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Obesity: An Ironic Symptom of Poverty

Sarah Reyner
December 4, 2012
ENG 102
Chris Brunt

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The extra thermal cushioning that many college students reluctantly gain around their
waistlines, known as the freshman fifteen is caused by campus life activities such as late night
taco bell runs, the high calorie intake from alcohol consumption, or the infamous pizza line in the
campus cafeteria. Students are restrained by their limited budget from eating the nutritious and
wholesome foods that used to be provided on the dinner table at home. Many transfer their food
funds to bar tabs or movie tickets, requiring them to sustain on the cheapest form of food
available. This behavior has become commonly known as the Ramen Noodle Diet. Living on
cheap, low nutrient, and high calorie foods and beverages leads to those dreaded extra pounds
that afflict a high percentage of freshman college students.
The weight that they gain is an ironic consequence that is also customary of many
impoverished regions in the United States. The two differ as loosening a belt a few notches
being the main side effect that college students face, whereas low-income neighborhoods are
facing a severe health crises. Richard Carmona, the United States Surgeon General, explains this
in his letter to the House of Representatives as he states obesity is the most rapidly rising cause
of death and the foremost cause of chronic disease and disability in America (Carmona,
Richard). Diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, stroke, and cardiovascular disease are
commonly diagnosed in impoverished areas due to the enormous percentage of obese inhabitants
(Politano 350). The increased prevalence of obesity and hunger within the same population is
paradoxical and difficult to conceive. How can two issues marked with such contradiction be
linked? While delivering a campaign speech in Iowa, Rick Santorum focused in on this paradox
when he asked the audience If hunger is a problem in America, why do we have an obesity
problem among the people who we say have a hunger problem? (Shulzke, Eric)

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In his article Poverty and Obesity in the U.S James Levine, of the American Diabetes
Association, reported a study that observed the correlation between the poverty and obesity rates
across 3,139 counties. The study refuted the international trend of wealth coinciding with
obesity. The study concluded that counties with poverty rates greater than 35 percent had obesity
rates 145 percent greater than the more affluent counties (Levine, James).
Examples of poor neighborhoods with over voluptuous inhabitants are prevalent and
scattered throughout the country, South Bronx, New York being a prime example. Nestled
within the borders of New York City, the region is a model of this correlation because it has some
of the most severe hunger related issues while being the countrys leading capital of obesity.
According to Andrew Rundle, and epidemiologist at the Mailman School of Public Health at
Columbia University, the residents of South Bronx have an 85 percent higher risk of being obese
than people in the more affluent neighboring community of Manhattan (Rundle, Andrew).
Seven of the ten states with the highest poverty levels were also among the ten states
with the highest obesity rates, states Levine. When peering through the eyes of those trapped in
the vicious circle of hunger and weight gain, the root of their problem seems justifiable, yet wellthought solutions requires acknowledging the issues level of complexity. Imagine facing a daily
battle to meet the minimal calorie intake level or simply being at a desperate state of hunger. You
are going to eat what fills your belly, regardless of the nutritional value. Even though there is a
struggle to obtain enough food for satisfaction, if one obtains this mindset, they are at high risk
for a substantial amount of weight gain and eventually chronic disease.
Precious, the main character of the 2009 Academy Award winning film titled the by the
same name, is an excessively obese teenage girl that suffers from hunger due to her
impoverished conditions. She captures this mindset throughout the film as she makes poor

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nutritional choices as a result of her struggle to acquire food. In one scene, Precious is shown
sprinting down the streets of her ghetto-style community after thieving a family sized bucket of
fried chicken from the local fast food restaurant. Puddles of grease blanketed her plump checks
and the remnants of fried chicken skin cascaded down the front of her white blouse after she
devoured the entire bucket for an early morning breakfast. The repulsive amount of grease that
that she hastily consumed was shown spewing out of her mouth in a stream of vomit just as
promptly. Though highly offensive, this scene presents the epidemic that contradicts common
logic. The most hungry are essentially the most gluttonous. Even though vomiting prevented
Preciouss arteries from being lubricated with another layer of cholesterol, the improper food
choices she makes due to poverty present the problem that experts claim as the key bridge
between hunger and obesity: the misconception that healthy foods are unaffordable (Dolnick,
Sam).
The American version of hunger deviates from the popular depiction of hunger that many
visualize, African famines, skeletal figures with holocaust-like demeanors, or babies with
inflated and swollen bellies. The third-world hunger we witness through the eyes of media and
the hunger that is seen within American borders differ by the category of malnutrition that each
falls under. The bone protruding bodies in underdeveloped nations that we commonly associate
with hunger are classified under calorie-poor malnutrition whereas the hunger in the U.S. is
considered calorie-rich and nutrient-poor malnutrition. It boils down to either obtaining
minuscule amounts of food and not meeting energy requirements verses receiving the desired
amount and type of food at irregular times. These disparities reveal the obvious physical
differences between the bone-protruding stick figures in impoverished countries and the over-

