Gap In Diet Quality Between Richest American Doubles Summary

In David Freedman’s article, “How Junk Food Can End Obesity” (2013), he begins by discussing his endeavors to search for wholesome food. He continues to come across food items that claim to be healthy and void of processed junk, but all he finds are items high in calories or the expense is too much for an average American. He argues that wholesome foods are actually just as bad, if not even worse, than junk food and that the Big Food industry has the technology available to make food healthier, but still retain its appeal. Freedman mentions continuously throughout his article that Americans who are most at risk of becoming obese are those who cannot afford healthy foods, completely defeating the purpose of the wholefoods movement. He

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

Throughout Freedman’s article he mentions the “food deserts” that exist throughout America. According to Freedman these are areas, “where produce tends to be hard to find, of poor quality, or expensive.” After all, according to Consumer Reports in 2015, “ on average, organic foods were 47% more expensive,” than conventional foods. This means that a major portion of the general public cannot buy organic food because of its price tag. Pollan concurs in Food Rules: An Eater’s Manuel that, “not everyone in America can eat well, which is a literal shame,” however he counters that, “most of us can: Americans spend less then 10 percent of their income on food.” According to familiesusa.org, as of 2016 the federal government considers a state of poverty when an individual lives on $11,880 or less annually. With this $11,880 or less that impoverished individual pays for their household expenses, transportation, personal care, and medical care in edition to food. Pollan believes in cooking for yourself as way to lose weight. He brings to light his perception that, “when you go to a grocery store, you find the cheapest calories are the ones that make you the fattest.” While he acknowledges that poverty is an influential catalyst to obesity, he fails to connect that the 14.5% Americans, according to the Census Bureau, live below the poverty line and therefore these “cheap calories” may be the most viable option. Also, even if consumers were willing to buy healthier items, many may not have the time to cook a meal due to long hours at work. This is where Freedman's argument shines. He argues for a more convenient method of aiding obesity that offers access to cheaper and healthier food that can be provided

According to Wall Street Journal, “More than 33% of adults who earn less than $15,000 per year were obese, compared with 24.6% of those who earn at least $50,000 per year.” (Izzo 2011) Processed foods such as cheeseburger or French fries tend to be cheaper than buying healthier ingredients and making home cooked food. When people have lower incomes, they do suffer from food insecurity, which is an important connection between poverty and obesity. Two reasons can contribute to obesity: parents are working and are no longer at home with their children and therefore not able to cook balanced meals; and foods with high fat are cheaper than healthy foods.

It has become impossible for low-income families to provide healthy meals for their families. Government, Farm policies and the food industry itself are main reasons as to why the cost of healthy foods has become harder for American families, especially low-income families, to provide the healthy foods needed to fight the obesity epidemic. With low- income families being the main focus point on the problem of

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

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).

In the documentary film “Fed Up”, sugar and the sweeteners in our food or beverages is featured to be the prime ingredient that is making the most of our adolescents obese. It tells of a few families struggling with obesity, and how these families have been trying to do everything they can to help their children lose weight. It shows what kind of food that they are eating at home and the weight problem that most of the family is struggling with. The food that is being served at schools and also the thousands of products that contain sugar, everywhere groceries are bought; sugar is the main cause for obesity. It tells that low wage earners have no choice, but to buy unhealthy food, because healthier food cost more. “The bottom line: cheap, unhealthy foods mixed with a sedentary lifestyle has made obesity the new normal in America. There is no single, simple answer to explain the obesity patterns in America, says Walter Willett, who chairs the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health” article in the U. S. News. Although it does cost more, a school of public health wrote in an article, “While healthier diets did cost more, the difference was smaller than many people might have expected. Over the course of a year, $1.50/day more for eating a healthy diet would increase food costs for one person by about $550 per year. On the other hand, this price difference is very small in comparison to the economic costs of diet-related chronic diseases, which would be

In the beginning of his article called “Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?” author Mark Bittman does a spectacular job capturing the reader almost instantly just within the first paragraph. He brazenly begins his argument to express his thoughts indirectly, but directly of why the “overweight” and “low income” population cannot afford, access, or choose healthy food options.

