Poverty and health: Low income limits choices to cheap and unhealthy foods
Poverty tends to impact society on several different levels, whether it may be through the impact of the economy, social effects, education, health, but most importantly malnutrition; which is said to be the most common effect of poverty. Poverty affects millions of Americans by limiting their choices to cheap and unhealthy foods. It also limits the physical access to healthy food choices as it relates to diet costs and reliable access to the proper resources, which in turn creates a direct correlation between poverty which leads to obesity, as well as other diseases.
“The biggest enemy of health in the developing world is poverty” (Annan). It creates ill-health conditions which forces individuals to live in certain unpleasant environments without proper shelter, clothing, and most importantly food. “In the United States, the overall poverty rate climbed to 15.1 percent, or 46.2 million, up from 14.3 percent in 2009. The official poverty level is an annual income of $22,314 for a family of four (The Census Bureau).” Based on the statistics above, one is left to wonder how an individual can survive on such an income, far less for being able to purchase and consume affordable nutritious meals. It is often argued that life is full of choices and one can choose to adopt a lifestyle of healthy eating, but what happens when poverty strikes and there is no choice but to try to survive?
In focusing on the
economy. Individuals who are extremely poor are considered impoverished. In 2013, the poverty rate was 14.5 % which in turn caused 45.3 million Americans to live in poverty. Poverty levels in 2012 were the highest seen in 54 years in the United States ("Poverty Facts | Poverty Rate, Poverty Thresholds & Census Information"). Poverty causes various health problems in individuals, such as obesity. Impoverished people are consuming cheap junk food because they cannot afford healthier nutritional options ("5 Effects of Poverty"). Also, individuals living in poverty often do not contribute to society, leaving a system of dependability on the non-impoverished. Creating jobs would help alleviate the problem of poverty. More individuals could be unemployed which in turn would decrease poverty levels. Increasing the minimum wage could also help reduce poverty levels. With more money to spend, individuals would no longer remain impoverished ("The Top 10 Solutions to Cut Poverty and Grow the Middle Class"). Inflation, unemployment, and poverty negatively affect the stability of the U.S.
There is a strong correlation with an individual or group SES and the quality of health care received. Social Economic Class relates to what group of class an individual fit in based on their income, which can include wages, investments or other source. The quality of care depends on the facilities that is offering the services, the staff, accessibility to the service and the kind of health insurance that the person has. Affording health care is expensive and the lower or poor class has to decide between being able to afford food or other daily needs and going to a clinic for screening. Most of the time, individuals who fall in the class will ignore the health signs while
Across the United States there is a growing about of the population that struggles with food insecurity and health disparities. Sometimes it is hard to believe that people in our own community struggle so much to get the proper nutrients for their families to live a healthy and active life. Although this problem is wide and continues to grow there is little going on the help the numbers decrease. With many different charity programs that help families get food, it does not completely bring down the numbers in the population who struggle from food insecurities. One of the main problems that relate to this struggle is the amount of poverty across America. The population that lives in poverty are more likely to have issues with unsecure food households due to the fact that they struggle to simply keep a roof over their head none the less keep the proper food
People living in poverty think about what their next meal is or how they are going to feed their child. Poverty makes a person mentally stress causing them to have depression. The depression then leads to drugs or alcohol which is bringing them down. “Poor black men won't support their families, won't stick by their women -- all they think about is the street, dope and liquor, women, a piece of ass, and their cars. That's all that counts” (). Poverty impacts the individual’s health because they can’t afford the healthy food because it is expensive. The individual will purchase the white bread because it is cheaper but, they know it is not that healthy. People living in poverty might not buy that many fruits and vegetables. Not eating healthy leads to being obese or other health problems. “Poverty and illness together make people much more vulnerable and needy at all stages of their lives, and even more so in old age. Mental health is often both a cause and a consequence of poverty, compromised education, vulnerability, difficulty accessing housing, health-care and employment, and lack of access to welfare, social security, and community public
Poverty and poor health worldwide are inseparably related. Poor health is a direct effect of growing up in poverty; as children living in low economic families may not have access to adequate medical health coverage. Which means the child will not have proper immunization and checkup that they need to ensure good health. Studies show when a child grows up in poverty the child can be underweight (Boyden). Poor under lined illness may also lead to issues throughout a lifespan. Poverty increases neglect of health issues. That causes more health problems which ends in death. Statistics also show that living in poor rule areas, with low quality schools. Even if the parents are highly educated and employed, the employment
Poverty is a national epidemic that plagues Americans across the country. Imagine having to choose between the simple necessities of life, the decision of whether to buy toothpaste, toilet paper, or laundry soap. Which is most important, which will have the largest effect on the outcome of one 's life? Could something so small really change a person 's ability to survive? Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia states that “poverty is the economic condition in which people lack sufficient income to obtain certain minimal levels of health services, food, housing, clothing, and education generally recognized as necessary to ensure an adequate standard of living (“Poverty”). Poverty is a way of life that becomes an endless cycle of struggle and production. Work, pay bills repeat. Poverty is the reflection of greed in our nation that encourages success at the cost of our humanity. Poverty is a generational cycle that is inherited and becomes the anchor to all future success. It is often said that poverty is the effect of a lazy, uneducated nation, in reality, the poverty level family has at least one adult working at least 40 hours a week at a painstakingly back breaking job that the elite American would quiver at the thought of performing. The effect of Poverty is caused by lack of opportunities, greed, and generational circumstances
