Connection between Poverty and Obesity
The connection between obesity and poverty has become a very common topic of debate especially in America where obesity has come up as a major health risk in the population and an area which contributes to a major chunk of health expenses. One would expect intuitively that poverty and obesity are inversely related since it is commonly thought that obese people are better nourished and hence can afford to eat a lot, however this is not so. In an analysis of data collected through interviews by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention it was found that obesity was directly linked with poor socio economic as well as educational status. Thus contrary to public opinion we find that people from the lower socio-economic strata of society are at more risk of becoming overweight and obese than wealthier individuals. Also many obese individuals are malnutrition. Contrary to popular belief malnutrition comes in two types; macro malnutrition and micro malnutrition. Macro malnutrition is the one which most people know about and in this form a person does not eating enough to support his dietary requirement which leads to a significantly lower than optimal weight, deficiency and other complications associated with malnutrition. On the other hand micro malnutrition is the form of malnutrition in which an individual is not meeting his nutritional requirement (although they might be eating enough or even over eating) and this is because they are eating food with little nutritional value i.e. “empty calories”. Micro nutrition is more prevalent in impoverished people since they have a limited supply of select food items, which eventually leads to weight gain. In my view the above mentioned point is the basis for the trend of poverty related obesity although it is influenced by a web of other reasons which supplement each other and eventually