Lisa Miller states in her article ”Divided We Eat”, “As the distance between rich and poor continues to grow, the freshest, most nutritious foods have become luxury goods that only some can afford.” (Miller 190). As a consequence, rich people only would have access to healthy food. In America, millions of people are in poverty; suffering from food shortage because prices of food have twice more than in other places making families struggle in order to get healthy
2. Which of the statistics listed in #1 affects you personally and how? Obesity-related medical conditions cost our nation nearly $150 billion every year and account for 16 to 18 percent of our total healthcare costs. This effects me because if people would just eat healthier than the money can go into schools and pay for cops, firefighters, and teachers. 3.Suggest ways that our society as a whole could reverse or improve the statistic in a positive way for each of the statistics listed in #1.
Obviously our kids are becoming overweight with all of the unhealthy choices they have to choose from. Childhood obesity in the United States has grown at a phenomenal rate in the last few years. You would think this is an easy condition to treat but unfortunately it’s not, it is actually quite difficult. Kids are becoming less active and their eating habits are virtually non-existent. The annual cost to treat obesity is nearly two billion dollars.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 68 percent of the people in our country are overweight. Half of that 68 percent, or 34 percent of our population is obese (Overweight Prevalence). Weight loss basically boils down to burning more calories that you eat (Staff, Counting Calories: Getting back to weight-loss basics), but this is easier said than done for some people. What do you do when you’ve tried diet after diet and nothing has worked? More and more people are turning to gastric bypass surgery.
Fast food consumption is continuing to completely destroy the nation’s economy and spread disease-causing bacteria all over the world. So the next time someone goes to reach for that cheap and greasy cheeseburger, they should ask themselves this; is a mere six-hundred calorie meal more valuable than preserving the country for future
In her article “Food Stamps Should Be Expanded”, Linda Bopp states “More than 25 million Americans, including at least 13 million children, are not able to meet the most fundamental of human needs.” How can 25 million people go without food when America is one of the wealthiest and developed nations in the world? Over half of those Americans are children. We should be ashamed to allow our neighbors to suffer. Food stamps provide
Food Price……….Health Prices in the current economy are constantly fluctuating. At the current pace, in a few years, it appears that the only people who will be able to afford to live comfortably will be the rich. Everything that humans consume for survival is quickly becoming more expensive. Writer David Francis wrote about how one economic status is incorporated into what one eats in "Where Do You Fall in the American Economic Class System?” This is exemplified through gas prices, housing mortgages, utility bills, and now even food costs. The ever-changing cost of food in our society is affecting the health of citizens in an unprecedented manner.
I cannot comprehend why people purchase expensive diet pills, shakes, bars, and meals. The end result is you will gain more weight unless you keep up with them. My suggestion is to eat a healthy meal and maintain a daily routine, and then you will not be throwing your money away on temporary fixes. I say just eat a healthy meal and maintain a daily routine and you won’t need to spend all your hard earned money on all the fast diet solutions. Gaesser indicates, “what most studies that find a correlation between higher mortality and higher body mass relay demonstrates a correlation between higher mortality and higher rates of dieting and diet-drug use” (21).
The government can give out meals for those families that are in dire need of food. Second way to reduce poverty is Health Care. Health care is important if someone is sick they cannot go seek medical attention because of the debt they would get from medical bills. More Americans lost health insurance between 2008 and 2009 than during any other year in the country’s
From 2007 to 2010, the national unemployment rate for American Indians increased 7.7% to 15.2%. The largest employers for American Indians are Tribal and Federal governments on the reservations. Many are forced to look for work outside of the reservation and receive lower wages that leave them failing to meet their basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing. “A major cause of poverty in Native American communities is the persistent lack of opportunity. Only 36 percent of males in high-poverty Native American communities have full-time, year-round employment.” (Rodgers, 2013) The overall percentage of American Indians living below the federal poverty line is 28.2% (2008, American Indians Census Facts).