Tag Archives: poverty

The Daily Table Wants to Sell You Old and Ugly Food

Would you buy expired or ugly food? That’s the question being posed by the former president of Trader Joe’s, Doug Rauch.

The food in his new store wouldn’t actually be expired, but instead would be food that is past its “sell-by” date, making it unusable for sale in traditional grocery stores.

His store, The Daily Table, is set to open in Dorchester, Massachusetts in May and will be part grocery store and part cafe. It will specialize in making healthy, inexpensive food available to those who might not otherwise have access.

“When I run down to meetings in the city in Boston,” Rauch told Salon. “I’d say most families know that their kids need to eat better. Most families know that they’re not giving their kids the nutrition they need. But they just can’t afford it, they don’t have an option.”

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Posted on February 10, 2024 by Elizabeth

Where Should You Go for the Best Diet? Not the United States

If you wanted to find the most nutritious, most diverse diet, where should you go? According to a new ranking from advocacy group Oxfam, you should be traveling to the Netherlands.

Oxfam ranked 125 countries of the world on their citizens’ access to fresh produce, nutritious proteins, and clean water. The anti-poverty nonprofit also looked at whether or not those options were affordable when compared to less healthy options.

“Basically, if you arrive from Mars and design a food system, you couldn’t design a worse one than what we have today on Earth,” Max Lawson of Oxfam told The Salt in an interview. “There is enough food overall in the world to feed everyone. But 900 million people still don’t have enough to eat, and 1 billion people are obese. It’s a crazy situation.”

When compiling the rankings, Lawson and his team found that rich countries have the advantage, since a country’s score depends on food availability. For example, all of the top eight countries is European except for one – France, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Luxembourg, and Australia.

The countries that rank the worst are places that are often noted for poverty and hunger – Yemen, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Angola, and Chad.

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Posted on January 17, 2024 by Elizabeth

NPR’s Living Large: Obesity in America Takes a Hard Look at Our Growing Crisis

Approximately one-third of the U.S. adult population and 17 percent of children are considered obese according to CDC statistics.

NPR’s special series “Living Large: Obesity in America” takes a look at what it truly means to be obese in the United States, a country getting larger and unhealthier by the second.

Why are Americans obese? Blame it on the lifestyle. Americans are eating–everywhere. We eat in our cars on the way to kids’ soccer games, on the way to work, in-between meals, and after school. With our lackadaisical view of standard mealtimes, we are not only eating more, but are eating processed foods that are quick and adaptable to our on-the-go lifestyles and it’s rubbing off on other countries. The French are getting fatter, too, according to NPR.

Although France is typically viewed as a counterexample to America’s growing obesity problem, obesity in France is rising slightly. The French pride themselves on their love of food and traditional meal times. The French also know how to properly prepare a meal, something that is vastly disappearing in the age of globalization and urbanization.

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Posted on August 17, 2023 by Jamie

Single Moms at Greater Risk for Being Overweight and Unhealthy

In a study released in the June issue of the journal American Sociological Review, mothers who have had a baby while unmarried appear to be at higher risk for poor health. The study, which began in 1979, followed close to 4,000 women between the ages of 14 and 22. The young women were queried every year until 1994, and every two years thereafter until 2024.

Those women who had delivered children outside of marriage reported being less healthy as they approached their 40s than the ones who had postponed motherhood until after marriage. In addition, those who began motherhood and then married reported the same health concerns. Those who married before having children reported the highest levels of positive health.

The study allowed for prior existing health conditions.

The rate of birth in the unmarried mother category has jumped from less than 10% in 1960 to close to 40% today.

The reasons for reduced health in this group are unknown, but many surmise that the possibility of a lower income level may have something to do with it. Women who have children when they are both younger and unmarried typically have a lower level of education and this can be a deterrent to higher income.

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Posted on June 10, 2023 by Carmen

Children are Growing Fatter as They Go Hungry

We’ve all heard that obesity is a huge crisis in America, but what many of us forget is that it’s our nation’s children who are suffering the brunt of the problem. Childhood obesity has tripled over the past thirty years with nearly one third of children or teens being overweight or at risk for becoming overweight.

According to a report issued by First Lady Michelle Obama’s Task Force on Childhood Obesity, the number of obese Americans is growing. Nearly 75 percent of Americans will be overweight or obese by 2024, a condition that will have a negative impact on our nation’s economy. Ironically, as our nation weighs in heavier, the New York’s Food Research and Action Center reports another dilemma: families can become obese at the same time they are going hungry.

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Posted on April 4, 2024 by Maris

Girl Effect and Nike Take On Poverty, Disease, Malnutrition, and Education

While DietsInReview’s primary focus is weight loss, disease prevention and overall health and wellness, we are also concerned about the health impact of poverty and malnutrition. Obesity may be a major problem in the United States and most of the developed world, but many developing nations struggle with nutritional deficiencies as a result of an insufficient food supply and poverty. Nutrition, health and health care, social justice, disease, and so many other concerns are wrapped up with poverty. It can be an overwhelming and cyclical problem.