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satiated and round bodies in the U.S.. The hungriest people in America today, statistically
speaking, are not bone-thin skinny, they are excessively fat (Cramer, Joseph).
"People don't starve to death in the United States, but they do face lack of consistent,
adequate nutrition" (Shulzke, Eric). Because the struggle for food in the U.S. is not necessarily
true hunger, in 2006 the United States Department of Agriculture dropped the term hunger in
favor of food insecurity to provide distinction. The USDA defines food insecurity as
[households that are uncertain of having], or unable to acquire, enough food to satisfy of all
their members because they had insufficient money or other resources for food. According to
their research, over 14.9 percent of the population which is 17.9 million U.S. households fall into
this category. Food-insecure households can be labeled as having low food security or very low
food security. The USDA defines low food security as consisting of food-insecure households
that obtained enough food to avoid substantially disrupting their eating patterns or reducing food
intake by using a variety of coping strategies, such as eating less varied diets, participating in
Federal food assistance programs, or getting emergency food from community food pantries.
Very low food security includes food-insecure households, where normal eating patterns of one
or more household members have been disrupted and food intake was reduced at times during
the year because they had insufficient money or other resources for food. Even though low
food security is the most prevalent affecting 11 million households and 9.2 percent of the
population, very low security follows closely with 5.7 percent affecting 6.8 million households.

Stretching the monthly food budget is not an easy task for many of these families. Those
labeled as food insecure typically qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
commonly referred to as food stamps. According to the Food and Nutrition Service of the

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USDA, a family receives an average of $133.85 per person, per month in aid. This money is
frequently used to buy expensive pre made meals when it should be spent on raw ingredients to
cook from scratch. It is a difficult task for even the most intense coupon clippers to stretch this
budget on any kind of manufactured product.
After battling rush hour traffic following a busy day at work, the frozen lasagna nestled in
the back of the freezer offers a free ticket to relaxation. Popping the plastic tray into the
microwave, it becomes an instant meal in a matter of seconds. Many who suffer from food
insecurity mimmic this lazy behavior by buying candy bars, chips, and other packaged junk
food as a form of instant gratification. Resorting to these products due to laziness or the intense
need to satisfy hunger has become a popular yet detrimental habit to the lowest classes of
America. The options that seem to be the easiest are the most detrimental, robbing the many
benefits that preparing a meal from scratch provides.
Calorie-packed and sugary processed foods are typically what people result to buy if they
are falling short on cash. You can fill up on 1,200 calories of cookies for $1, but only receive
250 calories from carrots for that $1(Shulzke, Eric). If you were hungry, which would you buy?
This comparison is what influences most food choices in poor neighborhoods and has played a
major role in their rising body mass index levels. When living on a limited budget, it is a natural
tendency to stretch funds by buying cheap, instant, and processed food. Many are under the false
impression that such foods are the thriftiest option. Regardless of how much these bargain
foods satisfy bank accounts, the physical harm that arises when their unnatural ingredients enter
the digestive system substantially outweighs the perk of potentially saving a few pennies.
So the immense appetite for potato chips and cheese puffs is driven by food insecurity?
Buying these products with food stamps is as sensible as handing out chewing gum to the

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starving children in Africa. Each satisfy some unnecessary need, however neither serve any
nutritional purpose. Junk food should be bought for the sole purpose of pleasure and
convenience, not to acquire daily nutrition. The calorie-for-calorie argument is not a plausible
excuse. Regardless of the consequences, as long as it tastes good, is cheaply priced, and readily
available, so forth will the impoverished obesity rates incline.
As fast food enterprises, junk food, and pre-made meals have gained popularity,
nutritional and culinary knowledge has been forgotten. From one generation to the next, the
kitchens stovetops, mixers, and ovens have accumulated layers of dust as microwaves became
families primary cooking tool. According to J. Michael Harris, an economist with the Economic
Research Service of the USDA, 90 percent of Americans purchase convenience foods.
Hands-on meal preparation is nearly a forgotten art form within households due to this reliance
on prepared convenience meals that are ready at the chime of a timer.
In a study conducted by UCLAs Center on Everyday Lives of Families (CELF), thirtytwo working families in Los Angeles were videotaped for four days to observe their dinner
routines. Dr. Beck, one of the leading researchers, was surprised by the results because she
expected to see takeout used more often. People actually spend quite a fair amount of time
cooking but are incorporating a lot of so-called convenience foods. Seventy percent of the
sixty-four weeknight meals observed were home-cooked, but most consisted of packaged
commercial or convenience foods. Only ten percent were completely home-cooked.
Surprisingly, there was not a substantial difference in preparation time between the two methods,
a factor that astonished a previously heavy user of these quick and easy meals. Home-cooked
meals required an average of thirty-four minutes of hands-on time and fifty-two minutes of
total time to prepare Beck explains. Heavy reliance on convenient or commercial food only

