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Forty-nine million Americans make their food choices based on cost and cannot afford buying healthier food choices, despite their desire to lead a healthy lifestyle. This leads to increased health issues and obesity among Americans. How can society expect health problems and obesity to decrease when fifteen percent of families in the United States can't afford to make healthy choices?
Many members of my family have died due to health issues that could have been prevented if they lead healthier lifestyles. The death most preventable was my father, whose heart attack would not have happened if he had made healthier choices. Eating healthy is so important to me because in my family we have extremely low metabolisms that lead us to be overweight, even when we eat healthier and shouldn't be. This means so much to me because I want to live a happy and healthy life and sometimes it’s hard, due to having a single mom and little brother we can't always afford the things that are better for us.
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Take a four family household and that’s six dollars a day. Forty-two dollars a week. One hundred and sixty-eight dollars a month. Two thousand and sixteen dollars a year. Your average family doesn't have that much extra money to spend on healthy food, especially if they are barely getting by as it is. This data is close to 4 years old and prices just keep on going up, making it even harder for most people to lead a healthy
Nutrition and health have become more popular in today 's society. Our generation is becoming more and more indebted to the idea of being healthy and eating nutritious meals. However, in “The American Paradox,” by Michael Pollan he argues that our unhealthy population is preoccupied with nutrition and the idea of eating healthy than their actual health. He also mentions the food industry, nutrition science and how culture affects the way we eat and make food choices. While Pollan is right about all these factor that affect our eating habits, there is more to it than that. Convenience, affordability and social influence also affects our food choices making them inadequate.
This is because of smaller weekly food budgets, in addition to poorly stocked stores. Those with lower incomes are more likely to spend money on inexpensive fats and sugars versus fresh fruits and vegetables that are more costly on a per-calorie basis. Healthy foods like whole grain products are more expensive than high-calorie junk foods. Economic forces have driven grocery stores out of many cities in the past few years, leaving only a few, and in some cases none. Many of these people living in these rural urban areas do not own cars and because the grocery stores that are still around are so far away, a person’s shopping trip may require them to take several buses or trains....
In the article “What You Eat Is Your Business”, the author claims, Americans need to be more responsible for their own health and the government should not become involved (Balko). I argue this point; the American people have been tempted into buying foods that are unhealthy, cheap, and convenient, and we cannot be responsible when foods like this are so easy and available to purchase. We are also one of the fattest nations in the world. He conveys in the article that we should have some sort of responsibility for what we put into our own body (Balko), but I feel that with all of the tempting foods being right at our fingertips, we are getting fatter and fatter. When we turn on the television at night, and every fifteen minutes a food commercial comes on. When we go to school, there are vending machines in every building. Nobody offers water anymore with our meals; it costs extra just to get a cup for water with a meal.
In our fast pace society, we base everything on time and money. This need to save money and time has transformed the way we see food and purchase food. Food is an essential part of all cultures. It plays a role in every person’s life. The population has the power to choose what we eat and how the food industry is shaped. There are many important questions that we need to ask ourselves in order to keep the food industry in check. These questions are: How do we know our food is safe? What should we eat? How should food be distributed? What is good food? These are simple yet difficult questions.
In the United States, Food is one of the basic needs of life.We tend to spend tons of money every year to buy food. Consuming food reflects America’s culture in the United States. In America, Fast food is a way to enjoy delicious food made with sugar, fat and salt. It’s impossible to back away from eating good tasting food. Unfortunately, this is leading to major destruction. In the human life, food procurement, preparation, and consumption have devoted to an art form.Spite the terms of “America has a food problem,” it shows that our nation is unable to produce and supply safe, nutritious food in a way where it sustains our global population. Health Issues are a result of over consumption, which lead to portion sizes, and food production.
Eating nutritious food may seem simple enough, but to those that hardly get by financially, affording healthy foods can be a major hindrance. This is proven by Dr. Jim Levine, a researcher with a concentration of the link between poverty and obesity. He is quoted stating, “In many poverty-dense regions, people are… unable to access affordable healthy food, even when funds avail.” (Sifferlin 1) For example, further studies show that the average cost of salad is $1.50 more than the average cost of a hamburger. Getting vitamins and minerals from the food we eat is substantial to survive in everyday life. Annually, it costs five hundred and fifty dollars more to eat healthier. Five hundred and fifty dollars may not seem like much, but to those that have low income, it is a crucial amount. While achieving a healthy diet proves to be necessary to maintain a healthy weight, it is almost inaccessible for those with low income. Low-income individuals confront the barrier of the cost of healthier choices in their everyday
The government must have a say in our diets. Because the issues of obesity have already reached national scales, because the costs of obesity and related health issues have gone far beyond reasonable limits, and because fighting nutritional issues is impossible without fighting poverty and other social issues, the government should control the range and the amount of available foods. The cost of healthier foods should decrease. The access to harmful foods should be limited. In this way, the government will be able to initiate a major shift in nutritional behaviors and attitudes in society.
