[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2188]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   THE PARADOX OF HUNGER AND OBESITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, in our efforts to end hunger now, it is 
important to look at all aspects of hunger. Today, I want to talk about 
hunger and obesity and to highlight the unfortunate paradox between 
these two conditions.
  How can an obese person also be food insecure? To put it bluntly, how 
can an overweight person be hungry? The question may be simple, but the 
answer is not. Unfortunately, this link is all too prevalent among 
millions of low- and middle-income people.
  The simple truth is that hunger exists because people do not have 
enough money to buy enough healthy food, but obesity is more complex. 
Just because someone has enough money to buy food doesn't mean they 
have the resources to buy nutritious food. Ultimately, this is a 
problem of poverty in America.
  The families who struggle with hunger not only struggle to put food 
on their tables, they struggle to make the food they can afford on a 
few dollars a day as nutritious as possible. For a variety of reasons, 
even well-to-do families are finding it more difficult today to prepare 
nutritious meals. A big part has to do with the amount of widely 
available, inexpensive, nonnutritious food--high-calorie, high-fat, 
low-nutrient food--and part of that has to do with the time constraints 
on families today.
  But it is even more difficult for low-income, food-insecure families 
because they generally don't have access to full-service grocery 
stores. The local stores they do have access to, for the most part, do 
not sell fresh produce, and the fresh produce they do sell is 
expensive. So in order to stretch their food dollar, these families buy 
high-calorie, low-nutrient food that is more affordable.
  Obesity, like hunger, is often a function of poverty, and low-income 
families are especially vulnerable to obesity because of the additional 
risk factors associated with poverty. When taken together, these risk 
factors make it easy to see how obesity and hunger are related.
  There are at least four general risk factors for obesity that are 
associated with poverty:
  First, low-income neighborhoods are underserved by full-service 
supermarkets. In inner cities, food is most readily available at small 
neighborhood convenience stores where fresh produce and lower-fat food 
items are most limited. In rural areas, full-service grocery stores are 
many miles away. This is commonly referred to as a food desert, 
something that can exist in both urban and rural areas;
  Second, when healthy food is available, it is oftentimes more 
expensive than less healthy options. Low-income families must stretch 
their budgets in ways that make it difficult to purchase higher priced, 
more nutritious food items. This means that these families are forced 
to buy cheaper, high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium food that lasts 
longer just so they can make their food budgets stretch through the 
month;
  Third, there are fewer opportunities for physical activity in 
neighborhoods and schools. Safe open space can be difficult to find in 
many of our neighborhoods where lower income families live, sometimes 
because of lack of parks and other times because of higher crime rates;
  Fourth, high levels of stress and limited access to health care can 
contribute to weight gain. Hunger is truly a health issue, and it is 
important to note that stress and lack of access to quality health care 
can trigger physiological responses that contribute to obesity.
  Mr. Speaker, I remind people that food is medicine. My grandmother 
used to say ``an apple a day keeps the doctor away.'' It used to annoy 
me, but she was right. We missed an opportunity during the Affordable 
Care Act to address the issues of hunger and nutrition. We must do so 
now.
  Adequate access to good, nutritious foods can help lower the 
instances of diabetes and heart disease. That will improve the quality 
of life for people, but it will also save us money from avoidable 
health care issues. Hunger costs us dearly, and the cost to fix and 
solve the problem is cheaper than the status quo.
  So to all my colleagues who believe that the only problem we face is 
the budget deficit, I urge you to join us in this effort to end hunger 
now. It is fiscally the right thing to do, and it is our moral 
obligation.
  Hunger and obesity are two sides of the same coin. Yes, we have 
excellent antihunger safety net programs like SNAP and the school meal 
programs that help reduce incidences of hunger in America; yes, the 
First Lady's Let's Move campaign is working to address obesity in 
America, primarily among children; but we must do more to address these 
two issues together. Because of all of these factors, it is clear that 
we simply cannot address hunger or obesity. We must address both of 
these issues at the same time if we are going to end hunger now. It is 
why I believe we need a White House conference on food and nutrition, a 
Presidential summit that brings all the stakeholders together, a forum 
where we can develop and agree on one strategy to reduce hunger and 
obesity together.
  In addition, I would plead with my colleagues to not cut our 
antihunger safety net programs like SNAP and WIC, programs which 
provide a minimum food benefit. To do so would only worsen the problem 
of hunger and obesity in America. We must end hunger now, but we cannot 
do so just by increasing access to high-calorie, low-nutrient food. It 
is a real challenge, but it's one that we are capable of meeting. We 
just need to muster the political will to make it happen. End hunger 
now.

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