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saved an average of ten to twelve minutes of hands on time, which includes chopping, peeling,
and mixing, but did not reduce the average time of fifty-two minutes it takes to prepare the meal
(Beck, Margaret).
The use of commercial foods may cut time in grocery shopping and manual labor but the
benefits of meals made from scratch substantially outweigh the extra fifteen minutes saved.
While the deciding factor should ideally be nutrition, more often it is price and convenience.
This initiates a tug-of-war between physical and economic health, something that can be avoided
by knowing how to plan and prepare meals with a tight budget.
Such smart meals can be obtained by substituting more nutritional or more frugal
ingredients in place of the expensive or fattening ones. For example, a family who relies on food
stamps is in the process of cooking pancakes for breakfast and discover that they are lacking
buttermilk, a necessary ingredient. Instead of waisting their already tight funds by buying an
entire carton to use one cup, they create a homemade version by substituting with what they
already own. This was done by adding a tablespoon of white vinegar to a cup of milk. After it
rested for approximately ten minutes they created the needed cup of buttermilk essentially for
free.

Cooking also provides unlimited options that manufactured meals limit. According to
Celynn Erasmus, a registered dietician, when ready-made meals are frozen, the flavor tends to be
degraded. To compensate for this loss in flavor, companies add extra salt and fat to their
products. They also add many artificial preservatives and unhealthy vegetable oils to stabilize
their products for long periods of time. Unlike manufactured meals, home cooking provides an
unlimited supply of options. One of the main nutrient losses in the manufacturing process is

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fiber. According to Erasmus,processed foods are often stripped of fiber content to avoid
unpleasant taste and toughness when they are preserved too long. Apple sauce has only a small
percentage of fiber of an unaltered apple, along with added sugar and preservatives. Fiber
satisfies hunger quicker and keeps you full longer, which results in less consumption of calories
and ultimately prevents weight gain (Erasmus, Ceylnn). Ever wonder why you are hungry
twenty minutes after eating an entire bag of potato chips? By creating your own menu, you can
choose to incorporate high fiber or other nutrient-dense ingredients that processed foods lack. At
the chop of a knife and beat of a whisk, cooking allows the incorporation of whole foods that are
absent in meals of convenience.
A substantial amount of convenient foods are thrown away and wasted due to
unnecessary portion size. It wouldnt make sense to bake an 8 serving frozen pizza to feed one.
Wasted food equals wasted money. In an interview conducted by Diane Salvatore, on behalf of
Prevention Magazine, Michelle Obama suggested that readers should cook meals at home.
"Maybe not every night, but a couple more times a week than you usually do. That way you have
leftovers, and you take your lunch to work. If people can find a way to slowly incorporate these
changes into their lives, they're going to see the doctor less, and they'll have more energy, even in
tough times of depression and struggle." Planning and preparing homemade meals is stressed as
a major obesity prevention strategy in Michelle Obamas Lets Move! campaign, which is aimed
at preventing childhood obesity.
Lynette Brown, a program assistant for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education
Program at OSU, teaches a nutrition, cooking, shopping, and meal planning class to those who
receive federal food aid. I can give somebody a zucchini and they will say, Thank you very
much, and it will rot in their refrigerator and they will throw it away, she recalls while

