ResearchReviewPoverty, Obesity, and Malnutrition: An International Perspective Recognizing the Paradox
Section snippets
Poverty and Obesity Are Connected to Hunger and Food Insecurity
Poverty results in food insecurity and often hunger, which can lead to malnutrition. Furthermore, the absence of a diversified, nutrient-dense diet can lead to overnutrition, subsequent obesity, and failure to meet micronutrient requirements. The US Department of Agriculture (5) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (6) have specific language and definitions to describe hunger and food insecurity (Figure 3).
The Paradox of Food Insecurity as a Cause of Obesity
The paradox within these intertwined social and economic relationships is that poverty causes food insecurity, yet one of the overwhelming outcomes of food insecurity is obesity. When food insecurity exists in a community, sufficient or even excessive energy may be provided by the limited foods available, but the nutritional quality and diversity of the foods in the diet may not support a healthy nutritional status due in part to inadequate micronutrients. The number of US residents in
Determinants of Obesity Connected to Poverty
In the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted between 1988 and 1994, theoretical models of relationships were determined between multiple factors and the risk for being overweight (29). Lack of family resources and food insufficiency were intricately related (ie, no money results in no food), and both factors were associated with obesity. Similar to much of the world, relationships exist between obesity and social (30) and lifestyle (31) factors in Jamaica; BMI is
Programs That Address Food Security
Around the world, poverty is acknowledged as a major cause of food insecurity, and efforts to improve access to food must include poverty eradication (1). According to the World Health Organization, malnutrition is a medical and societal disorder with substantial consequences, including increased risks for morbidity and mortality (36). The World Bank Strategic Objectives are centered on the improvement of Health, Nutrition and Population outcomes for the poor (3).
Multiple programs have been
Our Responsibilities as Professionals
We have several responsibilities as nutrition educators, dietetics professionals, health care providers, researchers, and policymakers to understand and address the consequences of food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition (49). The eighth Millennium Development Goal is to “develop a global partnership for development” (1). This begins with educating ourselves and others about the complexities of poverty, obesity, and the double burden of malnutrition. Understanding the ramifications of having
S. A. Tanumihardjo is an associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Extension, Madison.
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2022, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and DieteticsEnvironmental footprints of improving dietary quality of Chinese rural residents: A modeling study
2022, Resources, Conservation and RecyclingCitation Excerpt :However, food insecurity, undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and other malnutrition issues are more prevalent in rural regions, which generally have a higher proportion of elderly and youth residents (people older than 64 and younger than 15) (FAO et al. 2019). Low-income regions, such as east Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, are usually affected by various malnutrition-related mortality issues (Du et al. 2004; Tanumihardjo et al. 2007; Popkin et al. 2020), and rural populations have contributed more than 80% of the increase in body mass index in these regions (Collaboration 2019). Additionally, food production and consumption accounts for approximately 30%–90% of total anthropogenic environmental impacts, such as freshwater withdrawal, greenhouse gas emissions, land appropriation, and nitrogen and phosphorus flow(Springmann et al., 2018a) (Cui et al. 2013; Lin et al. 2015; Liu et al. 2016; Hu et al. 2018; ).
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S. A. Tanumihardjo is an associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Extension, Madison.
C. Anderson is an assistant scientist in the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
M. Kaufer-Horwitz is a certified nutritionist by the Mexican College of Nutrition (Colegio Mexicano de Nutriólogos) and a researcher at Fundación Mexicana para la Salud, Mexico City, Mexico, and a member of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) Task Force on Nutrition, Diet and Long-term Health.
L. Bode is a staff scientist at Burnham Institute for Medical Research, La Jolla, CA.
N. J. Emenaker is a program director at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD.
A. M. Haqq is an assistant professor at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC.
J. A. Satia is an assistant professor in the Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
H. J. Silver is a research assistant professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN.
D. D. Stadler is a research assistant professor at Oregon Health & Science University, Portland.