The Girl Effect aims to improve poverty, disease, war, social inequality, and the world’s economy by educating girls in the developing world. It may sound idealistic, but there is much research behind the hypothesis that when girls are given any additional education, they are less likely to marry early, have children early, die from childbirth, contract HIV, and live in poverty. The Girl Effect also recognizes the different impact that women have on children and families versus men. According to The Girl Effect Fact Sheet women reinvest 90 percent of their income into their families, while men only reinvest 30 to 40 percent. That means that educating a young girl and giving her the opportunity to earn an income is at least 50 percent more likely to reduce poverty in her family than if a young boy was given additional educational opportunities. Women can make powerful changes when given the opportunity. (more…)

Posted on November 15, 2023 by Brooke Randolph

End Childhood Hunger with the Great American Dine Out

Most of us could benefit from eating out less, but if you are looking for a noble reason to hit up one of your favorite eateries, look no further than the Great American Dine Out.

From September 19 to September 25, Share Our Strength’s third annual Great American Dine Out is working with thousands of restaurants across the country. They will be offering great promotions, featuring special dishes, and donating part of their proceeds from that week to help support Share Our Strength’s work to end childhood hunger in this country. This year, Aaron McCargo Jr. from Food Network’s “Big Daddy’s House” is the Great American Dine Out’s official spokesperson and he is encouraging you take part of this special cause.

All you have to do is locate a participating restaurant via this Share Our Strength Restaurant Finder and dine in or dine out to help make the organization’s mission of “No Kid Hungry” a reality. (more…)

Posted on September 20, 2023 by heather

Considering Haiti: Rethinking Eating Habits

It seems like Haiti is on everyone’s hearts and minds at the moment. Such events reach us at a level where we change behavior. I doubt that many of the people texting donations to the Red Cross had never sent a non-personal text message before; I wonder how many had never previously sent a text message. I know a six-year-old child who was doing extra chores to earn money to give to his school’s fundraiser. Big events impact our thinking and our priorities. In these cases, we are driven by compassion and concern. Sometimes it takes big events to break us out of focusing only on our own concerns and daily stressors.

Has Haiti been on your heart or mind? Have you done anything differently as a result? Has the Haitian earthquake changed your eating habits? (more…)

Posted on January 24, 2024 by Brooke Randolph

Understanding Haiti’s Health Crisis

While DietsInReview.com’s primary focus is weight loss, disease prevention and overall health and wellness, we are switching our focal point to discuss the other end of the health spectrum – poverty and malnutrition – two hand-in-hand health issues that affect more than 80 percent of the citizens of Haiti, the small island that was wrecked by a massive earthquake this past Tuesday.

As tens of thousands are feared dead and international humanitarian efforts are underway, it is important to consider just how serious this disaster is for the nine million citizens of this impoverished country. And in order to do that, a glimpse into the health challenges that Haiti faces can provide a subtle background into just how dire the situation is and how serious it may become in the coming days, weeks and months.

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Posted on January 14, 2024 by heather

Blog Action Day 2024: Poor Women Most at Risk for Obesity

It’s no longer news that the United States is nearing an obesity epidemic. But did you know that women are at a much greater risk than men for becoming overweight? In fact, according to a recent study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, women in the United States increased their caloric intake by 22% (and men by 7%) in the 30 years between 1971 and 2000.

Obesity Rates Versus Socioeconomic Status in Women

Did you also know that women who have a lower socioeconomic status are 50 percent more likely to be obese than those women who belong to a higher income bracket? In many countries, especially developing countries, the trend is just opposite. Extra pounds are a sign of opulence, whereas thin figures are an indication of being poor. And this makes sense, right? If you don’t have money, you can’t put food on the table and your waistline inevitably shrinks. (more…)

Posted on October 15, 2023 by heather

Blog Action Day 2024: Poverty Poses Diet Problems

People in poverty or in the lower income brackets get the short end of the stick in so many ways. Besides living in neighborhoods that are infested with crime and drugs, it’s hard to afford things like health care and nutritious food.

The health care part is pretty obvious, especially for anyone remotely aware of what it costs. But the idea of being at a disadvantage when trying to stay thin and eating a healthy diet may not be so obvious.

I’ve expressed my views here before on what I see as the unfortunate side effect of cheaper items that can be bought via mega-stores, like Wal-Mart. The “big box” stores, as they are called, give us the ability to buy many different items for much less since they buy in massive quantities. But the problem is, much of that food is processed and prepackaged, which is invariably high in sodium, preservatives, starch, refined sugar, and ultimately calories. (more…)

Posted on October 15, 2023 by Jason

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