With healthy food becoming increasingly expensive it has become harder and harder for low-income families to make healthy choices (Ward et al., 2013). Low-income families face a financial struggle when it comes to making better food choices. Things such as housing, utilities, and health care are every day expenses that have fixed costs (Ward et al., 2013). When it comes to food, food pricing is flexible as it presents an opportunity to cut costs (Ward et al., 2013). Families stretch limited dollars by purchasing the cheapest and easiest foods that can be found, even if it means not picking the healthiest options (Vergin, 2012). The key to giving low socioeconomic families access to affordable healthy food is not just to lower down prices, but creating healthy food and eating environments (Story, Kaphingst, Robinson-O 'Brien, & Glanz 2008). Low socioeconomic communities need to be designed to help make healthier choices with having more stores and restaurants selling healthier options to items families already purchase and offering more local fresh foods (Vergin, 2012).
The parents just let their children sit around and watch t.v and don’t take the time to cook them an actually healthy meal, food companies expect us to pay twice as more for a healthy product, when their is another product that we can buy for less money and, the government should change the food that we eat the school and reinforce the physical education at schools. This is what people don't understand: obesity is not a choice but it is a sign of poverty. It's not a lifestyle choice where people are just eating and not
In conclusion, having a healthy lifestyle helps reduce the risk of health problems, whether you have a family history of diseases or not. Physical activity, and making smart choices with how much you consume and what you consume can expand your lifespan. Being aware of your body composition can help identify your risk classification, and it can help plan a way to avoid diseases. Just like too much body fat can be harmful to health, having too little fat can also be crucial to a person’s health. The goal should be to have a balanced calorie intake and physical activity (calorie in = calorie out) for a healthy lifestyle.
Individual resources such as knowledge, beliefs, time, money and personal priorities affect how a person makes health-promoting or health-damaging choices. To increase the likelihood that people choose behaviors that sustain health, initiatives must be developed to make healthy choices readily available, cheaper, and more convenient when compared to health-damaging choices (Nies & McEwen, 2015-b). For example, when considering nutrition, government agencies could use incentives to make growing fruits and vegetables more profitable for farmers, and if farmers decide that they can make more money by planting more of those crops, the cost to buy them decreases. While controversial, inflating the prices of processed, low nutrient food would decrease the number of people purchasing those items. To decrease the effect of personal priorities on healthy choices, areas of poverty could be improved by development that increases jobs and increases affordable housing. If underserved neighborhoods have access to affordable health care, primary care providers and healthy foods, it would also mitigate the effects of personal priorities. Another way to influence the choices that people make is to place heavier taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, discount gym memberships based on income, and provide parkland in close proximity to
For instance, a cheeseburger from McDonalds cost fifteen cents seventy-five years ago. Today, a cheeseburger cost 3.76. Furthermore, we eat different types of foods such as fast food and fruits and vegetables. In addition, several Americans’ say that it cost more to eat healthy than not. Although, most healthy foods cost more by the time you buy fast food for the family it averages out. Furthermore, some foods are taxed which causes the price of food to increase. On another note, vegetables and fruits are better for us, however, several households cannot afford
I chose this topic because more and more people are starting to eat unhealthy. This paper is showing awareness of eating unhealthy over time. Eating healthy is very important because it helps make sure your body is getting the right nutrients. Having the right nutrients can make you have a healthy and happy life, which is very important to have. I believe that staying health is very important, and that is why I chose to write about this
In America, the traditional household where one spouse- usually the wife- stays home to take care of the family needs is almost rare. America’s debt problem has increased annually and is rapidly approaching 18 trillion dollars and is still growing (Patton 1). Working long hours, school, after school activities and commuting is overwhelming as it is and trying to bring food to the table increases the stress. America’s main reason for healthy eating “expensive” is due to our definition of price and our method of defining it is comparing price to portion. Healthier foods tend to have a lower density than unhealthy foods, which is why it takes 30 cucumbers to accumulate 1,000 calories compared to one packet of 200g ginger nut biscuits (Healthy 1). There is a substantial correlation between household debt and health (Averett 201). In America, particularly among the low-income populations, there is a "limited financing to affordable
It became so clear that junk foods lead to a punch of catastrophic diseases like obesity, type two diabetes, vascular diseases and cardiac disorders. Those kinds of diseases cost more than $150 billion annually, just to diagnose, treat people who suffer from them. That disease is chronic and leads to many health-related issues, for example, obesity considers a risk factor for type two diabetes, and high blood pressure, joint disorders and many others (The Denver Post 2012). The key of preventing many chronic problems is nutrition. Low income plays an important role of limiting most people to buy and eat a healthy diet and in the other hand, it is easy for people budgets to purchase junk foods. So controlling the prices of healthy foods to be suitable for all people make good nutrition available for everyone. Adequate diets mean decreasing the epidemic of those serious diseases, and stopping the spread and break the bad sequences that may happen. Long-term exposure to junk foods that are full with chemicals like additives, preservatives have led to chronic illnesses difficult to treat. Also, the chemical added to junk foods are tasted unique and made millions of people becoming addicted to them and are available everywhere for example in restaurants, cafes, lunchrooms (The Denver Post