America, the land of the poor, and the home of the obese. A far more accurate title than the one sung in the national anthem. The United States of America, one of the fattest countries in the world, has a ridiculously high poverty rate. For a country supposedly filled with opportunities, there are thousands of Americans unemployed. There is a significant tie between the high obesity rate in the United States and the high poverty rate, which this paper will prove. Before the problem presented can be understood, one of the root struggles must be examined and explained. Poverty first really took hold in America after the stock market crash in 1929. Many people were unable to afford the prices of goods at local businesses, causing those companies
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Obesity is caused by many factors, but one of the main ones that causes many americans to slide into obesity is the lack of availability for healthy, nutritious meals. This can be caused by the inability to afford fresh fruits and vegetables and the lack of transportation to locations where these things are available. Where healthier options may not be available, fast food restaurants and sugary snacks provide a solstice. They can fill the empty stomachs, but they contain ridiculous amounts of added sugar, and little to no nutrition. Many impoverished families rely on food stamps to get their food every week, but if these stamps are used for fresh foods, they don’t go very far. Fresh food is substantially more expensive than processed, unhealthy meals. Imagine a mother, trying to get enough food for her children to be able to eat meals. Is she going to spend her precious food stamps on healthy food that she can get less of? Waste her opportunity to get food when her mobility is limited to get the nutritious meals? Or is she going to spend it on cheaper, processed foods, if it means she can get almost two times the amount …show more content…
But a study done by the Center for Disease control, people who have low incomes are more likely to obese. In a study done by the USDA ERS or United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 43 percent of household that fall below the poverty line of $21,756 for annual income are food insecure (United States Department of Agriculture). That is almost 50 percent of the population of the United States. A family being food insecure or being in a “food desert”, means “the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.” (Webster Dictionary). Note that in this definition, the word “nutritious” is used. This definition ties together the two struggles of american people simply, by placing nutrition, which clearly is the root of obesity, into the issue of poverty. Another example of the link between poverty and obesity is shown in a study done by the CDC (See 1A). These bars on the graph represent the percentage of adults that are obese in the specific income category. Notice, that the opposition is completely proven false when it is observed that over 30 percent of adults that generate under $25,000 are obese. Only approximately 22 percent are obese that make over $75,000 (CDC). Clearly, this proves the opposition
Obesity is caused by many factors, but one of the main ones that causes many americans to slide into obesity is the lack of availability for healthy, nutritious meals. This can be caused by the inability to afford fresh fruits and vegetables and the lack of transportation to locations where these things are available. Where healthier options may not be available, fast food restaurants and sugary snacks provide a solstice. They can fill the empty stomachs, but they contain ridiculous amounts of added sugar, and little to no nutrition. Many impoverished families rely on food stamps to get their food every week, but if these stamps are used for fresh foods, they don’t go very far. Fresh food is substantially more expensive than processed, unhealthy meals. Imagine a mother, trying to get enough food for her children to be able to eat meals. Is she going to spend her precious food stamps on healthy food that she can get less of? Waste her opportunity to get food when her mobility is limited to get the nutritious meals? Or is she going to spend it on cheaper, processed foods, if it means she can get almost two times the amount …show more content…
But a study done by the Center for Disease control, people who have low incomes are more likely to obese. In a study done by the USDA ERS or United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 43 percent of household that fall below the poverty line of $21,756 for annual income are food insecure (United States Department of Agriculture). That is almost 50 percent of the population of the United States. A family being food insecure or being in a “food desert”, means “the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.” (Webster Dictionary). Note that in this definition, the word “nutritious” is used. This definition ties together the two struggles of american people simply, by placing nutrition, which clearly is the root of obesity, into the issue of poverty. Another example of the link between poverty and obesity is shown in a study done by the CDC (See 1A). These bars on the graph represent the percentage of adults that are obese in the specific income category. Notice, that the opposition is completely proven false when it is observed that over 30 percent of adults that generate under $25,000 are obese. Only approximately 22 percent are obese that make over $75,000 (CDC). Clearly, this proves the opposition