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explaining the common trend of cooking and nutrition ignorance. Throughout the 42 years of the
classs existence, culinary knowledge has been observed to lack most in what she refers to as
generational poverty, people who grew up in poverty and are still living there. She identifies
their differences as she states The folks who found themselves newly poor, do not take the
assistance card and buy a soda at the gas station. But a lot of other people do (Abraham, Lisa).
Beans and rice are two bargain ingredients that are nutritious and satisfying and could be
an easy meal for those on a low budget. If only these people knew how to prepare them into their
edible form. It is impossible to implement motivation to manually prepare a meal into those who
use convenience foods as a crutch for laziness, but teaching the misinformed culinary technique
and nutritional knowledge is a task that can be tackled. Many food aid organizations have
realized the benefits that kitchen skills provide and have offered free schooling to low-income
neighborhoods, primarily those who benefit from federal food aid. Programs, such as Browns,
have changed peoples lives, including the life of Quiani Key, a 34 year old mother of three. Key
attended Browns classes and learned how to distribute her low budget efficiently and how to
make meals healthy and frugal by identifying which ingredients are nutritious as well as costeffective. She also learned how to prepare them in a way that is appealing to her familys
tastebuds. By implementing the skills she learned, she substantially improved her families diets
and even had money left over from her 600 dollar budget which was previously used up by the
twentieth of the month (Abraham, Lisa).
Without exercising more or changing your diet to adjust the 790 calories in the KFC
chicken pot pie you had for lunch, you could easily join the obesity club. You did not have to put
forth any effort to make this meal, it tasted good, and you only sacrificed three dollars. You did
however gain an unnecessary amount of empty calories and received little nutrition from it. The

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popular habit of resorting to these meals of convenience has caused a widespread obesity
epidemic that has most severely affected the impoverished communities in the United States.
Differences in price should not hinder certain populations from eating healthy. The high
percentage of the impoverished that are also obese presents a paradox with invisible correlations,
yet the solution is ironically simple. You can feed four to six people with a roasted chicken, a
side of vegetables, a simple salad, and cup of milk all for only fourteen dollars. Impoverished
communities need to incorporate programs such as Lynette Browns to teach families how to
make nutritional and frugal meals like this. If people learned the survival skills that have been
lost in the last half-century due to the invention of convenience products, there would no longer
be a battle between health and budget. The knowledge of cooking makes a powerful difference:
It allows low-income mothers like Quiani to feed her family not just for one day, but for a
lifetime.

Works Cited Page

Abraham, Lisa. "Lack of Cooking Skills Part of Poverty Cycle." Akron Beacon Journal Online
(2012): n. pag. Akron Beacon Journal Online. Web. 1 Dec. 2012. <http:/http://
www.ohio.com/news/local/lack-of-cooking-skills-part-of-poverty-cycle-1.269042>.
Brody, Jane E. "Hard-Times Home Cooking, Made Easier." New York Times. New York Times,
24 Nov. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.
Carmona, Richard H. "The Obesity Crises in America." Letter to Subcommittee on Education
Reform Committee on Education and the Workforce United States House of
Representatives. 08 Jan. 2007. MS. N.p.

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Cramer, Joseph. "The Pain of Calorie-Rich Malnutrition in the United States." Deseret News.
Deseret News, 24 Apr. 2012. Web. 3 Dec. 2012.
Daniels, Lee, dir. Precious. 2009. Film. 18 Nov 2012.
Dolnick, Sam. "The Obesity-Hunger Paradox." The New York Times. The New York Times, 12
Mar. 2010. Web. 1 Dec. 2012.
Erasmus, Celynn. "Ready, Steady, Go! The Pros and Cons of Prepackaged Meals." Corporate
Wellness Magazine. Corporate Wellness Magazine, 01 July 2012. Web. 1 Dec. 2012.
<http://www.corporatewellnessmagazine.com/article/ready-steady-go-the-pros-

and-

cons- of-prepackaged-meals.html>.
Margaret E. Beck, (2007),"Dinner preparation in the modern United States", British Food
Journal, Vol. 109 Iss: 7 pp. 531 - 547
"Michelle Obama Talks Let's Move! and Her Healthy Lifestyle" Interview by Diane Salvatore.
Prevention. Prevention Magazine, Jan. 2012. Web. 1 Dec. 2012
<http://www.prevention.com/health/healthy-living/michelle-obama-exclusive-interviewprevention>
Politano, Gwynn M. "The Obesity Epidemic and Current Perceptions of Somatotypes by
Children." North American Journal of Psychology 13.3 (2011): 349-58. Print.
Schulzke, Eric. "A Food Stamp Paradox." Deseret [Salt Lake City] 28 April 2012, Weekend Ed.
n. pag. Print.
"Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program." FNS Program Data. United States Department of
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http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/snapmain.htm

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United States. American Diabetes Association. Poverty and Obesity in the U.S. By James A.
Levine. American Diabetes Association, 2012. Web. 01 Dec. 2012. <http://
diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/60/11/2667.full>.
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