Posts Tagged: obesity

Obesity is linked with low earnings

Minimum-wage employees are more likely to be obese than those who earn higher wages, according to a new study by UC Davis public health researchers. The study is the latest in a growing body of evidence that shows being poor is a risk factor for unhealthy weight.

"Estimating the Effects of Wages on Obesity" was published in May 2010 in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The authors, DaeHwan Kim and John Paul Leigh, identified several possible reasons why lower wages could support the tendency to be obese:

• Poorer people tend to live in less-safe neighborhoods with reduced access to parks and other means of physical activity
  
  
• Healthy, lower-calorie foods tend to be more expensive
  
  
• Low-income families have less access to healthier foods and often have to travel greater distances than others to find healthier food options and lower cost

"The outcome leads us to believe that raising minimum wages could be part of the solution to the obesity epidemic," Leigh said.

In a news release, Leigh noted that a novel statistic technique used for the study gave the scientists a chance to evaluate an independent factor that is definitely not caused by obesity - minimum wages.

UC Davis Cooperative Extension nutrition specialist Sheri Zidenberg-Cherr said experts are aware of the higher incidence of obesity among the poor, and believe that the causal relationship may go both ways.

"We know there have been cases of discrimination against the obese seeking employment for various types of positions," Zidenberg-Cherr said. "It is also true that, for minimum-wage earners, it is easier and cheaper to buy foods that are high in fat and sugar. They may not have the access or the education to make healthy food choices."

Leigh noted that the scientists' sample for the study were 85 percent men and 90 percent Caucasian.

"Future research should address wage and obesity correlations among samples that include more African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and women," Leigh said. "Obesity is a complex problem that likely has multiple causes. The more we can pinpoint those causes for specific populations, the greater chances there are for reducing its impact."

Low wage earners are more likely to be obese.

Good food for all: L.A. tackles food policies

With a population of more than 10 million residents, Los Angeles County faces enormous challenges related to poverty and hunger. Over a million L.A. County residents face hunger or food insecurity every day, according to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. A Sept. 6 Los Angeles Times article detailed the problems faced by local food pantries, as they struggle to cope with a demand for food that’s risen by 48 percent in just two years. At the same time, with cheap fast food, and limited access to affordable healthy food, childhood obesity is an increasingly critical problem. Forty percent of middle-school age children in Los Angeles County are now classified as overweight or obese.

Local elected officials are embarking on an effort to more systematically address these issues. Last fall, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa convened a group of experts, bringing together community organizers, restauranteurs, public health experts, employers, farmers, urban gardeners and others to form the Los Angeles Food Policy Task Force. This was a short-term effort to gather information and make recommendations to the mayor and decision makers. The task force recently released a report, “The Good Food for All Agenda: Creating a New Regional Food System for Los Angeles,” outlining an ambitious plan for improving access to healthy food in Los Angeles.

The task force defined “good food” as food that is healthy, affordable, fair (meaning that all participants in the food supply chain receive fair compensation) and produced sustainably, using principles of environmental stewardship.

Some of the task force's recommendations were:

• Develop a regional food hub, which can coordinate supply and demand for local, sustainable food. (Farms in several counties were included in the definition of “local” for the Los Angeles area).
• Encourage school districts to procure sustainable, local food and provide children with higher quality lunches.
• Promote and improve participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program.
• Facilitate neighborhood food production by streamlining permits for community gardens, and expanding joint use agreements where schools offer their land for community gardens.
• Start an ongoing regional food policy council, which will include both city and county decision makers and community leaders.

While Los Angeles is just one of a number of major metropolitan areas to form a task force of this nature, it’s exciting to see the state (and nation’s) most populous county addressing food policy issues. Although Los Angeles County has a relatively small number of farms, neighboring counties, including Ventura, still have significant commercial agriculture. Policies like those recommended by the L.A. Task Force not only improve choices and healthy options for consumers, they can also lead to new markets for local farmers.

UC ANR programs, such as UC Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County, offer research-based expertise in urban gardening, nutrition education, sustainable food production and more, and serve as a resource for local policymakers and residents working to improve food access. To learn more about the L.A. Food Policy Task Force and read the Good Food for All Agenda, see http://goodfoodla.org/.

Improving access to local produce is part of the "Good Food For All" Agenda.

I’m fat. Whose fault is that?

As the workshop speaker explained that school foods are contributing to the growing epidemic of obesity among children, I slumped in my chair and flashed back to high school. At the 10:20 a.m. break, I could be found standing in line at the high school snack bar ordering a chocolate milk shake and a bag of nacho cheese Doritos. Daily.

UC Berkeley professor Michael Pollan and others argue that farm policy is to blame for our corpulence. Many reference a 2002 USDA-ERS study that shows Americans ate 12 percent more (300 calories) in 2000 than we did in 1985, and point out that the federal government subsidizes common ingredients of snack foods -- corn, wheat, soybeans and rice -- making them cheaper and more available to consumers.

But UC ag economists Julian Alston and Dan Sumner, who analyzed the links between farm policies and obesity, disagree.

"Farm prices are a small share of retail prices so even if subsidies made farm prices lower and those were passed on, they would have little retail impact," Sumner told me. "Moreover, for some important products such as dairy and sugar, farm policies raise prices."

