A new study has found that minimum-wage employees are more likely to be obese than those who earn higher wages. Traditionally when we thought of “poor people” we envisioned starving rail-thin malnourished children. Malnutrition is still prevalent in poor communities, the appearance of these individuals however is radically different. It would seem to be a counter-intuitive point but it is clear from anecdotal experience as well as recent research that obese people are actually malnourished. Dietary analysis shows that people with less money to spend on food tend to purchase inexpensive nutrient poor foods. In an attempt to obtain a satisfactory amount of nutrients they will consume more calories. The situation is compounded by insufficient exercise and lack of access to healthy foods in many neighborhoods. Obesity is a complex problem with multiple causative factors and I fear that we are only seeing the tip of an enormous iceberg with regard to long term prevalence of serious chronic disease. http://amplify.com/u/5zag

Posted via web from onyeije’s posterous