Poverty, Obesity and the Role of Media
A nation that is filled with wealth and knowledge, there are undoubtedly problems that come with its glory. The United States is placed second as a country with the highest population in the world. As mighty as it may seem, there are issues exist with its approximately 312 million inhabitants. Poverty and obesity are a few of the common issues that the United States needs to take care of. But, one might ask, “How can a country so grand be troubled with an unlikely issue such as poverty?” and “What is the relationship between poverty and obesity?” And how is the media involved in the circle of these issues? It is important to see the relationships of poverty, obesity and the role of media in addressing this problem.
The truth is that there is a causal relationship between poverty and obesity. Obesity is the second leading cause of death in the United States with smoking coming first. According to an article by
National Center for Biotechnology Information
, there is an apparent relationship between the amount of wealth and obesity. The greater wealth a country has, the higher the rates of obesity of its people. The U.S. is one of the wealthiest countries in the world and correspondently has high obesity rates with one-third of the population is obese. So how is poverty causing obesity? In contradiction to the general trend, “people in America who live in the most poverty-dense counties are those most prone to obesity.”(1)
Obesity, poverty and lifestyle. These factors are interconnected as one leads to the other. Poverty shapes the lifestyle of the people who live in some parts of the country. The low wages prevent lower and working class parents from providing enough food for their kids and it leads them to an unhealthy way of living. With no sufficient amount of nutrition taken, they will eventually start gaining weight and this leads to obesity. Even though there are plenty of organization and institutions such as food drive and the volunteers that help these families by giving them food supplies, often time these consumptions are the ones with long shelf life such as canned food, soda or chips, which are not healthy. Children might not have any complaints in consuming snacks and candies since they do not have much knowledge and are not yet well informed about how to differentiate which is healthy and unhealthy. And so, this would affect greatly especially on these growing children who need to consume adequate nutrition to maintain their health.
It is perplexing that many of these families are living under the poverty even with one or two family members having full time job or under assistance program. When looking demographically, the areas in which many poor family live also have very little access to healthy food. In many cases, it is difficult for these families to go and find a place where they can buy vegetables and fruits. Because of this low availability of nutritious food in the area, often time they have to deal with the distance problem and fares which require them to spend extra money. The problem is that there are too much fast food restaurants while there is little to no supermarket or farms. Burdened with the time and budget limit, parents are forced to make a decision between eating healthy, meaning that they have to spend more money on transportation and pricey vegetables and eating fast food which is much cheaper and fulfilling.
This is a problem that everyone should be concerned about. There is no telling which families will become the victim of poverty and at the same time obesity. Based on the relationship with general trends, “Obesity rates increased by 10 percent for all U.S. children 10-17 years old between 2003 and 2007, but by 23 percent during the same time period for low-income children. This national study of more than 40,000 children also found that in 2007, children from lower income households had more than two times higher odds of being obese than children from higher income households.”(2). From here we can see that the rapidly increase of obesity for kids is troubling but, the fact that the 23 percent of it comes only from the lower income kids is very worrisome. By looking at this, we can begin to see the dots that connect poverty to obesity.
Let’s take an example of a parent who wants to spend ten dollars for tonight’s dinner. She is confronted with two choices. First, she can go drive a few miles to a local supermarket which sells fresh meat, vegetables and fruits. Say, one gallon of gas costs her four dollars, so she is now left with six dollars in her wallet. With the remaining money, she can get 3 apples, 3 lb bag of potato and 2 lb of tomatoes. Second choice, she can go to McDonalds which can be reached within a walking distance. For ten dollars, she can get 2 Big Macs, 2 McChickens, 4 small fries and 4 small sodas. Choosing between what’s healthy and what’s fulfilling is not easy. Parents make decisions by considering their kids’ needs at the present time and their future. If she chooses to get the ten dollar menu from McDonalds, her kids will not have to starve for the next day but it will be bad for their bodies. On the contrary, her kids’ health will be ensure if she chooses to buy vegetables and fruits, but there will be no more food left for them to eat in the next day. This is one example of the everyday life problems that these families go through constantly.
It is surprising that the influence of media has great effects on the way people live and eat. Many advertisements that we see on television, on the road, on brochures, magazines and pretty much anywhere, have influenced our everyday lives in many aspects.When you are waiting for the train in the subway or when you are surfing on internet, you might see many kind of advertisements. The most common ones are usually food advertisements, especially fast food. Many fast food companies such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and other major companies dominate the scope of food commercials through media. Billions of dollars are spent on advertising their products in order to attract more and more customer into buying and consuming their products which many are categorized as unhealthy. The company’s annual advertising budget has been estimated to exceed $2 billion — making it “unmatched in the industry,” (3) Because of this, other competing companies are struggling to sell their products. It is especially hard for small businesses or local farmers who sell organic and natural products since they will not have many chances to advertise and introduce their products. I believe the power of controlling the market cannot be achieved without superior techniques in advertising and effective methods in conveying the messages. McDonald’s appealing ads and its friendly mascot “Ronald McDonald the clown” have easily attracted customers, especially kids. I think this method can be seen as rhetoric as it is an art of communication and it aims to inform and at the same time persuade particular audiences in other words, the consumers. The power of advertisements can also be seen as propaganda in which a biased belief or an idea is expressed in such a way that it is able to influence the audience to think and behave in a certain manner. By looking at this, I would say that anyone who controls the media and owns the rhetoric of power will usually dominate the others and have the upper hand. A few examples of these power holders include the politicians, activists and of course major food companies such as McDonald’s.
In controlling the media and people, the art of rhetoric must be used effectively. To be able to use the elements of logos, pathos, and ethos when expressing ideas and persuading audiences, the person must own a remarkable knowledge and social skills. And so, it is important to be able to use rhetoric in the right way in order to achieve your purpose. In this case, McDonald’s has successfully used the art of rhetoric to attract tons of both domestic and international customers, sold its products in a very large quantity by establishing numerous of company’s branches in many parts of the world, and earned billions and billions of money as profits. Although the riches of McDonald’s increase the income of the country, it has a side effect which is obesity. This is how the relationship between wealth, poverty and obesity are connected. As McDonald’s keeps selling more and more food that have high amount of sugar and calories, the people will put more and more weight to their bodies. This can lead to many health issues such as obesity, diabetes, liver damage and even cancer. The expenses of hospital’s charges and medicines will take up a great amount of money. While this problem exists, another problem such as a lower productivity at work due to the weight gained will eventually result in poverty. In the bottom line, this is the way media is used to benefit from poverty and at the same time this shows how media indirectly contributes to the increase of obesity in the United States.
