Some sociological issues are directly connected with the development of society and its future. One of such critical issues is poverty because it is inseparable from numerous related problems. Among these poverty-related problems, poor nutrition is one of the most critical. To be concise, poor nutrition stands for the inability to afford food products that provide the volume of calories, minerals, and vitamins necessary or, at least, minimum for the normal functioning of a human organism. As a result, poor nutrition leads to impaired health incomes and the emergence of numerous diseases that otherwise are preventable. Due to the significance of the problem, the concern under investigation is the connection between poverty and poor nutrition.
This issue is vital not only in the United States but also worldwide. The challenge is that the problem affects not only people living in low-income states but also the most developed states. Specifically, it is common for the lowest social and economic classes because they cannot afford to take proper care of their nutrition. The topic is critical because, for instance, around fifty thousand children become blind annually because of vitamin A deficiency, and it is as well a from of poor nutrition. Around 1 percent of deaths worldwide are caused by nutritional deficiencies. More than that, poor nutrition, especially protein-calorie malnutrition, is a common cause of physical and mental health issues (Torpy, Lynm, & Glass, 2007).
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"Poverty and Problems Linked to Poverty".
Speaking of the United States, for example, people prefer choosing diet with low-nutrient content because it is more affordable compared to the healthy, balanced diet (Drewnowski & Eichelsdoerfer, 2010). Putting it all together, people living in poverty cannot afford to balance their nutrition. It means that they are exposed to the increased risks of chronic diseases because they lack preventive health care due to the limited financial resources, and the country of origin does not affect this exposure because citizens of the high-income states face the same risks as those living in the low-income states.
The connection between poor nutrition and poverty is a commonly investigated subject in the recent research. For example, Drewnowski and Eichelsdoerfer (2010) believe that low-income American cannot afford a healthy diet. The rationale behind this belief is the fact that food prices are the main barrier to developing a balanced diet. In other words, regardless of the generally acceptable belief that everyone could easily afford to include lean meats, whole grains, and fresh fruit and vegetable into their daily diet, in fact, the prices for this products are constantly increasing, as well as other costs faced in everyday life. As a result, low0income people tend to choose high-fat and low-nutrient products, especially energy-dense sweets and dense that are ready for consumption and easily affordable (Drewnowski and Eichelsdoerfer, 2010). However, the authors recognize that the main challenge connected to the choice of unhealthy food products is the lack of knowledge about choosing cheap, but high-nutrient products.
On the other hand, Laraia, Leak, Tester, and Leung (2017) believe that price barrier is not as significant as it is believed to be. Instead, some concerns other than the lack of financial resources are more influential in the choice of food. To be specific, the authors focus on investigating behavioral aspect of shaping one’s diet. They recognize that the direct connection between the level of income and the quality of one’s diet is based on the emotional and moral aspects of poverty. In particular, the exposure to constant stress, poor sleep, and cognitive overload – the common emotional aspects of economic constraints – are inseparable from poor dieting choices (Laraia et al., 2017). The two articles selected within the context of this paper are valuable for obtaining a better understanding of the investigated problem. Specifically, because they focus on different causes of the existing correlation between poverty and the quality of food consumed, they might be helpful for offering policies for eliminating them, thus helping cope with the issue.
The existing connection between poverty and poor nutrition can be explained form the perspective of the symbolic interactionism. According to this approach, stratification in the society is directly connected to individual’s beliefs and lifestyles, thus affecting behaviors and life choices. Returning to the considered problem, stratification is the difference in the ability to overcome the price barrier due to the unequal access to financial resources – different social and economic status. Due to its existence, people with fewer resources and limited income believe that they cannot afford to pay for the plate of healthy products. For this reason, they commonly choose cheaper food products that are low nutrient and high fat, so their diet is not balanced.
To cope with the problem, launching the overall educational campaign might be helpful. The rationale for pointing to this belief is the fact that ordinary people are commonly unaware of the low-cost products that could be included in the plates of healthy foods (Drewnowski and Eichelsdoerfer, 2010). Such campaigns could become a supplementation to commonly used social security and support systems. However, the idea is to introduce them in schools so that the culture of healthy dieting is developed since the early childhood. One more suggestion is to make such educational campaign community-based so that all groups of population are covered. In these programs, information about alternatives to the usually preferred low-nutrient and high-fat fast food is provided.
