Eating Disorders in America: a socio-economic epidemic
“An environment with an overabundance of largely unhealthy food with few healthy alternatives is the norm in many U.S. towns and neighborhoods and creates often times insurmountable challenges for people to effectively lose weight and keep it off.“
--from Reshaping the Conversation on Health and Weight:
Recommendations Based on the Expert Panel convened by the National Eating Disorders Association and Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance
This statement really stood out to me for some reason. I often observe this very situation as I drive around the eclectic Phoenix area headed to a job or wherever. Admittedly I live in a fairly affluent part of town; my private community surrounded by so many gourmet grocery stores, a ridiculous number of Starbucks, full-service car washes, pet boutiques, hot yoga studios, private weight loss centers and mega-health clubs. Yet just a mere mile or two down the lesser traveled road one will find nothing short of endless stretches of ramshackle tin shacks, pitiful-looking trailer parks and painfully overcrowded ghetto housing. Real people actually live there. It’s strange; you don’t see a whole lot of cars. The ones you do are old and beaten-down, really been around. A few ancient VW Bugs still chugging on. A lot of these folks have to take a bus to get to a decent store, bring home what they can carry. Or walk, endless miles. What choice are most of these kids going to make? An arduous 3 hour trek across town to the Whole Foods they can’t really afford, or the dollar menu at Mickey D’s right down the street?
If you drive too far, you’ll hit the county landfill. And in these poorest of the poor neighborhoods (and dollars to donuts there are countless “hoods” like this in every city in America, large or small) without fail you will find almost exactly the same types of all-too-predictable business establishments. Of course there’s the ubiquitous McDonald’s. (It’s noticeably smaller than average with no sprawling Play Place like the privileged kiddies have.) Right across the boulevard there’s very likely a Sonic, a Pizza Hut, a KFC or Popeye’s Chicken. (In Phoenix of course, you will find an essentially nondescript dive serving decadently greasy Mexican food, probably some of the best in town, but I digress.) Then there’s the compulsory liquor store, a popular smoke shop, the unspeakably sinister and usurious paycheck loan place; probably a suspiciously discounted, no-name massage parlor. Maybe a dollar store if they’re lucky. And last but not least the conspicuously and strategically located “gentleman’s club.” The Kitty Kat Klub. The Pretty Pony Palace. Whatever, you get the picture. Welcome to the wrong side of the tracks. You wanna party, rich boy?
One could find oneself in a place like this and not know whether it was the far West Valley of Phoenix, the South Side of Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Newark, NJ. A sad coincidence? A heinous socio-economic tragedy? Insidious right-wing conspiracy? All of the above, who knows?
“Body size and shape are chiefly determined by inherited
factors and strongly influenced by environmental factors.”
(National Eating Disorders Association and Strategies to
Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance.)
“The average US resident is exposed to approximately 5,000
advertising messages a day.” (Alfreiter, Elzinga & Gordon,
2003).
“According to a recent survey of adolescent girls, their main
source of information about women’s health issues comes from
the media.” (Commonwealth Fund, 1997).
Meanwhile, I think to myself, how sad is this? Of course I realize obesity is no stranger to the rich, and affluence itself often feeds the fat. Overweight but undernourished could describe a large portion of Americans these days, regardless of address or zip code. But just to keep things real: most of these poor folks in these inner cities or fringe-of-town hoods don’t seem to stand a chance if they don’t get out of there somehow. (Or find the Energetic Health Institute online.) Just thinking out-loud: what must this type of repressive, depressing, seemingly meager environment do to a person’s energetics let alone their diet? Eating disorders, be they obesity or malnutrition must be a serious issue. Where do the poor go for help?
“Eating disorders are not just a “fad” or a “phase.” People do
not just “catch” an eating disorder for a period of time. They
are real, complex, and devastating conditions that can have
serious consequences for health, productivity, and
relationships. People struggling with an eating disorder need
to seek professional help. The earlier a person with an eating
disorder seeks treatment, the greater the likelihood of physical
and emotional recovery.”
--National Eating Disorders Association, 2005
And I mean this in all humanitarian sincerity. I’m not trying to degrade anyone’s home, economic status or lifestyle. Personally I am by no means a snob, a racist, a pompous and over-privileged elitist. I grew up dirt poor in western Kentucky myself.
Truthfully, for several years my family of five lived in a glorified 6-room fishing shack tucked away within the pristine ridge land of Marshall County, KY. Apparently it was all part of my wily, wayward father’s inexplicable master plan. Supposedly sick and tired of the wanton ways of the Windy City, he must have been secretly conducting some sort of demented social experiment in poverty, akin to a megalomaniacal Harrison Ford in Mosquito Coast. We were so poor our mama made us kids split a Mickey D’s cheeseburger three ways, no joke. My hungry, hungry hipster big sister got most of it. Plus it was a treat we normally only got driving the twelve or so endless hours to visit family in Chi-town. Aside from Gabby Lynn to a modest degree, getting fat was not an issue. We kids were skinny as refugees.
I digress again. But we were lucky to some degree. My sisters and I did grow up in the country: surrounded by fresh air, the bluegrass, towering shadows of evergreen woods and plush orchards of resplendent cherries, berries and apples. If we were particularly hungry, or just plain bored, and feeling daring enough to challenge Old Man Crabtree’s devil dogs, on occasion we shameless little thieves might sneak into those irresistible orchards for a well-earned organic snack. More often, my cousin and I fished for catfish, bass and blue gill on the shores of Kentucky Lake. We had plenty of neighbors who grew their own gardens and were generous to a fault. And Southern cooking may not be the healthiest in the books, but Grandma will make sure you get your greens, boys and girls. Sure, TV dinners were a decadent treat, on a good week, like they are for most kids, rich or poor.
Hard as it was, my point is: it was all a far cry from the mean streets of the inner city or the fringe, forgotten badlands. If some of these kids growing up in these poor hoods don’t have their elders, a mentor or someone to at least guide them towards the right path, nutritionally speaking, health-wise and otherwise where will this life lead them? And their numbers appear to be growing.
“It takes more than just willpower to lose weight – a
strong support system is necessary.”
“Encourage corporate responsibility in developing and
marketing products by drawing attention to those that support
making healthy choices easier for consumer through offering a
range of affordable and attainable products and services for all
consumers.” Wouldn’t that be nice? And the right thing to do.
If I’m judging anybody here, it is the so-called powers that be. They control the media that tells lies to our vision. The banks that buy up the land and fund the multi-national corps that go wherever they want, do-sell-pollute whatever they want, whenever they want, for the most part. And we oft-avaricious, privileged consumers are not without fault. For every dollar that we quietly spend, sent into the bottomless pockets of a greedy corporation, we are equally culpable. This tragically eschewed social design cannot have happened by accident. Personally, I say conspiracy, for lack of a better word.
Maybe that’s just my bleeding heart liberal naïvete speaking.
