Featured Article | THB Undercover | Weight Loss
The Economics of Obesity: Why are Poor People Fat?
This is what poverty looked like in the Great Depression…
This is what poverty looks like today…
For most of recorded history, fat was revered as a sign of health and prosperity. Plumpness was a status symbol. It showed that you did not have to engage in manual labor for your sustenance. And it meant that you could afford plentiful quantities of food.
For most people, however, being fat was simply not an option. The constant struggle to hunt and harvest ensured that we stayed active. And for those with little money, the supply of calories was meager. This ensured that most of the working class stayed slim.
Rich people were fat. Poor people were thin.
Today, the polar opposite is true. Numerous studies show that low-income children and adults are far more likely to be overweight than those of greater means. And the statistical distribution fits a nice, neat curve – as income falls, the rate of obesity rises.
The following graph from a population study in Utah puts this in perspective. The tallest bar on the left represents the lowest income group… and the highest rate of obesity.
Logically, this makes no sense and it is contrary to our historical experience. How is it that the people with the least money to spend are the most likely to be overweight?
There is no shortage of suggestions for why this is the case. Here are just a few I’ve come across:
- Poor people are uneducated and ignorant about nutrition. (They never learned that Doritos and Twinkies are not a healthy meal).
- Poor people are too lazy (or too busy working) to cook real food.
- Poor people are too tired after working two jobs to get enough exercise.
- Poor people don’t have access to fitness centers and farmers markets.
There is some truth in all of these statements. But they certainly do not apply to all lower income workers. Each exhibits a significant misunderstanding. And none of them identify the real reason why modern poverty is so closely correlated with obesity.
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The Real Reason Why Poor People Are Fat
Professor and obesity researcher, Dr. Adam Drewnowski set out to determine why income is the most reliable predictor of obesity in the U.S. To do this, he took a hypothetical dollar to the grocery store. His goal was to purchase as many calories as possible per dollar.
What he found is that he could buy well over 1,000 calories of cookies or potato chips. But his dollar would only buy 250 calories of carrots. He could buy almost 900 calories of soda… but only 170 calories of orange juice.
If you are poor and hungry, you are obviously going to buy the cheapest calories you can find. And in today’s world, the cheapest calories come from junk foods – whether those foods are found at the grocery store, the gas station, or in the fast food restaurant, conveniently located just down the street.
But this raises another question. How can industrially-processed foods and their associated marketing costs be so much cheaper than real, whole foods produced from water, seeds and sunlight?
In a New York Times article, author Michael Pollan asks this very question…
“Compared with a bunch of carrots, a package of Twinkies is a highly complicated, high-tech piece of manufacture, involving no fewer than 39 ingredients, many themselves elaborately manufactured, as well as the packaging and a hefty marketing budget. So how can the supermarket possibly sell a pair of these synthetic cream-filled pseudo-cakes for less than a bunch of roots?
Pollan goes on to answer his own question…
“The Twinkie is basically a clever arrangement of carbohydrates and fats teased out of corn, soybeans and wheat — three of the five commodity crops that the farm bill supports, to the tune of some $25 billion a year.”
The primary reason that lower-income people are more overweight is because the unhealthiest and most fattening foods are the cheapest. If you were broke and had just three dollars to spend on food today, would you buy a head of broccoli or a Super Value Meal with French fries, a cheeseburger and a Coke?
Because you’re reading this publication, you might choose the former. But for most people who have very little to spend on food, the choice is clear.
And make no mistake. This does not represent a failure of the capitalist free-market system. Modern agri-business and government food policy represents a perverted version of capitalism – crony capitalism – where those with the most money and the most powerful friends in government control the markets.
What they have done is use your tax dollars to subsidize certain commodity crops (at the expense of others) to ensure that the cost of oils, sugar and grains stay artificially low. With low input costs, food manufacturers can turn a tidy profit. The end result is that processed foods – even though they require more technology, more labor and more marketing to produce and sell – are cheaper to the consumer than real, whole foods.
Consider that between 1985 and 2000, the inflation-adjusted prices of fruits and vegetables increased by an average of 40%. During the same period of time the real price of soft drinks fell by almost 25%.
There is no doubt that obesity has become a public health crisis. But because most politicians either do not understand the issue or because they are too corrupt to do the right thing, most “solutions” to this crisis are completely wrongheaded.
Some politicians are calling for a tax on fat people themselves. Currently, many state governments have imposed taxes on soft drinks and junk foods. And calls are growing louder for similar taxes at the federal level.
It is completely insane that in a country where the surgeon general has identified “an epidemic of obesity” that we are simultaneously subsidizing the production of high-fructose corn syrup. It is equally insane that the government is helping to artificially lower the cost of foods that are driving up national healthcare costs (i.e. killing us), while having a national healthcare debate about how we are going to pay for those costs.
