Weight Gain in the USA
Aug 17th, 2008 by Patrick Glancy
USA Today reports five of the poorest states were in the top ten most obese states (Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana, West Virginia and Alabama) in America. In 2006 Mississippi was the first state to have 30% obesity among its population according to WebMd.com, it also has a high rate of poverty. USA Today also explains, poverty areas are generally unsafe which discourage children from playing outside, have few grocery stores which offer fruits and vegetables, and many housing developments in these areas are not built with sidewalks for exercise. All of these problems contribute to obesity, the poor are set up to fail to achieve a healthy lifestyle.
The average family of four can get up to $542.00 a month in food stamp assistance according to fns.usda.gov. On this kind of budget, adults need to be smart shoppers. The logical thing is to buy whatever is on sale, use coupons, buy in bulk and get as much generic as possible. What this doesn’t allow for is healthy food items.
The typical American family of four spends roughly $600.00 per month on food and more if the foods are organic, low fat, soy based or trans fat free. For an impoverished family, they need to stay within their allotted amount, and this means buying less healthy items and buying in bulk. For example, Ramen noodles are about ten cents a package which means a child can have one a day for a month for around $3.00. However not all that glitters is gold, one package of Ramen is equal to two servings. Each serving has 194 calories in it and 1960 mg of sodium (82% of our daily value). Many food stamp shoppers also shy away from buying fresh product because if not eaten right away it can go bad which means wasted money. So instead they buy fruit snacks packed with sugar, pasta, rice, tacos and greasy chips. These are all things which can be bough for cheap and on a food stamp program, however it is not helping the family to be healthy.
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and his wife decided to try and raise awareness about hunger and poverty. So they tried living on $21.00 a week (the food stamp budget in Oregon for a family of two). The governor quickly realized he would have to learn to do without organic foods, Swiss cheese, and one of his favorite lunch items low sodium Progresso soups. He quickly said yes though to Cup O’Noodles, generic peanut butter and half a banana. Workers from the Department of Health and Human Services offered him some advice to living on food stamps, look for low cost staple items. Some suggestions were, Ramen, macaroni and cheese, beans and rice. All of which were far from healthy choices.
The Federal Nutrition Assistance Program does its best to educate food stamp receivers on healthy living and nutrition but sadly they do not give more money to families to buy healthier items. One of the few ways families in poverty can get healthy meals is through the free lunch/breakfast programs in schools. For children who qualify, they will get a healthy lunch and/or breakfast due to the recent changes to school menus.
There is no denying poverty and obesity are linked. It is difficult to fix one problem without fixing the other. Each problem also snowballs into other problems such as healthcare costs, disability cases, and unemployment. Obesity is not just one problem requiring one simple solution, it is a whole mess of problems which need multiple solutions.
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