Assignment 16 - Thomas Noll

We hear a lot about American health to the extent where it has nearly become a symbol of our culture. Everyone has a finger to point, at big food industries, and individual neglect, others will argue the circumstance is blown out of proportion. But as easy as it is to brush off this issue with another cliche excuse, health effects related to obesity now kill more people annually than starvation across the entire world. The CDC estimates that among children aged two to nineteen, rates of obesity sit at 10.9% in high income families. This number rises to 19.9% in lower and middle income families. The image that appears, however, is reflective of a larger issue. A lack of proper nutrition, specifically among poor americans. There are countless factors that contribute to this, but among all, the most blatant, the most obvious, and yet so little discussed, is the mere absence of access to high quality food.

Now, I want to stress early on that this is not about being physically overweight. In fact, this discussion should be completely removed from the complex lense of beauty standards and mental conditions. A serious but separate issue that should be addressed on its own. This is purely a blatant, medical analysis of a rising issue of malnutrition. And while most commonly presenting as obesity, it can and does exist in many people without physical indication.

So what factors contribute to a lack of access to nutritional food? Well, sticking with our theme of stating the obvious, geographic isolation is the first. The term food desert is becoming increasingly popular to describe areas of the country where, and I quote, “Residents have limited or no access to retail food establishments with sufficient variety.” In some places this is a given, if you have ever been on a car trip you can picture the dottings of lonely towns along the highway. You might stop at one briefly to use the bathroom or fill up on gas and appreciate the fact that this fuel station is most likely the nearest commercial source of food for miles. Easy to understand, but counterintuitively, the majority of people affected by food deserts actually live in urban areas. The central core of lexington from versailles to winchester road (predominantly poor areas) is officially recognized as a food desert by the USDA.

Now, you’re probably questioning the validity of this issue. You reason, “Well I live far away from my grocery store but I have this thing called a car.” You would be right except that traveling by car is expensive, and all forms of transportation are time consuming. How many times have you wanted to eat or cook something, but you are missing some key ingredient in your house. And so disappointed you settle on cereal or that last christmas tree cake you promised you wouldn't eat. Now imagine you are a single mother working two jobs to keep food on the table in the first place. Imagine the investment of a distant grocery trip.

This lends to the second limiting factor, price. I will be brief on this because it is so intuitive. Living in a food desert, significant time and money has already been spent before even reaching the food itself. At my Kroger you can buy an Old El Paso taco kit for a little bit less than a bag of generic baby carrots. Now yes, this is just one extreme example, but when you have X amount of money to spend on either a quick dinner or some lousy vegetables, the choice is obvious. Why do college kids eat so much ramen? It’s not the healthiest option, but it’s easy, it tastes good, and it’s cheap for a full meal. To put it bluntly, cheap crap is abundant.

I have a vivid memory from the school cafeteria in eighth grade. I always brought my lunch but out of curiosity I decided to read the ingredients of some of the condiments my friends had picked out. You know, like the pretentious asshole I am. It was an admittedly boring activity until I got to the salt. Sodium Chloride, Sodium Silicoaluminate, Dextrose, Potas- Wait hold up. Dextrose? If you paid even half attention in biology you know the suffix -ose indicates a sugar. Sugar. In the salt. I'll let that speak for itself. Okay I have to be honest, the actual reason for the dextrose is to slow the breakdown of the potassium Iodine. A legitimate purpose, but the point of this anecdote is not to bash salt, rather to illustrate the simple fact that added sugar has snuck its way into nearly every food we eat, even in the ones we least expect.

It is this prevalence that stands as the third limiting factor. Obesity runs in families and yet it is a disease that is rarely determined by genetics. It is the food habits that we adopt from our parents, our school lunch, and the delicious crunch of Old El Paso tacos. Nowadays the ability to prepare food is non-essential, everything can be bought pre-made or frozen. I don't want to detract from the true revolution that is ready-made-food. However when it becomes normal to have soda with your meal, when it is normal to have kraft mac-and-cheese for dinner, when its normal to be surrounded by foods that contain excessive amounts of sugar when they don't need to, that's when the issues begin. It’s not even that individuals are intentionally eating poorly, it literally takes effort and money to avoid sugar, to avoid refined grains. The entire concept of the organic market is centered around the fact that pompous individuals can pay a pretty penny to do just that. Why should this privilege be limited to the rich?

Overall it becomes clear that an american health crisis is being perpetuated not by laziness or neglect, but by severe disadvantages in accessing food among lower income people. There are active solutions today, Food-Chain is a local aquaponics farm offering fish and microgreens to a notorious food desert neighborhood in the north side of town. National movements like those pushed by Michelle Obama have attempted to bring attention to our habitual tendencies as an issue. These are both steps in the right direction, however the greatest thing we can do is push for the education of nutritious food and reframe the obesity epidemic to shift the blame off of the individual and onto everyone. A community that is lucid of this issue can work within itself to establish local gardens and food services. Awareness among the population can encourage more careful eating habits. I’m not calling for the end of fast food or microwave meals, but perhaps these can be luxury items. Perhaps salt can just have salt. Not everyone has the time and money to buy some flower and ground beef and make their own Old El Paso tacos, but for those of us who are more affluent, demand creates supply, and supply increases availability for everyone. It is a combination of these little actions brought by our simple awareness of this issue that can help stamp out malnutrition in one of the most developed nations of earth.



Thank You.