So What Can You Do?
I am a strong advocate for free markets. If I had my way, I would not suggest shifting the subsidies from unhealthy commodity crops to crops that are considered healthy. I suggest leveling the playing field by ending food subsidies altogether.
But that is clearly not going to happen…
Within the current system, the best we can hope for is a situation where public funds are diverted from the corporate Agri-Giants (which is nothing more than welfare for the wealthy) to family farms and fruit and vegetable growers. Currently, almost 70% of farmers receive no subsidies at all, while the biggest and strongest take the bulk of public funds.
Public funds for farms and food should be directed to help build local and sustainable food systems. These funds should favor natural, organic and sustainable methods, rather than the chemical and industrial practices that pollute our rivers and our bodies.
Publicly funded cafeterias in schools, prisons and hospitals should be required to source a percentage of their food from regional sources. And federal food assistance programs like WIC cards and food stamps should be accepted at farmers markets and other healthier alternatives than the local Safeway.
This would do a lot more to help the “obesity crisis” than taxing soft drinks at a penny per ounces.
But you want to know the truth?
Very little of what I have just proposed is likely to happen. It doesn’t matter how much sense it makes. And it doesn’t matter how vocally the population howls in protest to the current system. The corporate powers that be are simply too powerful and too well-entrenched in Washington.
You best bet is to vote with your dollars and your feet.
Choose whole, natural foods over those that are processed. Most of the foods you bring home from the grocery store should not have ingredients. They should BE ingredients. If possible, buy your food directly from small farms and family-owned farms. And whenever you can, choose foods that are grown locally (www.eatwild.com, www.realmilk.com and www.localharvest.org are three organizations that can help you find farmers in your region).
To Your Health,
Jon Herring
Editorial Director
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GOOD, WELL RESEARCHED ARTICLE
Shout this from the roof tops, and shoot the first politician that tris to stop you.
Touche’,Jon.
Although I am just an average citizen, this has been my observation for years and blast Big Agra and Big Pharma to H—. But another observation I have is, Why is natural healing so expensive to the consumer and patient alike? Insurance plans do not accept or reimburse this form of healing. A majority of people in this country can’t afford to pay cash on a routine basis for this type of care. Here is an area that also needs to have a level playing field.
This TRUTH must be made known to the people before it’s too late!!! I spent many “lean” years feeding my family all wrong just to save money… now I know Better! We visualize what do “rich people” eat and choose accordingly… no more fast food for us! We eat salmon and vegetables now.. instead of Cheez-its and Del Taco. Think what’s on your plate when you go to an expensive restaurant… It’s small portions of quality foods instead of heaps & heaps of fried greasy & starchy stuff.. Just “imagine” that you are a RICH person and live a better life. You’ll be more satisfied with “real” food and you won’t be supporting huge corporations that want to sell more poison foods. Take back your power & your health!
Makes lots of sense. I went to the organic only store last week and spent twice what I would have spent at the regular grocery store.
Excellent writing. Good mixture of images, fact, opinion and solution. Keep up the great work. Farm subsidies harm people and make it impossible for people in developing nations to sell their produce and therefore survive. The food that it produces might be cheap now, but what about the long-term cost? Keeping the subsidies is immoral.
A really good and well written article. I may not go along with all of your recommendations, but I certainly agree that something should be done, although nothing will be the probable outcome. Shame on us and shame on our Governments!
Excellent article,Jon. The common sense approach in this country/government is non existent anymore. They are no longer looking out for the common man’s welfare, far from it –they are looking out for themselves — and all it takes to see that is to follow the money. In every program, law, regulations, ad nauseam.
Makes a whole lot of sense to me. I have always been a supporter of farmers markets and I think they should be equally subsitised by the gov as the big conglomorates.
It is obvious that there are way too many members of governmentm and most who are non-thinkers. Do any of them ever take a look at these things? The article covers things that the average person doesn’t think about. I wasn’t aware that there are still farm subsidies. And why are the big guys getting it all? Great article!
I agree with so much of what you have said. I also think that poor people have more obesity because the cheap foods are the fast foods on the dollar menus and the highly processed foods.
When you have not learned how to eat real food, then you continue to eat the processed non-food junk.
I was amazed when I was at the grocery store checkout the other day and the young man that was bagging my food asked me “what do you do with Spinach”…I was so amazed that at his age he had no idea what to do with Spinach, which I thought that everyone was aware of. It opened my eyes to the separation from the production of food, and the importance of nutrition being taught to our young people. They don’t understand the importance of cooking for health.
Well done Jon! The opening visuals really drove home your point. Processed, chemically-fertilized, pesticide-laden packaged food products are causing enormous suffering in our society. The right way is clear — buy whole foods, preferably directly from the grower and organically grown… you and your family, farmers and the land will benefit.