Poverty generates crime, broken families, drug addiction, illness, illiteracy and even more poverty and ultimately undermines the quality of life for everyone in an economy, not just the poor. Furthermore, there are addition hidden cost of poverty which include property loss, deteriorating real estate values, bodily injury, and increased public and private expenditures for insurance, law enforcement, court cases, prisons, and health care, plus the lost productivity of people who could be employed or more gainfully employed.(http://www.infoplease.com/cig/economics/ultimate-issue-quality-life.html)
One huge cause of illness is poverty. Poverty plays such a huge role in the health of individuals because to be healthy you must have the necessary resources available to maintain health, such as nutritious food and safe shelter. Not having healthy food directly impacts health by often causing malnourishment and obesity. Individuals in poverty often
The overall all causes of poverty in United states is the poor economy, the lack of jobs, affordable housing, education, and healthcare. (4) The poor economy is causing the competition for jobs to be high. With more people trying to find well-paying jobs, the jobs become scares. Having a minimum amount of jobs make life harder for middle-class Americans. They depend on those jobs so they can support their families. Not having the income to pay for food and monthly bills is a primary cause of poverty. The lack of money causes people to lose the thing that is beneficial for day to day life. Not only are people losing their houses and cars they are also losing motivation, faith, dignity, and they begin to turn to drug, alcohol or to commit crimes.
Another major factor that can affect poverty is the economy, specifically the economic system used in a country. Capitalist economies, like our own, focus on privately owned means of production, the people who own the company keep the profits and typically the government will not interfere. This private ownership of profits leads to the rich getting richer leaving little for the growing population of the poor. In a capitalist country where the government typically offers little support to its citizens, a large number of its citizens can be left without any services because they cannot afford them. An example of this is the United States, the richest country in the world where 28.5 million of its citizens have no health insurance (Collins). Poverty causes many problems for individuals, families, and society. Now I see how the only few people and organizations that actually benefit from poverty are the rich and those who control the means of production.
According to professor Stiles, “when an individual person has a person on their side to help support them like a safety net they are more likely to do better in their life time”. Poverty has been known to cause health risks and still till this day. Research by the Center of Disease control and others have been proving that not just the state of Texas but all over the world show that obese people that live in poverty are at high risk for disease and many other terrible health risks. Individuals who deal with poverty most of the time feel helpless when left to deal with the health problems. As an individual who has lived in poverty it is very difficult to deal with because as a child things were hard to understand when there was no food in the
How Poverty Affects Society Since the beginning of modern civilization, poverty has played a big role in this day in age. Poverty is spread worldwide, but differs with country to country. It can also be seen more in certain cultures than others or whether a single mother is working multiple jobs to support her family and barely makes enough to make ends meet in the household. People born in a poor neighborhood may feel discouraged to become rich one day because all their lives they have seen poverty and find it almost impossible to run away from it. Today poverty is still a social and economical problem that affects the way people live.
Poverty is “the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor” (Dictionary.com, 2017). Based off this definition poverty is a condition that can cause a cascade of cause and effect actions that is detrimental to families and individuals both physically and mentally. Haan, Kaplan, & Camacho (2017) completed a study on the correlation between social and economic status and health in adults in Oakland, CA. They found that the lower the socioeconomic class the higher incidents of diseases and deaths related to chronic diseases (p.1161-1162). Just being without money or little money was not the only indication of health indication, a person living in an area with higher poverty issues
Poverty can lead to serious effects. Children who grow up in poverty are likely to have frequent health problems than the children who grow in better financial circumstances. For example, infants who are born into poverty have a low birth weight, and they grow up with mental or physical disabilities. Not only are they sick, but they are most likely to die before their first birthday. Children who are raised in poverty might miss school often because of their illnesses, and they have a much higher accident rate than the other children. Nearly a billion of the world’s population can’t read nor write. Poor families experience stress much more than a normal family does. They are more likely to be exposed to negative events such as illness, job loss, death of a family member, and depression. Homelessness is another effect of poverty. Homeless children are less likely to receive proper nutrition, protection and they experience more health problems. Around 1.4 million children die each year from lack of access to safe and clean water and proper nutrition. Homeless women experience a high rate of low birth weight infants as well as miscarriages. Families who do not have homes receive much more stress than other families. They also have disruption in school, work, friendships, and family relationships. There are other effects of poverty such as drug abuse and addiction, child and woman abuse, debts pressure, and increase in crimes.
In the United States and in countries all over the world, poverty has extreme impacts on a