On the individual level, a lot of overweight people see themselves as being a healthy weight, and 70% of obese people think they are merely overweight. Their constructions of reality, which in such high percentages might indicate a broad societal trend, indicate they have a different concept of a normal and healthy body weight from what someone else (or a doctor) might really think. Why are so many people overweight? A lot of it comes down to the fact that our leisure time has transitioned from physical activities such as sports or walking to TV time or video games. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this, but when you combine jobs which primarily do not require physical activity plus a switch in leisure, the obesity epidemic starts to make sense.
In America in particular, fast food has proliferated in recent decades. In a strange reversal from the rest of the world, fast food is more accessible to poorer people in the United States. Its inexpensiveness is seen as a draw when compared to the expensiveness of organic raw produce or supermarkets in general.This means that America's poor are eating more unhealthy food, which is reflected clearly in the US, where a large proportion of overweight and obese people come from lower income backgrounds.
But on a global scale, we have nearly 1 in 9 people starving while even the poor in the US don't have to worry about this. A lot of this comes down to the fact that the US has a great infrastructure for its poor, and the prominence of fast food is indicative of its large economy. Fast food restaurants do not look to move into locations in other nations where the people's "base poverty" is so much lower than that of the average poor American that they cannot afford anything beyond necessities (subsistence living). Unlike the US, which is a material economy, globalization has caused many poorer nations to take the burden of Western extraction, production, and give their resources for Western consumption at the cost of their own local economic opportunities. In a sense, the obesity epidemic of the wealthier nations of the world comes at the expense of the poor. Their disproportionally large population of starving people is the result of their participation in a globalization which, much like in "Land's End," has little regard for the poor.
Sources
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/obe/causes
http://www.diet-blog.com/10/70_of_obese_people_think_they_are_just_overweight.php
https://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats
This post reminded me of Cut Adrift (Marianne Cooper), specifically of Linda, the single mom who earns a low income. She was emotionally and physically exhausted all the time, and I completely empathized with why she chose to eat out at fast food places rather than cook. For one, she was tired, and for two, as you point out fast food is cheap. It was one of the only things she could afford to indulge her kids in as well. It's the sad reality of healthy eating for the poor in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad you brought up the fact that fast food is much more cheaper and accessible and that is a huge contributor to why many of the people who fall on the obese scale are from a lower income background because many times the entirety of the blame is placed on the people for not having enough control to not eat these bad foods. It is definitely important to recognize this larger issue behind the obesity epidemic because the rising rates of obesity are just one of the results of the poor economic status of the different US classes.
ReplyDeleteI think when looking at this issue is is also important to look at the changing attitudes that Americans have toward how their food is produced. It seems that in modern times the focus has shifted from home cooked meals and the occasional dinner out to eating out much more frequently. I believe that this could have something to do with the issue. Those who work long days at low paying jobs may not be able to cook for their families, so the must go out, but they are not wealthy enough to go out to health food so they are forced into fast food restaurants like McDonalds.
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