Obesity vs World Hunger
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March 15, 2010
Filed under News
By Luther Buhr
On one half of the world, the citizens suffer from overeating and obesity. On the other half, the citizens suffer from starvation and malnutrition. Why is this happening? How is it even possible? How can we fix it? And why haven’t we done so already? Questions like these flood our brain when we ponder this situation. The answers are not necessarily the ones we want to hear.
More than 1.02 billion people are suffering from starvation in the world today, primarily in Asian and African countries. Take the population of St. Paul, 279,590. You would need to multiply that by 3,648 to even come close to the population of people suffering from starvation around the world. That’s 15% of the estimated world population of 6.8 billion.
Hunger takes its toll on everybody. Adults, teens, children, and babies all suffer as they battle to survive off nothing. Think of all the food we throw away in our own lunchroom. We fill 50 gal trash can after trash can after trash can. In one day we throw away more food than a village of people in Africa will probably see in a month.
And out the food that they do find, it lacks an adequate amount of nutrients resulting in the people suffering from malnutrition. Malnutrition increases your risks of getting infections and diseases. It especially puts you at a high risk for Tuberculosis which can be fatal. A lack of clean water, which is a problem in these third world countries, also increases the risk of malnutrition. Between starvation and malnutrition the chance of fatality is devastating in third world countries. Potbellied children from malnutrition line the streets of villages in Third World countries.
Poverty is the principal cause of hunger. Areas stricken by poverty lack the necessary resources needed to support healthy living conditions. Communities are forced to buy cheap food that lacks the nutrients they need. Those that do grow nutritious foods feel they get more out of selling it than eating it themselves. An example of this would be the poor in South American countries like Guatemala that grow fruit such as bananas and are forced to sell them to survive.
Obesity is rising as a deadly epidemic around the world. Especially here in our home country, the United Sates of America. It’s come to the point that Americans are stereotyped as being obese and our logo is practically the Golden Arches of McDonalds. American is the land of fast food; its everywhere. The smaller local restaurants that serve healthier food are simply being run out of town by these big corporations.
Two thirds of Americans over age twenty are overweight. One third of all Americans are obese.
Unlike starvation, obesity finds its home primarily in First World countries. Countries, oddly enough, where most of the people have the resources to afford healthier food. This is what is disgusting about human society. Obesity for most is an option. Yes there are the select few that have health problems or financial problems that cause weight to be a problem for them, but for most people its bad choices they have made in their lives that cause obesity to restrain them from living a healthy life.
There are over 341,000,000 obese people in the world today. All that could be avoided by making good decisions.
For children its not always choices they’ve made that cause obesity to be taking away their childhood and sadly their futures too. Some parents are “guilty as charged” for feeding their own children this deadly food by the bunches. We all know the typical, “Ima’ feed my baby whatever he/she wants!” off of the TV talk shows like Dr. Phil or Maury. Of course the little kid is going to want the fast food. That’s whats advertised directly to them! You don’t see clowns or fuzzy cute animals advertising healthy food. You don’t see toys being handed out every time you buy a healthy meal.
Parents need to realize that it is THEIR responsibility to watch what their kids are eating. Its literally taking years off their lives. Our generation is predicted to be the FIRST generation in history that could end up dying before our parents; the first ever. When will we realize that there is a problem here?
People in First World countries are surrounded by technology. We have machines to do almost everything for us. Rather than going out to search for something ourselves, we sit at home and use the internet. Rather than building things by hand we use high-tech gizmos to do it for us. Rather than going out and enjoying the outdoors and getting some exercise kids and adults are staying inside behind TV and Computer Screens for hours upon hours. People simply are not getting the appropriate physical exercise they need to stay healthy.
Obesity is an introduction to a handful of health conditions that can be extremely deadly. You become susceptible ideally to Type Two Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases, Hypertension, and Strokes. They’re simply risks we cannot take. We let ourselves slip away before we even realize it.
We spend a ridiculous amount on money on dealing with the costs of obesity. In the United States alone, Obesity health care costs the country about $3,000 per second and about $240 billion annually.
All together only about $30 billion is being spent of attempting to end world hunger, when here in America we spend $240 billion annually on Obesity related health conditions!
40,000 children die each day to hunger. That’s CHILDREN alone! 40,000 of them a day. In seven and a half days just as many Children alone die from starvation and malnutrition as Americans die from Obesity in one year. That’s one week compared to one year. Children compared to an entire population young and old.
Obviously, the epidemic of Starvation and Malnutrition is affecting an exceptional amount more people, over an exceptional amount more countries around the globe than Obesity. Yet, we see a massive difference of where money is being spent. Only about 12.5% as much money is going towards ending World Hunger.
If more people are being effected by this crisis why do we see 87.5% as much money going towards, not just any other problem, but the exact opposite dilemma?
Starvation and Malnutrition are not a choice. They are not based off decisions they have made for themselves. They are something they have to live with whether they like it or not. Unless they get the help they need from others.
We all wish it would be as easy as taking food away from the obese and giving it to the those suffering from Starvation and Malnutrition, but it’s not. We cant put our leftover food on a plane and fly it around the world to the hungry.
But, if you choose to, and encourage others to, avoid the unhealthy tendencies we have and keep yourself and others healthy then we wont have to spend $240 billion on Obesity a year. The healthier a population we can be, the less money we will need to spend on health care costs to cover up the bad decisions we make. That money can then go towards situations that are in need of more support, such as World Hunger.
There is nothing more than mass benefits, for everyone around the world, from staying healthy.
You can make a difference.
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