Posts Tagged ‘food insecurity’

Cutting Food for Kids with an Obesity Excuse

January 12, 2024 — This is a new political fashion we hope will quickly find its place in the discards bin. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds is declining federal summer food aid for kids saying, “An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic.” USDA this summer will launch a permanent […]

The Puzzle of Food Insecurity, Diet Quality, and Obesity

June 13, 2022 — Though we hate to say it, we are entering into a time of increased food insecurity. Of course that will bring a toll of death from hunger. It also likely means a further rise will come in non-communicable diseases such as obesity. But why? Why is it that food insecurity has such a link to […]

Whip Obesity Now – Or Maybe Not

June 12, 2022 — Talk is cheap. But history tells us that cheap talk doesn’t solve wicked problems. That’s true whether the problem is the relentlessly rising health harms of obesity or the current hot topic – inflation. The notoriously hollow Whip Inflation Now campaign of Gerald Ford seems like a model for equally ineffective campaigns aspiring to overcome […]

As Ideologues Clash, Food Insecurity Becomes a Crisis

April 24, 2022 — We’re now two months into an utterly stupid war in Ukraine. Life in that country has been turned upside down. Global trade with Russia is grinding to a halt. As a result, 12 percent of the calories in the world’s food supply is at risk. Moving fertilizer into farms is becoming a challenge in this […]

Wrangling a Hot Mess That Magnifies Obesity

February 15, 2022 — In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s a hot mess out there. And the mess is messing with our bodies and our food systems – bringing global problems with obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Bill Dietz and Sydney Pryor tell us we need to get comfortable with the concept of syndemics. But for now, let’s just […]

A Healthy Diet Is Too Costly for Three Billion People

December 28, 2021 — The COVID-19 pandemic has caused price spikes for corn, milk, beans, and other commodities, but even before the pandemic about 3 billion people could not afford even the cheapest options for a healthy diet. Recent analysis of global food price data reveals that as of 2017, the latest available year, around 40% of the world’s […]

SNAP Catches Up with the Cost of a Healthy Basic Diet

August 16, 2021 — A century ago, the iconic image of hunger was the bread line. Today, it is the line at a food bank, swamped by demand because of the pandemic. And for more than a decade now, the SNAP program has been inadequate for providing healthy nutrition to families facing food insecurity. But today, that will change. […]

How Food Insecurity Factors into Obesity Care

March 17, 2021 — It might seem surprising, but rising food insecurity may make public health issues with obesity even worse. Even before the pandemic, declines in food security seemed to be a factor in rising obesity prevalence. But now research is emerging to suggest that food insecurity might make obesity harder to shake. A new analysis in Annals […]

A Mounting Mashup of Food Waste and Hunger

May 6, 2020 — As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, politicians discuss a quick return to normal – whatever that is. But we see many mounting mashups of wildly contradictory extremes. Perhaps none is more striking than the growing contradiction between massive food waste, insecurity, and hunger. Food Banks Overwhelmed Food banks are facing unprecedented demand for their services. […]

Do We Value the Food That Sustains Us?

January 22, 2020 — Spending five days with some of the most influential nutrition communication professionals in America has made us think. Do we value the food that sustains us? Is the low cost of food in America entirely a good thing? Why, despite that low cost, do we still have so much food insecurity? Cheap Calories Make no […]