So, I want to talk today about obesity and its correlation to poverty.
I'll start out by saying that I am not speaking in absolutes here. (Technically, I'm not speaking at all!) All poor people do not have obesity problems and not all obesity problems stem from poverty. But the link between the two can not be ignored.
There are many factors surrounding poverty that can lead to overweight children and adults.
Now, children who are overweight have very little say in the food that is available to them and often they are presented with few opportunities for exercise. So, the onus for helping these children become or remain healthy must lie with the parents.
So, let's look at some of the reasons parents and adults in general have a hard time eating healthy and exercising if they're living below the poverty line.
1. It is almost ALWAYS cheaper and more filling to buy unhealthy foods. Now, most people will say fruits and veggies aren't that expensive compared to meat. And that's true; IF you're buying them only a couple at a time. But if you have to buy enough produce to fill the bellies of an entire family it can get pretty expensive. If instead, for less money, you can buy a big bag of pasta and a can of spaghetti sauce that will fill everyone up and leave pasta left over for next time, that's the way you're going to go when you're on a very tight budget.
2. Produce spoils quickly. A lot of people (myself included) who are on government assistance, get payments once a month. This means that we buy veggies once a month. They usually hold out for a week to a week and a half and then we're veggie-less again. I've started buying frozen veggies to fill the gap. But there isn't nearly the variety that there is in fresh veggies. If you want something more than peas and carrots, you're usually going to have to pay more.
3. Healthy, lean meats are the most expensive meat around. Chicken is astronomically priced these days. To buy skinless chicken breasts you pretty much have to take out a loan from the bank. Ground turkey is almost twice the price of ground beef. And the leaner you want your ground beef the higher the price climbs. One of the healthiest foods around, fish, costs TWO arms and a leg; one arm if you can find it on sale.
4. Apple "beverage" is a dollar and a half cheaper than real apple juice. As long as 4 litres of milk costs $5.00 and 4 litres of cola costs $2.50, we're going to have a problem.
5. Parents who work full-time or go to school full-time have an incredibly hard time finding time to make healthy meals; especially if they're single parents. And more especially if they don't have a car. If your bussing it from work or school to pick up your kids at daycare and then bussing home, by the time you get there it's often after 6:00 and you've got an hour to an hour and half, to get a supper together and talk to your children who you haven't seen all day.
All of this comes after working all day, so that you're exhausted and want nothing more than to just relax. Doesn't it seem like a much easier option to order something in or grab take out? Or even grab some of those horribly processed, high sodium, high sugar "convenience foods" that you can make in the microwave in 10 minutes?
6. Bargain shopping without a car is pretty much impossible. For a lot of poor people, comparison shopping is simply not a reality. A lot of times we have to shop at whatever store is closest to us, often convenience stores or over-priced corner stores. These places often offer little in the way of healthy food. Also, being without a car to shop means you can't buy large amounts of groceries at a time. This means you can't take advantage of the "bulk buying" prices of places like Costco. This makes it harder to meal plan and thus harder to eat healthy. Because you can't plan your food out as well, you can't plan your time out as well, meaning you're much more likely to eat those bad "convenience foods" or get something delivered.
7. Education. For some people, they've grown up in a cycle of poverty and that cycle includes bad eating habits. If people are not taught how to eat healthy they will continue to eat in the same way their parents did.
8. Exercise can be expensive too! Walking is free. But I'd like to cite again, the working single parent who has barely enough time left in the day to speak to her kids and eat something, let alone go for a 30 minute walk. Also, remember the exhaustion.
As well, a lot of poor people live in neighborhoods where walking around past a certain time can get pretty dangerous. So, then walking isn't always an option.
Our city (Winnipeg) has some facilities that you can access for free if you're low income. (I'm not sure about other cities, but ask your city councillors!) Still, even with our city, the application process can be a bit crazy. And you have to reapply every 2 months. It takes 4-6 weeks for the application to go through. So, basically you're ALWAYS applying. It also only allows for 10 visits in that 2 month period. Again, this is certainly better than nothing, but not exactly the "regular exercise" doctors are calling for.
Finally, I want to say that I'm not writing all of this to try to make a bunch of whiny excuses. If you want to make healthy lifestyle changes, you will find a way to make them, no matter what. I just want people to understand that when you're poor those changes can be MUCH harder to make, which is why the poverty epidemic and obesity epidemic go hand in hand. Maybe one day we can cure them both.