Anyone interested in pursuing your lines of logic and inquiry should get their hands on anything that Michael Pollan has written,(who you cited in your article above), particularly The Omnivore’s Dilemma, (an enlightening and ripping good read).
P.S. If my 5-year old daughter can understand the benefits of organic/whole/local foods, why can’t the vast majority of 45-year olds?
Great article. Another point to consider is when comparing buying more expensive organic food is: what is the REAL cost of food? Food is really our medicine. What we eat is what makes and keeps us healthy. If we eat junk cheap food, we will have to pay later, at a much much higher price for diabetes, heart disease and cancer, to mention a few. And insurance companies are in on the deal and won’t be that much help as we know. Congress is run by big agriculture and insurance companies, who want to keep us dishing out our dollars.
Excellent - of course, in many ways you’re preaching to the converted. However, the more people speak up and (literally) put their money where their mouth is, the more likely it is that SOMETHING will change for the better. It’s a long road, but the alternative is a disaster.
An outstanding article, Jon.
Excellent!
Yes what you have said makes all kinds of sense yet the other part of what you closed with is also very true. The big corps have bought the peoples representatives and made the corporate lackeys who are only too willing to do what they say to keep the big bucks rolling in.
Even if we could vote all of the reps out and replace them with new unspoiled people, the big bucks would be working its way into the new batch, just take a while.
Another option could possibly be that since it is a federal crime to attempt to bribe a federal official maybe thaat law should be enforced upon the givers and the takers too.
Food for thought.
One of the better articles I’ve read on this site. Well done, Jonny boy!
Fantastic article. Great perspective and amazingly simple conclusions to a great cultural misalignment.
Fantastic! I love this article! You’ve really hit the mark on how easy and affordable it is to buy “junk” food! You’ve shed light on why this practice is the norm among low-income families and how obesity is connected.
Excellent article. Surely “we the people” can find a way to start taking back our country!
My comments would be longer than the article plus all the excellent comments, Jon. It will require several categories on my own website as soon as I can manage my own survival needs. But briefly, may we squelch this idea that nothing can or will be done about every one of the issues in this article–and there are more than it and the comments addresses. Your website is handling them courageously, but we must never let this effort for massive basic changes cool until we see an end to every last issue–which, of course, goes well into the future–but now is not the time to slow down. Also, this is not only about the poor. Witness health issues in those who govern as well as those of our own families and you know that we have many fires to light under ourselves. The choice is not between broccoli and fast food combo.I would have to choose the latter and enjoy it in same choice right now. We do have much better choices than that. In the meantime, your articles are paving the way for real solutions. It is important to identify the nature of the problems and make them our own. We need to look closely at the situation as it exists now and participate much more broadly. I am working with others on the specifics of a grant for home and local market gardening using brix high nutrient density growing of produce asap. You have my full support, Jon.
I enjoyed the article…this is great!!!! So send it to our illustrious government, one greedy goofball at a time, and see if it gets any attention…I doubt it will, my thoughts are that they want it this way…they have already spent the social security promised to millions. I see they want to control banks and healthcare. I think that acumulating a residue of mercury because you eat high-fructose corn syrup, ignorantly, in almost everything thats cheap causes memory problems and altzheimers. [I recently read where young people are now experiencing memory issues do you think its in enough food products yet?] I doubt I am wrong. I think people with problems caused by this will be unable to protest the fact that they get no social security, and they do get counseling with regards to the value of continuing to live under the proposed healthcare fiasco. I have plenty more ideas and thoughts beyond these although not many believe this is a possibility…I am sure it is.I see the government website touting high-fructose corn syrup its called sweet surprise and it reveals quite plainly how stupid they think we are.
Dan Rather did a whole report on this and it’s first part can be found here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXAZ_7JO7EA&feature=related
Excellent article Jon. My family of three eats healthy, real, whole, organic food and we easily spend $150 or more on food in a typical week. A couple of years ago we ate mostly junk food and spent less than half that in a week!
I was thrilled to see Michael Pollan’s name mentioned in your article as I recently finished his book In Defense of Food – An Eater’s Manifesto. Anyone reading this please check out his work, either his books or his NY Times articles. Also see the documentary Food, Inc.
All we can do at this point is vote with our dollars by purchasing the good stuff. Keep up the good work Jon and please continue to get the word out.
You speak the plain, simple truth. I saw a program on IPTV
talking to Iowa farmers growing GMO corn and soybeans. One farmer said “We grow crap, but crap sells”. Until there is no longer a market for all the crap in the grocery stores and man, there is alot of it, the trend will continue. Somehow, us folks who do know how to eat healthy have got
to start a movement to educate the people in our community in how to eat healthy.
