Thursday, October 15, 2009

Socioeconomics Vs. Nutrition

There were comments (read: one) yesterday about nutrition/calorie count and socioeconomics. It reminded me of a story I heard on NPR back in May. And then today there was a blog post on ThatsFit about corner stores and childhood obesity.

You may be thinking, 'Why does this blog girl think she knows anything about this?' Well turns out I have myself a handy masters degree in social policy. The facts are that people who struggle to make ends meet or even people who work extra jobs or even those who have stressful lives regardless of what society deems to be 'enough' in their bank account (I'm trying to avoid going into a rant about how the federal poverty level might as well be designed by monkeys) have a hard time with nutrition. When you brain and time are occupied by other things its hard to think clearly about the fastest route to drive home let alone how many calories you should eat in a day.

So the problem is that its hard to educate people about nutrition. Further, its hard to absorb the facts about nutrition when life can take up so much time. Don't even get me started on my theory about how what America really needs to solve its problems is affordable subsidized child care so that working mothers can be more effective at being mothers in addition to citizens and people in their own right. ANYWAY.

So if that's the problem what's the solution? Well the solution is not to stop advertising the calorie counts of items. It could be a manner of other things in addition. Rewarding people through health insurance costs when they are at a healthy weight? Maybe. Add required nutrition science to the slew of other sciences we teach our children? Maybe.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts. Comment away!

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