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Health & Fitness

Neighbor to Neighbor:The Importance of Food

Food insecurity is threatening the human experience. Together we can help to avert the crippling effects of hunger in our communities.

Food can often be taken for granted but it is an integral part of the human experience; it is family, culture, tradition, health, and society. Food insecurity can have devastating effects on every aspect of life for those who are suffering from it.

Tradition, food, and family are very closely linked, as most family traditions involve sharing a meal together. A family dinner is a time for families to relax, reconnect, laugh together, and catch up on each other’s day. Studies link regular family dinners with lower rates of substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and depression while increasing success in school and self-esteem. Children who share three or fewer meals per week with their families are 28% less likely to have “mostly A’s and B’s” when surveyed.

Food is unfortunately an important factor in the social identity of a family. The quantity and quality of the food that a household can afford is a sign of social status; this has been true throughout history. While considered a strange paradigm today, lower class citizens were physical laborers and often had little access to food, while being overweight was a symbol that you were wealthy and could afford luxurious food in excess. This dietary inequality is true of today's society as well; wealthier classes have the means to purchase a wide variety of healthy and fresh foods that are rich in nutrients while those of lower socioeconomic means can only budget for lower quality, processed foods.

Dietary inequality attributes to health issues seen among lower income individuals. Proper nutrition is paramount to optimal health; conversely hunger and food insecurity are associated with adverse health outcomes such as increased risk of diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and cardiovascular disease. With proper nutritional education and social programs we can make food secure for all, improving all facets of life for those who struggle putting food on their dinner tables.

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