The Paradox of Being Hungry and Fat
July 30 -- When unemployed, poor and homeless women come to work out at the Healthworks Foundation Fitness Center in Boston's rough Dorchester section, many will climb treadmills for the first time.
The nonprofit gym's 800 members are likely to be overweight or obese when they sign up, and few know the basics of good nutrition. At Healthworks, they can work up a sweat in a safe environment and learn healthy eating habits from registered dietitians — all for free.
It's a luxury few low-income Americans can enjoy.
"In many cases, it's the first time they ever had an opportunity to exercise in their lives and eat healthfully," says Maria Shea, corporate fitness director of Healthworks Fitness Centers for Women. "Some of them are just trying to find a way to work and support children, and [they] have very hard lives."
Indeed, America's poor find themselves at the intersection of two serious public health problems. Hunger and food insecurity affect more than 30 million people, including 13 million children. And the epidemic of fat, which affects two-thirds of all Americans regardless of income, has not spared even those households with little money to spend on food.
Researchers are just beginning to understand the paradox that allows hunger and obesity to exist in the same household — and even the same individual. A report issued this month by the Waltham, Mass.-based Center on Hunger and Poverty tries to explain the confusing coexistence.
For some poor families, the need to stretch food dollars could lead to weight gain, experts say. Those with limited funds often turn to cheap but high-caloric foods, or settle for high quantities of food rather than nutritional quality.
"For low-income people, the economic decision that goes into purchasing food is an important one and one that makes sense from an economic point of view," says Ashley Sullivan, program director of the Food Security Institute of the Center on Hunger and Poverty, "but doesn't make as much sense when looked at from a nutritional point of view."
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