This is the best thing I have read in a long time. Transforming the country’s food base should be our next big revolution and citizens are sorely due something that can really make a difference in the quality of life. Let’s pick up this banner and run with it! Bravo!
Excellent!!!
Best article I’ve ever seen on this newsletter!
I personally am tired of the taxpayers subsidizing the wealthy - but regarding our food, it has shown itself to be one hideous and disgusting problem.
I’ve been startled to learn through a couple good documentaries what’s been going on with our food - and it terrifies me. I can barely stomach meat now, try to find foods without HFCS and hydrogenated oils - and generally get annoyed that I need to be so vigilant trying to stay away from nasty foods. And we have GMO’s too - which are for the most part kept hidden from us. Nasty.
What’s sad is that we seem to want to blame individuals for what is really a corporate and government induced mess! Remember how the tobacco industry leaders kept saying “nicotine is not addictive and does not cause cancer” years ago? It seems the same industry leaders moved from tobacco to food and corn and GMO’s. Who are these people who keep making addicts out of Americans? And, with our taxpayer dollars?!
I think we need a social movement here to take control of our food - and immediately stop subsidizing big corporations - especially food producers. I would love to see small farms subsidized - small businesses in general. If we subsidize “organic” the big corporations will figure out how to get all the money.
We’re having a food crisis in this country - and the people need to take control of our food before it’s too late.
Very good article… It coincides with how our federal government “doled” out the “Stimulus” money… The very large organizations, who caused the problems, were given the money. I.e. Large banks, (and so forth), were given the funds while the medium and small banks, who did not issue bad loans received little or nothing… The funds have not corrected what happened…
I could not agree with you more! We have had to rely on our local food bank this winter; and almost 50% of what we are given is pasta. My husband can’t eat pasta because he is diabetic. We give most of it away.
I am supposed to be on a gluten-free diet. A loaf of gluten-free bread costs almost $9.00 here in CT (it is considered a specialty item). At the same store, I can get a loaf of regular whole wheat bread for $1.99. Guess which one I choose to make our few dollars go farther!
We don’t eat crap because we are lazy or don’t care. We eat it because the healthy foods are temporarily beyond our means.
Would you please post the full citations for your data presented in your article?
THANK YOU
An interesting piece.
Historically, 19th century Britain took a close look at “poverty”. The Rowntree report (founded the chocolate company famous for Black Magic) determined primary and secondary poverty. Of course, available food was “organic” and processing was limited while fast food didn’t exist.
Primary was when even the most thoughtful person could not buy sufficient food to sustain life. Secondary was when poor choices were made… as with Gin (”Mother’s Ruin”)i n rhyming slang, like modern Russia’s vodka) so that an adequate amount of money was wasted, leaving an inadequate diet.
Today, as you note, we have several quirks… convenience stores tend to charge a premium, even though the food selection tends to offer high calories by weight i.e. more fat as well as greater satiety.
Consumers are Up-sized by value meals.
Consumers, even at Whole Foods will also tend to find that the nutrient density of modern foodstuffs has diminished.
Carrots, say, don’t have the taste and nutrition they once did, even if one can afford them.
That’s we so called improvements.
If there’s improvement, there’s evolution!
Thanks for the article, Jon. This is not a new problem. It’s just bigger one. I wonder how much money could be trimmed off the federal budget deficit if the geniuses on capital hill simply stopped throwing money in the direction of corporate agribusiness?
Alas, it will never happen because our legislators are either bent on enriching themselves or hanging on to their seats in Congress, or both. Sad.
Nice (& enlightening) article. Thanks,Dr.Jim
Good rational article!!!!
Great article, well-developed line of thought. I love the comment “Most of the foods you bring home from the grocery store should not have ingredients. They should BE ingredients.”
You mentioned education but did not emphasize its importance. While reform of our system is absolutely necessary; education is also vital. This is of course what you are doing with your writing. I believe that people are searching and we need to be positive influences by making wise choices and also provide valuable information.
Hello Sir John,
I really appreciate how your topic had been chosen and how you tackled upon a cutie topic.Actually at this point in time, I am busy doing exercise at the mountaintops to make my heartbeat normal and also to research on herbs and medicinal plants for my research journal. Here in Manila ,Filipinos are mad about planting lemon grass tea and banaba trees which are good for detoxification ,esp. for obese people. Me, as a researcher has to make time to plant in the farm herbs and leaves for future medicine for the obese people, instead of planting crops.I am eyeing on a narra tree here whose leaves are great for diabetic people.
Thanks for the great article.I love it.
I thought the article was great; but it needed to go a little farther, by clearly stating the dangers of the artificial synthetic substances in our food sources: namely high fructose corn syrup and trans fats. These and many more substances are made from industrial waste products. These money grubbing capitalist will do anything for a dollar; our health is irrelevant to them.
This was an excellent article which brought forth the real reason for obesity in the USA.