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Obesity problem in america
Obesity in american children 1971-2008
Obesity problem in america
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The definition of obesity is the condition of being grossly fat or overweight. “Obesity has many causes, but some experts believe that the structure of [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] deserves some of the blame” (Vanderkam). Laura Vanderkam states that the food stamp programs encourage binge buying and encourage buying junk food. About 3.8 million people rely on food stamps. That is one in eight Americans. The program has helped feed hungry bellies since 1964, and the program has grown tremendously, likewise, so has obesity. In the 1960’s the percent of obesity was thirteen percent, the percentage has now increased to thirty-five (Vanderkam). Food stamps support the problem of obesity in America.
A scientist at Ohio State University, Jay Zagorsky, conducted a study and found that women who were in the program were more likely to be obese than those women who were not. They also gained weight faster while receiving assistance than when they were not receiving financial aid. Food stamps are given out once a month. The benefits are loaded, electronically, onto cards that can then be used at retailers. The majority of people using food stamps buy early in the month and then they store the rest for later use. The families mostly spend their benefits in that first shopping trip. A majority of the time, they end up with no money and no food towards the end of each month. They then have no option but to be hungry and try and receive food or money from local charities, such as the Daily Bread or a local church. People receiving food stamps receive them once a month, and then blow it all at once, the food stamps should be portioned out and receive once a week, that will encourage the people receiving the food stamps to bu...
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...food and binge buying. She suggest that the food stamps be given out once a month, but the people receiving the benefits would just save them up and shop once a month. The food stamps should be given out once a week, that way you are almost forcing them to shop more regularly. About thirty-eight million people rely on these food stamps, and the percentage of people who are obese as increased by twenty-two percent since the 1960’s. Many of these people receiving benefits are living in “Food Deserts”. Food Deserts are defined as low-income neighborhoods that are located more than a mile away from a supermarket. Food stamps and the way they are being distributed are causing people to eat unhealthy, which is then leading to obesity. Food stamp should be portioned out and distributed once a week, instead of once a month, that will encourage them to shop more frequently.
She shows it in the sentences, “We Americans like need that takes places far from home, so we can feel simultaneously self-congratulatory and safe from the possibly that hard times could be lurking around the corner. Maybe that’s why our mother told us to think of the children in Africa when we wouldn’t clean our plates. I stopped believing in that when I found myself in a bodega with a distraught woman after New York City had declared a snow day; she had three kids who ate breakfast and lunch at school, her food stamps had been held up because of some bureaucratic snafu, and she was considering whether to pilfer food from the senior center where she worked as an aide.” Sense it isn’t in our morales to let kids go hungry this shows that we are letting kids go hungry all the time and pushes the
With more and more people becoming unemployed and applying for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), it is imperative that we understand the benefits as well as problems this causes. Even while researching this topic and talking to some of my family and friends about it, it surprised me the amount of those who do not understand food stamps. Coming from the SNAP website, “Food stamps offer nutritional assistance to millions of eligible low-income individuals and families and provides economic benefits to communities” (United States). This program helps millions of people per year and gives upwards of $75 billion and rising. With the prices of food increasing due to inflation, beneficiaries are receiving around $400 at most per month. Using the Electronic benefit transfer systems (EBT), beneficiaries can buy goods from a grocery store using a credit-card like transaction, which takes the money off of their card. The benefits are received monthly on a specific date and vary in amounts from person to person. One family may receive $300 per month because they have three kids and need the extra money, while another may receive $100 or less depending on financial status. The application process includes completing and filing an application form, being interviewed, and verifying facts crucial to determining eligibility. In the past, these applications did not require a drug screening to get benefits, but more and more states are adopting this. There are many drawbacks to SNAP as well such as taking money from working people’s paychecks every week and people abusing the system. Talking about a very opinionated subject, we must remove bias and answer whether or not the Food Stamp system should be limited.
People should be able to purchase junk food with food stamps. Others might assume that they have no money so why waste it on junk food? Food stamps help numerous people if they struggle with food at home, or don’t earn enough salary. Moreover, why waste it on junk food?
