Food Disparity In America

America is a great country; with high emphasis on freedom, education, acceptance, and philanthropy, there is a strong basis to create a diverse, successful country. However, there is one aspect that America lacks: nutrition. The average American’s diets exceeds the recommended intake of solid fats and added sugars, refined grains, sodium, and saturated fats, and the average amount of calories consumed per American has increased approximately 600 calories per day. Clearly, America struggles to keep citizens’ diets nutritious. In fact, recent studies have projected that by 2030, half of all American adults will be obese (US Dept. of Health). At this rate, Americans will struggle

Poor nutrition in the United States is indeed a scary factor that continues to lead our citizens to chronic healthcare conditions. The article notes “Health People 2020 states the most affected are non-White, Hispanic adult populations are disproportionately affected by obesity” (Kaiser Foundation Hospital, 2014, p. 6)

In the United States of America, there is a current epidemic of obesity throughout the country. Every age group is affected by this unfortunate trend. Even children are not immune to the national obesity problem. For a country that has an abundance of job opportunities, educational opportunities, and financial opportunities, it is a sad statement of fact that far too many people are tipping the scales in unhealthy ways. It is a fact that a disproportionate amount of the nation's citizens are dangerously overweight. If the country as a whole wishes to reverse this disparaging state of affairs, then the first thing to do is to determine why so large a percentage of the population is suffering in this way. People who are suffering from obesity or who are dangerously overweight encounter a myriad of health concerns both physically and mentally. There has even been proved a correlation between obesity and lower life expectancy (Flicker 2010). Two of the many reasons why the Americans have such a problem with obesity is the fact that there the diets of most Americans are heavily based on corn or corn-based products and that Americans lead a more sedentary and inactive lifestyle than people in other nations.

America, like any other country, has its assortment of problems: immigration, debt, or foreign affairs but one issue that is rather hard to overlook, literally, its obesity epidemic. The extra pounds have become a sight all too common in America’s society, “men are now on average seventeen pounds heavier than they were in the late seventies, and for women that figure is even higher: nineteen pounds.” (Kolbert). Obesity does not just affect adults in this way either, the kid population has been getting bigger, according to the numbers on a scale “the proportion of overweight children, age six to eleven, has more than doubled, while the proportion of overweight adolescents, age twelve to nineteen, has more than tripled.” (Kolbert). This issue has been a major concern to doctors and scientists for decades and in recent years, has even has the American Medical Association recognizing obesity to be a disease (Pollack). That is a highly debatable statement because obesity itself is a preventable lifestyle. Obesity is avoidable and curable to all (or at least most) of its sufferers. For some citizens, obesity is not a choice, rather genetics, but for the majority of the population, obesity is caused by an unhealthy diet and lazy lifestyle, and for these certain individuals, through a lot of work and discipline, the return to a healthy lifestyle is not as impossible as it may appear.

Food, the true driving force behind mankind and all of its glory, has been a focus of the recent decades in America because of its adverse effect on the populace. The reason being is that food has more control over the public than people tend to realize. Food in the United States is taken for granted because of its abundance and as such gets little thought put into it. When the government plasters guidelines on what to eat, people semi-acknowledge it while continuing to buy things that seem delectable to them. Food companies run the show; the government more or less sways its view away from the things that happen behind closed doors. So what does this mean for society as a whole?

As seen during the eighteenth century, the presence of excess body fat was envied and very rare; seen only in kings, the rich, and the wealthy as a sign of power and prosperity. Once food shortage was no longer relevant, the 20th century re-assessed this “sign of power” as a sign of ill health, and was then documented in medical practices as the chronic disease known as obesity. As we look at the roots of obesity today, causes of the disease cannot be attributed to a single origin. However, there are many daily influences that justify our nations expanding waistlines; the most obvious being an unhealthy diet. The role of food in our society has altered the way Americans perceive nutrition. Meal times are advertised as social events; an instance of mindless eating, with little awareness on stopping when you’re full, and overeating as a result. Portion sizes are much larger than nutritionally necessary, and lack in substantial protein, causing you to

Obesity in the United States has been a serious problem affecting Americans and has been continually growing higher in numbers each year. American obesity has nearly doubled within the last 40 years and is now considered to be an epidemic that is affecting millions of people around the nation. According to the National institute of Diabetes and digestive and kidney Diseases, 31% of men and 35% of women are considered seriously overweight, along with 15% of children between the ages of six and nineteen are also overweight. The lack of physical inactivity and extreme poor dieting are catching up to almost the same threat as cigarettes and tobacco smoking. We as a nation are considered to be the fattest country in the world.

