Effects Of Socioeconomics On Nutrition

As thinness is frequently celebrated by the media and society, the rich and privileged prefer healthier food choices to maintain wellness and their body figures, thus making healthier foodstuff more expensive and less available to poorer communities. At the same time, they make unhealthy food more readily available, cheaper and use advertising to cultivate demand for unhealthy food by the masses. These measures help to keep healthy food options out of reach for poorer communities and maintain inequality in health food distribution in society. As obese individuals are often stigmatized in society, experience discrimination at work and many health complications, keeping healthy food inaccessible for poorer communities (which increases likelihood of obesity for the poor) can limit social mobility and in turn help to cement the status of the powerful few at the top of the food

For most Americans, the word poverty means insufficient access to to housing, clothing and nutritious food that meet their needs for a healthy life. A consequence of poverty is a low socioeconomic status that leads to being exposed to poor nutrition. Since food and dietary choices are influenced by income, poverty and nutrition go hand in hand. There are many important factors that threaten the nutritional status of poor people. The number one factor is not having enough money to buy food of good quality and quantity. Not having enough money can have a profound impact on the diets of low-income people. Limited financial resources may force low income people to make difficult decisions about what kind and how much food to buy. Limited

A brief summary of the evidence for issue area’s link to health outcomes/social determinants of health.

In the 21st century society there are two current factors that are very obvious in affecting patterns of health. These are that of social class affecting health and lifestyle choices.

Assess how influences on the dietary intake may affect the nutritional health of individuals (M2)

Understanding the effects of poor and efficient eating habits and how to manage your health is crucial to the existence of a healthy population in the America. To understand these approaches, one has to understand some of the poor eating habits witnessed on most people in the United States. Paula (2015) states that only ten percent of the entire American population follow a daily diet consistent with the federal nutrient recommendations. Other than following the required nutrition, most people prefer meals rich in trans-fats, salt, saturated fat, and sugar and ignore fruits, vegetables, and fiber. The increased preference of poor nutrition contributes a total of four out of six in

Individuals of higher income levels often have private insurance that allows them to see a physician on a regular basis. These individuals are able to prevent many diseases before they exacerbate. They often eat low fat diets or plant based diets. They are educated on their nutritional health and often make better choices when choosing the different types foods to eat. Due to their income, they can afford to eat healthy food and make healthy food choices. Even though these individuals may be predisposed to certain diseases, their diets prevent them from becoming prevalent in their lives. Due to the individual’s socioeconomic status they make enough money that they don’t stress about the necessities in life. These individuals live in areas such as Roswell, Johns Creek. Alpharetta, Buckhead, Kennesaw, and Stockbridge. Individuals of a poor economic status have limited access to healthcare. These individuals often have Medicaid, Medicare, or no health insurance at all. They often eat diets that are high in fat. Individuals of poor economic status aren’t often educated about eating healthy. They often eat unhealthy because it is too expensive to eat healthy. These individuals often receive government subsidiaries such as WIC and SNAP benefits for themselves and their children. There aren’t many healthy food stores if any at all in these neighborhoods. Stores such as Whole Foods, Sprout, and Trader Joe’s aren’t located in poverty stricken communities because the individuals can’t afford the prices. It is a disadvantage that the grocery chains in the neighborhood don’t offer the resident a healthier option. Individuals of poor economic status often fight chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and often cancer. They often live sedentary lifestyles that contribute to these diseases. They eat diets that are high in red meats one that contributes to

Obesity is a problem in different areas throughout the world; obesity is a major problem in the United States of America. The food industry in the U.S. has changed. Food is cheaper and easier to access, but food is lower in quality and is massively produced (Kenner, 2008). Food is no longer as hard to come by as it once was and is not as expensive, but healthy food is more expensive and, most of the time, requires trips to the grocery store. In American society today, American are busy and have minimal time to exercise, cooking, or even go to the grocery store. The lower socioeconomic classes are notably affected as a result of individuals and families of lower socioeconomic classes often can’t afford healthy food from local grocery stores

In general, Americans living at or below the poverty level tend to have a less healthy diet, as calculated by the Healthy Eating (Dewitt 1).

“Access to food, mass media, and contemporary busy lifestyles play role in poor food choices” (Edelman & Mandle, 2010).

In the articles “Gap In Diet Quality Between Wealthiest Poorest Americans Doubles” by Tracie McMillan, and “Is Junk Food Really Cheaper.” by Mark Bittman. We see that the overall diet quality in the United States remains poor.

Socio-economic status and obesity also relate. A concerning problem is that buying a burger off of the dollar menu can actually be cheaper than buying fruits and vegetables. It has actually become easier and more affordable to buy unhealthy foods such as fast foods and processed foods. In low-income areas, schools also tend to serve unhealthy processed foods in the cafeteria. It has become much more difficult for the poor to access healthy ingredients so they turn to cheap processed foods. The correlation between socio-economic status and income is shown by the fact that Mississippi, the poorest state in America, has the highest obesity rate in the nation (Berl, Rachel).

“We’re the only nation in the world where all of our poor people are fat”’ (Herbert 323). The truth is that Americans are worried about not having enough food and rather buy food that is much cheaper and that is very unhealthy, the least of their concerns is making sure if the food they buy is healthy or not. ‘The 12 million families represent 11.2 percent of all U.S households. “At some time during the year,” the report said, “ these holds were uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food for all their members because they had insufficient money.” (Herbert 323). Low income families cope with not being able to afford healthy food by buying food that are high in calories, low in nutritional values and low in cost. People that have low incomes are more obese than those with high income because people with higher income are able to afford fresh and healthy ingredients without concern of quantity or quality of

It is said that obesity can be caused by not knowing how to combat and prevent this common disease before it begins in poverty stricken areas. Additionally the availability of nutritious food choices and the means to have safe active life style are not available to those who suffer from poverty due to financial and educational disadvantages. Obesity is not just a class problem, but financially disadvantaged people that lack access to quality food will inevitably turn to high calorie processed foods that will stretch their food dollar.

(White, pg.3) The calorie-rich fast food is cheaper than a lot of the supermarket food especially to the lower classes which would come to rely on the availability of these fast food chains for cheap and efficient calorie rich food to feed themselves sacrificing their health to just be able to eat overall. With this in mind, this shows that the lower class people are often trapped in an environment which forces them to eat unhealthy due to the cost of nutrient-rich foods and due to the placement of chain supermarkets as compared to the placement of convenience stores and fast food chains in their respective environments. Not only are these lower class stuck when it comes to income, they are stuck with the only things available and that is fast food and convenience stores which rarely have vegetables and