Many families and people have become too dependent on food stamps. “Critics of food stamps and government spending, however, argue that too many families have become dependent on government aid.”(NoteCard #1) But if they did not have this program people would go hungry. “11.9 million people went hungry in the United States”... “that included nearly 700,000 children, up more than 50% from the year before.”(NoteCard #2, Point 2) The program does good and helps people but it also spends a lot of money to get people food stamps. “..food-stamp recipients has soared to 44 million from 26 million in 2007, and the costa have more than doubled to $77 billion from $33 billion.”(NoteCard #5) But in the end, is it worth it? People need the assistance. It does help people from going hungry and keeps them at least with a little food in their stomach to that keeps them from starving. A lot of people who could not get jobs, were eligible for the program because they did not have a source of income. “Critics of food stamps and government spending, however, argue that too many families have become dependent on government aid.”(NoteCard #1) Since not everyone could get work, the government changed the requirements and it went for the better and for the
The federal Food Stamp Program is an assisted nutrition program that helps millions of eligible, low-income individuals and families (United States Department of Agriculture). This program gives its recipients extra money each month to try to help them have better food security. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is also the largest program in the federal safety net (United States Department of Agriculture). In Ohio’s Appalachian counties, there are 515,300 recipients which is 25.4% of the population (Job and Family Services). The Supplemental Nutrition Program is a good program except for one problem that can be fixed relatively fast and one problem that it will take a little time to solve. The problem that can be fixed right away is that the Supplemental Nutrition Program can be abused by the recipients buying junk food instead of healthy food. The problem that will take some time to fix is that some recipients make unhealthy food choices because they do not have access to a local supermarket. In order to fix these two problems the Food Stamp Program needs to better regulate what can be bought with the Food Stamp card and items in convenient stores need to be better stocked in order to keep accepting Food Stamp cards.
Pan, L., Sherry, B., Njai, R., & Blanck, H. M. (2012). Food Insecurity Is Associated with Obesity among US Adults in 12 States. Journal Of The Academy Of Nutrition & Dietetics, 112(9), 1403-1409. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2012.06.011
This SNAP program originates from the latter half of the nineteen-thirties around the Great Depression. One of the worst problems from this era in our history was feeding everyone. SAMP was first introduced in New York in 1939 and they actually used orange and blue stamps, thus creating the term “Food Stamps.” John F. Kennedy helped to fuel the second stage of the process through his campaign. There was pilot program between 1961-1964 filled with studies, reports and legislative proposals”(FNS). “The Federal Food Stamp Act of 1964 is the most significant food plan in the united states” this act started it all. “It provides food stamps for needy individuals that can be exchanged like money in authorized stores” (Cornell). The same year the act was passed “there were 380,000 people in twenty two different states.”
The reality that exists for these individuals is different than that which is assumed by many. People assume that recipients are lazy and that they do not want to work, or that they are very promiscuous women who have children in order to continue receiving help from the government. The realities for these...
Overweight and obesity problem is becoming more and more serious in Australia. Not only Australians but also the world’s problem obesity is studied as one of the main causes of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and some cancers and sleep apnoea as well as other serious conditions, which put national economies and individual lives at risk. Obesity is also regarded as epidemic. Obesity is caused by a calorific imbalance between diet intake and consumed calories. Obesity has become the biggest threat to Public Health in Australia shown by Australia Bureau of Statistics (2013). Also, the prevalence of obesity is predicted as the ratio of obesity in adults and children will be doubled by 2025 (Backholer et al.2012). It is believed that this phenomenon is happening due to many social determinants of health, which have a strong negative impact on not only individuals but also society and economy. (Wilkinson and Marmot 2003) The social determinants of health are explained as conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age by WHO (Wilkinson & Marmot 2013). Different circumstances can be formed depending on their finance, power and global resources. These social determinants seem to be responsible for health inequities, which seem to be unfair and avoidable. Social determinants of health including social gradient, high calorie food intake, excessive amounts of stress and poor early life care are the relevant factors to contribute to be or being obesity. It is important to understand that the correlation of social determinants of health and obesity to manage the health problems and enhance public’s health.
