The Relationship Between Obesity And Poverty

The stereotypical image of poverty is portrayed as protruding ribcages, hollowed faces, and skeletal fingers. Poverty, in the world’s mind, is often equated with sickly thinness. Images of children in third-world countries with distended bellies flood the brain when “malnutrition” is mentioned. Malnutrition, however, often shows itself in counterintuitive ways. In fact, those not receiving enough nutrients are often overweight, if not obese. Consequently, there is a frightening link between obesity and poverty. The lack of resources and the tendency to form poor relationships with food directly contribute to the obesity epidemic among the destitute.
Families living in poverty do not have access to quality resources, therefore putting them at …show more content…
Another example of a lack of resources is evident in the amount of recreational facilities available to the impoverished. According to the Food Research and Action Center, “Lower income neighborhoods have fewer physical activity resources than higher income neighborhoods, including fewer parks, green spaces, bike paths, and recreational facilities” (“Why Low Income and Food Insecure People are Vulnerable to Overweight and Obesity”). Again, the luxury of the upper-middle class is foreign to those who can hardly afford to feed themselves. In “The Heavy Price of Losing Weight” by U.S News and World Report’s writer Geoff Williams, both sides of the argument are presented. While critics, such as Jennifer Seyler, dietician and president of the Chicago Food and Nutrition Network, argue that there are always a multitude of easy and effective home exercises such as squats or pushups, and there is always a gym just around the …show more content…
First, the stress and general unhappiness of struggling to stay afloat puts people at risk for various mental disorders and, by proxy, obesity. For example, according to a study done by Danielle Barry, PhD and Nancy M. Petry, PhD, “Obese individuals [in study] were 1.5 times more likely than normal-weight individuals to report lifetime or past-year mood disorder; extremely obese persons were twice as likely” (“Obesity and Psychiatric Disorders). A direct correlation between obesity and poor mental health is drawn; the two appear to go hand-in-hand. The significance is underscored by Barry and Petry by mentioning studies in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand that recorded similar trends. A shared trigger between mental unrest and obesity is stress. Those living in poverty face physical, mental, emotional, and economic stress. On the Food Research Action Center’s website, experts state, “Stress, particularly chronic stress, also may trigger anxiety and depression, which are both associated with child and adult obesity.” Stress-eating is an issue thousands of Americans have, and if the only food they can snack on is processed, sugary foods from the convenience store, the chances of gaining weight increase. Additionally, environmentally speaking, the lower classes are exposed to consistently elevated levels of stress.