The Effects of Poverty and Obesity

The Effects of Poverty and Obesity

Jannette Chavez

Cal State University Los Angeles

The Effects of Poverty and Obesity

        Obesity is one of the top worries in America that we phase, and it continues to be one of the most serious challenges that requires a lot of attention. This condition can be defined by the medical-dictionary “as an abnormal accumulation of body fat, usually 20% or more over and individuals ideal body weight. Obesity is associated with increased risk of illness, disability and death”. (Medical-Dictionary, 2018) Everybody states that we should eliminate any type of fast food consumption from our diet because it leads to many future health issues, but has it ever crossed your mind that sometimes not everyone is fortunate to have the same financial stability. Poverty has a great connection that leads to obesity also and can affect families and children in many ways because of their social status. My community is shown to be below the poverty line which mean the poor neighborhoods have lack in healthier choices of grocery stores making the people of this community rely on other stores with many limited choices of food consumption.

Poverty can be defined as being poor. Poverty is when a person or group of people in one household are struggling for food on the daily. This make me question if this is the main reason why we have so many Americans families that are overweight? Or is that low income families may not have many choices and they consume high calories foods or drinks because of the lack of choice and the need of survival. In relations to this my peer Victoria Lopez stated in the community of Inglewood some majority of the families have only received their high school diplomas.(Victoria Lopez, 2018) With that said obesity and poverty have a direct connection because if a household has parents that only have a minimum wage job but work various hours still put them in the situation of resorting to fast food restaurant because maybe all they can afford for their families are dollar menus or family food combo deals which because of the minimal time they have at home or because they are too exhausted to cook after their shift is over and its convenient. Furthermore, my other peer Nancy Santillan also focused on low socioeconomic in Inglewood and she said that there is 27% are single parent household and that the homes have a yearly income of only $20k to $40k and have a very hard time affording homes and the families are all crammed into small apartments.(Nancy Santillan,2018) So, as I observe from what she is stating, I see that my region of Inglewood has more financial challenges that have to do with money and that impact the families poor eating habits. As I examine the effect of this economic factors and relationship with obesity I made a connection that the families that have a low socioeconomic status are usually part of the program snap and that is highly eligible at many fast food restaurants and many markets that don’t carry many nutritional items. For example, I found they find that some recent evidence suggest that Food Stamps recipients consume scientifically more sugar and junk food than people that don’t have food stamps. So instead of using the program snap as an advantage they are still purchasing unhealthy food instead of purchasing veggies, fruits, wheats and lean meats because they don’t have the options at shopping at your local trader joes, sprouts or even farmers markets where they can buy fresh fruits and veggies so they get what they pay for at the places that either except the little cash they have or EBT.” The prevalence of over- weight and obesity is even higher among some low-income populations, leading policymakers and researchers to question whether the Food Stamp Program might have been too successful in boosting food consumption so that participants eat too many calories and gain weight. “(Michele Ver Ploeg and Katherine Ralston)

In this paragraph I will discuss how my region compares with other regions.  My region was Inglewood which is in the west side of Los Angeles and u and I will be comparing to the city of Azusa in the SGV and how being part of a single parent home may also affect the eating habits that families may tend to have.  My classmate Marissa Valenzuela shared with us in her presentation that results from he studies that children with two parents’ homes had a higher motivation in school and their grades were much higher and they saw their future with a higher goal in life. (Marissa Valenzuela, 2018) In which I comprehended that children that where from single parent households didn’t have the same goal, grades, or desire to have a bright future because of the lack of proper motivation since there is only one parent at home and that can also be very harmful for their health mentally. Another prime example of  poverty would be how my classmate Irene Zamora spoke how her region Fontana has a lower cost of homes compared to the San Gabriel Valley or Los Angeles but families are still either looking for homes or just having enough money to pay for their mortgage and that causes families to rely on unhealthy food chains and eating habits.(Irene Zamora,2018)