The obesity epidemic and our nation’s health as a whole have many factors that include socioeconomic status in particular. Socioeconomic Status and Childhood Obesity will always shape our nations vision and mission with what we do with healthcare. Healthcare in America is in a major reconstruction faze, and is in much need of it, obesity and socioeconomic status are going to be the major contributors to this reconstruction.
... this policy, I would argue that the Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP) is extremely useful and beneficial for the American Public. Personally, I believe that the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that the basic needs of its citizens, such as food security, are met. This program has been proven to be effective in reducing the burden of food insecurity on many families and individuals nationwide. After reviewing the costs and efficiency of the program, it is clear that there is very little oversight and administrative cost burden placed on taxpayers. In addition, with stringent policies against SNAP fraud and trafficking, taxpayers can be ensured that their money goes to those in need. After evaluating this policy on several criteria, I think that is extremely effective in accomplishing its goal of reducing food insecurity within the United States.
Food stamp organizations help a variety of people from the disabled, single mothers, children and to those who cannot find—or are unable to—work. There are many out there who for some reason are unable to obtain necessary food, and without these programs, these people wouldn’t be able to survive in the money hungry world. Though these programs are put in place to ensure that people are being properly fed, there are people out there that think people use it only to abuse it. Single mothers are just one of the groups that gets a lot of harassment and are looked down upon. These individual’s are looked down upon due to the stereotypes and the overwhelming concern of them ruining the system due to a few. According to Poverty and the Homeless they said only 9 percent of single mothers stayed in there programs for more than seven years and less than 10 percent stayed more than eight years, also saying that most of them were young single mothers with children under the age of three (Williams). Single mothers are not the reason that the economy is going under, people just need an escape goat to blame so they don’t see their own ignorance. Mothers shouldn’t be wrongly accused for needing food stamps, because they could need them for a number of reasons. There are mothers out there that have been divorced and the husbands don’t pay child support. An article online talked about how this mother had recently separated from her husband and she was on food stamps. Her children didn’t know because she didn’t want to burden them with any more than they already had. She said, “I sold everything that wasn’t tied down. I eventually found three part-time jobs that would allow me to be with my sons when they got home from school, trying to keep their lives as structured and normal as possible — plus saving me $100+ a week in childcare, which is substantial when you make
Since 1970, the obesity rates in America have more than doubled. Currently two-thirds of (roughly 150 million) adults in the United States are either overweight, or obese (Food Research and Action Center). According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “overweight is defined as a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25 whereas obesity is defined as a BMI greater than 30.” There are numerous factors that contribute to obesity such as: biological, behavioral and cultural influences (Food Research and Action Center). While these factors all have a large role in obesity, there is no factor with as great of an influence as poverty.
Amongst one of the bigger health issues in United States children is obesity. Obesity is a condition in which a person has accumulated an excess amount of body fat that it has become detrimental to their health. To track this health professionals use the term “obese” when a person has a body mass index (BMI) of over 30. Although BMI should not be the only determining factor of whether or not you child is obese as it only takes into account of height and weight, it is one of the better known systems of telling whether or not a person is overweight or obese (Nichols). Obesity comes with a range of other health conditions that can include but are not limited to cancer, diabetes, and depression. Not only do children and teens who suffer from obesity acquire many health diseases, they also tend to get failing grades and are bullied amongst peers. Most Americans correlate being obese with having an unhealthy lifestyle, but according to a 2006 Fox News article there may be other factors that attribute to obesity that include smoking, medicine, pollution, technology and lack of sleep. (“10 Causes of Obesity Other Than Overeating”). One part that does although indeed play a role in to child obesity rates is economics.
Obesity is on the rise, and it is becoming more and more of a national health concern. It effects more than 1/3 of the population, and an additional 1/3 is overweight. With obesity becoming more and more of a problem each year, the American population is going to suffer from a catastrophic health emergency.