Obesity is one of America’s problems that we struggle with every day. Even other countries see America for obesity and how much junk food and pop we consume. Our first lady is even trying to help fix this problem. Schools are gaining healthy lunches and changing up a few things in how make what school’s eat. That’s a great step, but you can always avoid school lunches. I know that people can’t force people to eat healthy. But I realize that how we are is really not anyone’s fault, except ours. Obesity is how much self control people have and how we handle our food options.

A key social problem highlighted by the infographic is food inequality. With the affluent having the freedom to discard excess food into bins, the same amount of food wasted can feed the malnourished 4 times! A statistical report revealed 815 million people worldwide suffers from hunger and malnutrition from the 2017 UN World Hunger Report; that translate to 1 in 9 people suffering from malnourishment, with the main sufferers being children. With 815 million hungry mouths, about one million of us over-consumes.

America is one of the richest countries in the world but why is their still hunger today? One of the leading countries in imports and exports and continue to hold that platform. But, deeper inside the country the day-to-day standpoint on food insecurities is at a lower than average level. With enough money to eliminate hunger why is this still going on? There are many causes for food insecurities in America.

America is suffering from a national eating disorder. Men, women, and children are eating more unhealthy than ever and paying the price for it. Obesity has become one of the top causes of death, after cigarettes. This begs the question, who’s to blame for all of this? Whether you believe it is the responsibility of consumers, companies, or the U.S government the truth is that it is no one and everyone’s fault. The obesity epidemic in America is a complex problem with complex causes, but its solutions are rather simple.

The food system that is in place in the united states is not sustainable. The damage that is being made from growing animals in the united states is damaging the planet by polluting and harming our own bodies with these genetically modified food products that we consume at a daily basis. Animals in the united states are not self-sustainable because the nature of the animal was changed by the animal’s growers.

Around Christmas time, people always think of soul food. I love the way my grandmother go about doing her food. Soul food was all I knew as a child. For example, when I was younger, I use to always tell my mother that she did not have to cook no Sunday food because we were getting it for Christmas. Everyone always laughed at me because I was serious about what I had told my mother. Today, for Christmas I will rather have Bar-b-que, baked beans, potato salad, and banana pudding over that any day. I am not too quick to eat that type of food since I have become a young adult. I feel this way because I have eaten it so much in my younger days. Since I have grown older and wiser, I have understood life much more.

When I was six years old on Halloween night, I remember that it was disgustingly humid, as it always is in southern Georgia. After an evening of being a witch, I entered my family car feeling relieved as my fatigued arms dropped my heavy pillowcase filled with candy. My mouth felt dry and my stomach grumbled with hunger after walking around my neighborhood. I asked my parents if we could get a McDonald’s happy meal to ease my discomfort. Sugary soda, fried chicken nuggets, and french fries are the last foods I should be eating when I am famished because of the lack of nutrition it offers. However, I had an unconditional love for McDonald’s chicken nuggets and french fries.

Comfort food has been a reliable go-to for quite some time. However, the comfort food is classified by many different sub-categories depending on the individual. Many people have their own definition of what a comfort food is and that’s where the gray area gets created. People don’t understand that there are multiple kinds of comfort foods, and they branch off depending on a person’s childhood. There is also confusion of why people have a tendency to depend on these foods, whether they be healthy or unhealthy, when they have undesirable emotions. Luckily, there is an answer to these problems. Cari Romm is able to offer the history behind comfort and the psychology behind why people turn to these foods to support the ideology. The studies to explore comfort food and their influence over the mind are profound. In her article, “Why Comfort Foods Comforts,” Cari Romm expounds on the psychological associations between a person’s childhood and their emotional bonds depending on their tendencies towards comfort food to educate her audience by effectively utilizing rhetorical devices.