and junk foods.

There is also need to provide facilities for physical activities to people from all economic status. Facilities such as playing grounds will allow people to exercise hence help them to maintain good health standards. Physical exercise helps in burning up of extra calories in the body hence helping in maintenance of the mass of the body.

It is therefore true that there is relationship or connection between poverty and obesity. Most poor people have many challenges that they encounter which contributes to their obese. Such challenges include lack of physical activity due to absence of facilities, lack of nutrition education, poor diet, and lack of food among many others. It is equally important to point out that even though poor people are more likely to suffer from obesity, even the rich have the risk especially, when they do not know the right foods to eat and if they do not engage in physical activities. However, obesity is a health problem that can be managed if people choose the food they eat wisely and engage in physical activities.

References

Carla J. M., & Solveig A. C., (2012). Research: Social Position, Psychological Stress, and Obesity: A Systematic Review In Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 112(4):518-526.

Correll, M. D., (2010). Getting Fat on Government Cheese: The Connection between Social Welfare Participation, Gender, and Obesity in America. Journal of Gender Law & Policy 18-45.

Garry, E., Boyd, s., & Amirul, I., (2012). Economic growth and obesity: An interesting relationship with Worldwide implications In Economics and Human Biology, 10(2):147- 153.

Marrie, L. (2010). Trends in poverty and welfare alleviation issues. New York: Nova Publishers.

Pollan, M. (2006). The omnivore’s dilemma: A natural history of four meals (Hardcover)