"I'm so Hungry, I'm Fat!"
Food insecurity, or “the unlimited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire foods in socially acceptable ways,” is the exclusive domain of the poor, and it affects 12.6 million U.S. households, with obvious repercussions on young and old alike. It is a “no-brainer” to deduce that hunger, or “a prolonged, involuntary lack of food, that results in discomfort, illness, weakness, or pain that goes beyond the usual uneasy sensation,” is an obvious consequence of food insecurity. And if that were not all, food insecurity and food insufficiency have been found to contribute to increasing incidences of psychosocial and cognitive difficulties, suicidal symptoms, and depressive disorders.
So, we are left with the dilemma of not only how to feed the poor, but of how to provide them with healthy foods that reverse the startling trend toward obesity in that population, and in the greater part of the U.S. middle and upper classes, for that matter. The latter two facets of the U.S. population, however, are not burdened by the heavy anchor of food procurement around their necks. The socially and economically indigent must employ a series of strategies to obtain food, any food, and those procurement methods run the gamut from the legal to the illegal, namely, food stamps, WIC program, shoplifting, selling food stamps, using coupons, pawning personal items, selling plasma, scavenging from dumpsters, and asking friends and strangers for food. We must ask the question, therefore, of how it is possible for the poor, with all the hardship inherent in their individuation, purchase, and procurement of food, to become obese? In fact, studies have shown that the highest obesity rates occur in poor communities, that food-insufficient older females have a higher risk of being overweight than food-sufficient females, and that high body mass indices (BMI) are common among low-income adults and youth. How do we account for this counterintuitive hunger-obesity paradigm? Why do we see such numerous examples every single day of stereotyped, racially profiled individuals (known by deprecatory terms such as “white trash,” “trailer trash,” “beaners,” “niggers,” and a slew of others), of lower socioeconomic status (SES), who give credence to the saying, “I’m so hungry, I’m fat?” There appears to be a disconnect. How can hunger possibly be associated with obesity? While the question is intriguing, the answer is not so exotic. Increased portion sizes, diets based on fast food, and food insecurity, or the memory of it, are strong inducements to the indigent and socially emarginated to overeat tasty food, or any food, for that matter, when it becomes available.
The question of whether or not to tax high-fat foods, in order to make healthier foods, the fruits and vegetables, more attractive to limited pocketbooks, is a controversial one. While the issue is difficult to address, and leaving questions of civil liberties aside, there are some of us who feel that the taxing of unhealthy foods might place undue hardship on indigent, obese populations (of low SES) already hit hard by a failing U.S. economy and financial hard times. In that light, it might not be a realistic road to follow. On the other hand, although increased taxing of high-fat foods might, in the short term, pose financial hardship for the indigent and trigger subsequent increased government spending to sustain nutritional programs and financial solvency for them, in the long haul increased spending might be more than compensated for by the savings incurred by U.S. taxpayers as a whole consequent to the reduced incidence and prevalence of psychosocial, cognitive, depressive, and suicidal symptoms and disorders tied to food insecurity and hunger in the poor.
While questions abound and results may not be immediately forthcoming in this extremely important issue, there is no doubt that intervention at the societal and community level must begin in childhood, possibly through the school system, as a history of food insecurity in the young has a way of “snowballing” into obesity in adults.
So, we are left with the dilemma of not only how to feed the poor, but of how to provide them with healthy foods that reverse the startling trend toward obesity in that population, and in the greater part of the U.S. middle and upper classes, for that matter. The latter two facets of the U.S. population, however, are not burdened by the heavy anchor of food procurement around their necks. The socially and economically indigent must employ a series of strategies to obtain food, any food, and those procurement methods run the gamut from the legal to the illegal, namely, food stamps, WIC program, shoplifting, selling food stamps, using coupons, pawning personal items, selling plasma, scavenging from dumpsters, and asking friends and strangers for food. We must ask the question, therefore, of how it is possible for the poor, with all the hardship inherent in their individuation, purchase, and procurement of food, to become obese? In fact, studies have shown that the highest obesity rates occur in poor communities, that food-insufficient older females have a higher risk of being overweight than food-sufficient females, and that high body mass indices (BMI) are common among low-income adults and youth. How do we account for this counterintuitive hunger-obesity paradigm? Why do we see such numerous examples every single day of stereotyped, racially profiled individuals (known by deprecatory terms such as “white trash,” “trailer trash,” “beaners,” “niggers,” and a slew of others), of lower socioeconomic status (SES), who give credence to the saying, “I’m so hungry, I’m fat?” There appears to be a disconnect. How can hunger possibly be associated with obesity? While the question is intriguing, the answer is not so exotic. Increased portion sizes, diets based on fast food, and food insecurity, or the memory of it, are strong inducements to the indigent and socially emarginated to overeat tasty food, or any food, for that matter, when it becomes available.
The question of whether or not to tax high-fat foods, in order to make healthier foods, the fruits and vegetables, more attractive to limited pocketbooks, is a controversial one. While the issue is difficult to address, and leaving questions of civil liberties aside, there are some of us who feel that the taxing of unhealthy foods might place undue hardship on indigent, obese populations (of low SES) already hit hard by a failing U.S. economy and financial hard times. In that light, it might not be a realistic road to follow. On the other hand, although increased taxing of high-fat foods might, in the short term, pose financial hardship for the indigent and trigger subsequent increased government spending to sustain nutritional programs and financial solvency for them, in the long haul increased spending might be more than compensated for by the savings incurred by U.S. taxpayers as a whole consequent to the reduced incidence and prevalence of psychosocial, cognitive, depressive, and suicidal symptoms and disorders tied to food insecurity and hunger in the poor.
While questions abound and results may not be immediately forthcoming in this extremely important issue, there is no doubt that intervention at the societal and community level must begin in childhood, possibly through the school system, as a history of food insecurity in the young has a way of “snowballing” into obesity in adults.
© 2009, Albert M. Balesh, M.D. All rights reserved.
posted by Dr. Al at
3/14/2009 12:04:00 PM
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