102). One might impugn that it is not poverty but lack of education that affects the obesity epidemic. It does not require a mathematician to comprehend that choosing a two dollar case of Honey Buns as opposed to a six dollar bag of apples will equal more food in the refrigerator. Generally, processed foods are more “energy dense” than garden-fresh foods; they contain less water and fiber but more added fat and sugar, which make them both less satisfying and more calorific (Pollan, 2006). Provisions similar to fruits and vegetables contain high water content that permits individuals to feel satiated rather swiftly. Nutritious meals are more expensive, less tasty, and are more time consuming to prepare, fostering unhealthy eating patterns. On special occasions, parents will treat their children to McDonalds where everything is “super-sized”. Adults and children can acquire debauched consumption patterns because they don’t comprehend the quantity they have enthusiastically ingested. Pollan (2006) stated that “Well-designed fast food has a fragrance and flavor all its own, a fragrance and flavor only nominally connected to hamburgers or French fries or for that matter to particular food” (p. 111).

“Dietary patterns of Americans differ widely, but most Americans eat a diet that could best be described as in need of improvement”. Compared to other countries, the American diet is very different. I have first hand experienced how much different Americans eat from other countries. For a brief, but very beneficial and productive time, I lived in Barcelona, Spain with my host family. Over in Spain, they eat much more fresh, organic food. There was a lot more seafood in the average diet. The meal configuration over there is also different than ours. Lunch is the largest meal eaten every day; different than America, where dinner is the largest.

Since the Agricultural Revolution, people have been using nature as the basis for the creation of artificial foods. At the dawn of the Tech Age and in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, technology has enhanced our ability to do this, allowing us to create new industrially processed foods. With this power, also comes the responsibility and challenge of keeping a healthy diet. This challenge is a monumental one, as poor diet and inadequate physical activity together account for at least 300,000 deaths in the United States annually. One example of an industrial food source which has challenged our ability to keep a healthy diet in the twenty-first century is trans fat. Despite its health risks, trans fat possesses

Over one-third or 78.6 million of U.S. adults are obese. Obesity and childhood obesity, in particular, are the focus of many public health efforts in the United States. New regulations have been implemented by the US Department of Agriculture for food packages in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has funded state- and community-level interventions, and there have been numerous reports and recommendations issued by the Institute of Medicine, the US Surgeon General, and the White House. According to Polis, Many people assert that unhealthy eating habits are the result of economic hardship. They say that healthful food is simply more expensive than unhealthful food. Now, science backs them up. The most comprehensive study of its kind indicates that yes, unhealthy food is about $1.50 cheaper per day, or about $550 per year, than healthy food. In a meta-review of 27 studies in 10 countries, researchers publishing in the British Medical Journal found that meats and proteins had the largest price differences, with healthier options costing an average $0.29 more per serving than less healthy options. Other categories such as snacks/sweets and grains also cost more for healthier options, at $0.12 and $0.03 respectively. No significant price differences were seen between healthier and less healthy soda and juices. Research and

Wouldn’t it be reasonable to consider that people just might eat healthier if they simply had the money to do so? It would be interesting to consider that the people who usually have bad eating habits, are the ones who actually can’t afford to eat healthy. America has the highest obesity rate in the world, but who knows where we could be if the healthy food was more affordable and the junk food wasn’t reasonably cheap. Illnesses and diseases have become common too in people, many that come from just unhealthy eating that has taken a negative toll on the body. Not to mention, people living in low-income areas where in those areas, the main thing around them are fast food restaurants. The promotion of healthier eating and a healthier lifestyle, though, isn’t completely hidden from the public, though more ads about tasty junk food are on televisions, billboards, and so on, more than food that will benefit your body and general health. These things are all played into the fact that people already have a terrible diet, and the prices of foods that can make someone’s diet healthier are too high for most to even include them in their diet regularly. Healthier foods should cost less because it can help lower the high obesity rate in America, it will promote a healthier lifestyle to people to do things like exercise more, and it can help prevent life-threatening illnesses caused by unhealthy eating.

Within the United States, 12.7% of households had been food insecure at some point within 2015, meaning that not enough money was had to spend on food. ("United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service", par. 3) With this in mind, one of the largest problems when it comes to nutrition in the developed countries of the world is the availability of nutritious food to the lower classes because lower quality processed food is easier to obtain than nutritious food. This only seems to be a trend within developed countries so this argument will only focus on the developed countries such as the United States and France. Underdeveloped countries are left outside of these studies as they do not have widespread statistical values for any of their nutrition at any of the levels of