Apr. 29--There's no doubt that child obesity is linked to the area's high poverty rate, says a Pueblo professional who works with families.
Lois Illick, Colorado State University Extension agent for family and consumer sciences, says there are several reasons why low-income families may have overweight children: the cost of healthy food; the education to understand that some foods can be made healthier by preparing them from scratch, and the ability to read product labels; a lack of accessibility -- including transportation -- to grocery stores that carry a wider variety of foods and more healthful foods than convenience stores; a lack of time, if the food provider is juggling more than one job to make ends meet; a lack of something as basic as a freezer to store foods bought on sale or nutritious meals prepared in advance.
More than 20 percent of Pueblo County children live in poverty, according to the 2010 Kids Count in Colorado. And Colorado children living in poverty are two to three times as likely to be overweight than children in higher-income families, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Hispanic and black children are more likely than white or Asian children to be overweight and less likely to have health insurance, states the 2007 report, "Childhood Obesity in Colorado: A Growing Problem," compiled by the Colorado Children's Campaign.
"Poverty is an issue here, yes," Illick says. "Take what we used to call 'latchkey kids': The safest thing for a child to do at home after school may be to play Nintendo, and to make an easy meal in the microwave, say chicken nuggets. Five nuggets is a serving but a hungry child probably won't stop at five, and probably won't take the time to make a salad instead."
Illick says most people will say cheaper food is high in calories, and that's true. Fruits and vegetables have higher overhead costs in the winter and there are spoilage issues. High-calorie processed foods can be stored longer.
"It's easier to fill the pantry with processed foods," she says. "You get the calories but not the nutrition, and you may not get the satiety -- the feeling of being full and satisfied -- without the fiber. Processed foods don't have a lot of fiber.
"A product package may say it has fiber, but it's advertising's job to catch the consumer, and the consumer's job to figure out the 'catches.' "
A consumer with some education in label reading can understand the nutritive value of a product and can realize that he or she could use food dollars to buy a popular canned spaghetti or could buy canned tomatoes and dry pasta and make their own.
Even a consumer shopping in a convenience store, with the benefit of some education, could buy a dozen eggs and get lots more nutrition for the price than highly processed snack food, Illick says.
But people living in poverty often haven't had the benefit of educational opportunities, she says.
Illick says it's easy to judge people who are overweight and easy to shake one's head about the food choices made by a low-income shopper, but it's important to remember there are many factors influencing obesity.
"There's stress-related eating; we can't know the kind of stress that person is in. Or maybe they have an eating disorder. We have to eat to live, and dealing with food addiction is extremely difficult. If people don't learn as children to eat well, they have a hard time as an adult. Before they get to school is the time those (eating) habits are being formed."
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