Policies are being made to steer us toward more healthful choices. For example, soda cannot be sold in California schools. Growing up, I had unlimited access to soda. As an adult, I eschew soda. It’s hard to say whether my beverage preference changed due to education or just being a finicky eater, but informing consumers can influence their food choices.

The new law mandating publishing calories on menus has had a modest effect on purchases, but over the course of a year, could prevent a person from gaining 4 to 8 pounds, said Gail Woodward-Lopez, co-director of the Center for Weight and Health at UC Berkeley.

Lucia Kaiser, UC Davis nutrition specialist, reports that low-income consumers will buy fresh fruits and vegetables if given an incentive. In a Los Angeles pilot project, mothers were given $40 to buy fruits and vegetables. The study found that 6 months later, the women continued to consume more fresh produce.

Virtually all children attending public schools are offered school lunches. Many California schools have begun farm-to-school programs, working with local farmers to offer students fresh salad bars. Past UC studies have shown that students given a choice of fresh fruits and vegetables will eat them.

“Uniting policy with education is the way to go,” says Woodward-Lopez.

Despite my steady diet of junk food as a youth, my weight didn’t expand into triple digits until my mid-30s. Now I exercise, avoid chips and shakes and eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, but have become fat. Whose fault is that?

Presentations made by Alston, Woodward-Lopez, Kaiser and others at the Farm and Food Policy and Obesity workshop are posted at http://aic.ucdavis.edu/obesity/index.htm.

SchoolCrunchLunch

Food: friend or foe?

Healthy eating has gotten complicated. Fresh fruits and vegetables pack the produce aisle as never before. And new food products with added health benefits are being introduced all the time. Yet the food supply, and the agricultural system that supports it, has become increasingly criticized for its impact on the waistlines of millions of people in the United States.

“Agriculture and conventional food systems have provided the basis for long and healthy lives, and much of that improvement can be traced to healthier diets,” says UC Davis plant sciences professor Alan Bennett. “At the same time, we are faced with a growing critique that conventional food systems are a significant contributor to the health crisis that developed countries are facing, particularly related to obesity and diabetes.”

This dichotomy — that agriculture is both the problem and the solution to an increasing health crisis — is the backdrop for the 22^nd annual conference of the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council (NABC) at UC Davis June 16-18. The conference, “Promoting Health by Linking Agriculture, Food and Nutrition,” will examine ongoing research strategies to promote health through food and diet, as well as how governmental regulatory systems provide oversight of the relationship between food and health.

Leading food, nutrition and agricultural scientists from around the country will be participating in sessions with topics such as designing and producing healthy food, social and cultural dimensions of eating habits, bringing nutrition science to regulations, and how business can find food and nutrition innovations.

NABC has been hosting annual public meetings about the safe, ethical and efficacious development of agricultural biotechnology products since its formation in 1988 by the Boyce Thompson Institute in collaboration with UC Davis, Cornell University and Iowa State University. Today the organization consists of 36 leading agricultural research and teaching universities, governmental agencies and institutions in the U.S. and Canada.

“With health care consuming so much of the developed world’s resources, there is a critical need to understand how diet, nutrition and the underlying agricultural production systems impact human health,” Bennett said.

More detail about the conference agenda, program speakers and online registration is at http://nabc.ucdavis.edu/.

Changing East LA one corner store at a time

In October 2009, UC Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County was awarded a grant from the “UCLA REACH U.S. Legacy Project” to implement the “East Los Angeles Nutrition Project” - an exciting new initiative that aims to increase the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables for residents of East LA through healthy corner store and restaurant “makeovers.”  East LA was chosen for this project not only because Cooperative Extension is located in this area and has strong ties to the community, but also because residents have poor access to healthy, affordable food. This predominantly low-income, Latino community has many fast food restaurants, few grocery stores with high quality fruits and vegetables, and one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the county.

Through the eyes of the community

A team of dedicated East LA residents have met monthly at the UCCE office to discuss what they would like to see in terms of healthy food offerings in their neighborhood. In order to make their voices heard, these residents were given cameras and asked to go out and document their food environment. The photographs and narrative descriptions were presented at a community event, which was hosted by Cooperative Extension. Local residents, business owners, community agencies, youth and representatives of elected officials attended the event. The photos were a depiction of the problems facing this community. Everyone agreed that something needs to be done to improve the availability of healthy, affordable food for local residents and to address nutrition-related health problems facing many families in East LA.

Putting it into action

On Saturday, May 8, Cooperative Extension staff and members of the “East Los Angeles Nutrition Project” met at Super Chavez, a locally owned corner store, to conduct recipe demonstrations and free food tastings for the public. The purpose was to draw attention to the high-quality, low-cost produce available in the store. The event was fun and well-received by the community. Cooperative Extension plans to hold similar events at food establishments throughout the East LA area. Staff members hope to provide technical assistance, nutrition expertise and free advertising opportunities to businesses who participate in this project – all in an attempt to bring lasting change to a community in need of a healthy makeover one corner store and restaurant at a time!

For more information about this project, please contact Los Angeles County Nutrition, Family & Consumer Sciences advisor Brenda Roche at bkroche@ucdavis.edu, (323) 260-3299.

Super Chavez food demo

Local residents learn about the "East Los Angeles Nutrition Project" from project facilitator Aba Ramirez.

Read more