From Rolls to Ribs
Hello, we are five students from Stanford University collaborating with the American University in Cairo as part of a Cross Cultural Rhetoric (CCR) project. We are writing about the international obesity and malnutrition crises for our class on food science and politics.
Professor Paul Zimmet of the International Diabetes Institute warns that “obesity is no longer a problem limited to America…but has reached the scale of a global epidemic.” In a world with 300 million obese people, how is it possible that over twice that number are malnourished globally? This indicates that it is the allocation of food, rather than the abundance, that is problematic.
According to the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, it is estimated that by the year 2015, diseases caused by over-nutrition will surpass malnutrition as the leading cause of death in low-income communities. It is a common misconception that obesity and malnutrition are direct results of poverty or economic standing. Although these are factors, access and the ability to make informed choices play equally key parts. For example, the most agriculturally productive region of Mozambique has the highest rates of child malnutrition in the country. This proves that proximity to a product does not guarantee access. Motivated by monetary interests, corporations choose to export their products to other areas instead of feeding their own population.
On the other hand, when access is not a problem, information, choice, and discipline are determinants of the health of consumers. For example, there are 278 McDonald’s restaurants within fifty miles of Houston, Texas. There are almost 100 health food stores in the same area. By comparing numbers in one of the United States’ fattest cities, it is obvious that when both proximity and access exist, it is ultimately left to choice.
Two of the world’s largest epidemics are centered around food. In order to solve these crises, education and reallocation of food resources are imperative.
Comments
Such an interesting post and you provide such startling statistics; they really make your points alarming, and urgent. Do you think the globalization of food pathways (availability of western food all over the world, for instance) has created this "global epidemic"? How can we even begin to solve this problem--where do we start? Who is responsible for starting?
Posted by: Anonymous | October 20, 2009 07:14 PM
I would have to agree that this is such an interesting topic. It amazes me how two of the most alamaring and prevalent epidemics world-widely are caused by food. And what's even more amazing is the lack of information about them. People would regularly relate poverty to malnutrition as you have mentioned without having any idea about the actual, more influential causes behind it. However, what do think is causing these diseases to spread that widely and swiftly? I mean education and media are supposedly advancing all over the world and have also become more accessible(which increase public awareness), yet the problem continues to expand.
Posted by: Aya Aboul Fotouh | October 31, 2009 08:24 AM
I have to agree to what you have been saying. it is all about choice. You may choose to enter a healthy restaurant or go eat in an unhealthy one just across the street. Eventually, this will turn back on you. SO choice is a very important factor for obesity or malnutrition. So how can we improve the decision making quest fro people? how can we make them aware of the consequences of their choices before its too late? one of those factors is media, however it is available and yet most people tend to choose wrong. so what will be the next step?
Posted by: Mostafa Shash | November 1, 2009 09:22 AM
i totally agree with you on your topic specailly that i think we share almost the same problem here in Egypt specifically when you said " It is a common misconception that obesity and malnutrition are direct results of poverty or economic standing." here in Egypt we also have this misconception which i believe is mostly true. however i think that there should be more awareness about the healthy food restuarantes like more advertisments for them like for fast foods ones and that might be one of the reasons why most poeple choose fast food ones over the others. yet this problem will contiue endlessly..
Posted by: menna el nenaei | November 1, 2009 01:53 PM
I'd have to disagree to some extent with certain parts of your post. I think it is hard to generalize that it is a misconception that obesity and malnutrition are direct results of poverty and economic standing. For example, here in Egypt, poverty to a great degree is connected directly with malnutrition in certain cities. However, I do agree that access and choice play an equal part in this issue. In addition, I would argue that globalization plays a pivotal role in influencing our choice of food. The question that I was left with after reading this post is that how are choice, poverty, access and economic standards different when evaluating the effect they have on obesity and malnutrition Developing countries and Developed ones?
Posted by: Youssef Dabbous | November 3, 2009 03:15 PM