Income and obesity - too expensive to eat healthily?
May, 2007 by Antonia
There is no getting away from it, high quality food is expensive. It’s all very well to dole out advice and tips about fresh fruit and veg, lean cuts of meat and so on, but how does someone on a low income feed a large family in this way? It has long been accepted that there is a strong correlation between obesity and low income levels. However there is also now increasing evidence that obesity is no longer primarily a poor person’s problem.
Researchers at the American Heart Foundation compared data collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys in 1971-74 and 2001-02. Using a BMI of 30 or more to classify obesity (see www.dietandfitnesstoday.com for BMI calculators), the study found that there was a 276% increase in the prevalence of obesity in the highest income category ($60,000 or more per annum), jumping from 9.7% to 26.8%.
A topic too big to discuss in a small post here, and with more research needed, perhaps we need to rethink the causes of obesity across all socio-economic groups. However, the fact still remains that to feed a family of five their five pieces of fruit and vegetables a day is significantly more expensive than a bumper bag of home cook fries (or chips in the UK) and large pizzas. Making healthy food more accessible boils down to supply and demand, and how supplies can be increased to enable lower prices opens up the debate for and against GM foods - another topic that we will discuss on DFT but one that is probably too broad for us to thrash out successfully!
Posted in fitness, obesity
