What often happens in poverty-stricken families is a hunger bingeing cycle that follows the economic conditions in the household. When resources come in, people buy cheap, abundant calories in the form of junk and processed foods that fill them up and stave off hunger. This leads to rapid fat storage a common biological effect after a period of lower calorie intake or hunger. This is simply how human metabolism works.
When calories are scarce, metabolism slows down and muscle is lost. As a result, the blood sugar imbalances that drive the process of insulin resistance and lead to pre-diabetes and diabetes worsens, and soon people are caught in a recurrent pattern of bingeing on nutrient-poor calories once resources are again available.
Certainly, people can learn to eat better for less as I pointed out in my recent blog on the topic, and doing so is an essential part of what needs to happen to break out of this cycle of poverty and disease, as I will discuss more below. That said, breaking the hunger-binge cycle is easier said than done. Bingeing after food scarcity and the increased fat accumulation and insulin resistance that come along with it are hard-wired biological mechanisms to prevent us from starvation. Once you have diabetes, engaging in this cycle makes blood sugar control that much more difficult, leads to the swings of high and low sugar that drive health problems, and their related costs.
Diabetics without access to adequate food have five times as many doctor visits as diabetics who have enough to eat on a regular basis. The burden this creates in families already struggling to stay afloat is unspeakable. It is as they are caught in a Grecian hell pushing the boulder of economic burden up a hill, they will never see the top of, reaching for fruit that grows ever further from their reach.
We need to rethink how and what we feed our nation or the epidemics of disease and obesity will consume us. In Haiti, one in two people worry about where their next meal will come from. In America, it is one in 10. In order to shift this we need a bold new vision and initiatives that can change our food culture and food availability.
Here are a few initiatives and ideas that may help shift this frightening tide of poverty and disease:
Stop or reduce subsidies of agriculture products that allow for the glut of cheap, high-calorie, nutrient-poor sugars and fats from corn and soy into the marketplace.
Consider taxing sugar and processed food to support national food programs and community projects, and help cover the hundreds of billions of dollars of health care costs from increasing obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Fund community-based initiatives to support healthy eating including community kitchens, gardens, and cooking classes that teach how to make good food cheaply. This is part of the new health care bill, and on the agenda of the new Council on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health.
Make school lunches healthy by providing only real food and modeling healthy eating. Food can be both funs for you and good for you. Create national standards based on sound 21st century nutritional science and common sense. Most schools have only a microwave or deep fryer, hardly the tools needed to feed our children real, fresh food.
Expand the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formerly the Food Stamp Program. Increasing eligibility, helping those who are not aware they are eligible enroll, and creating new programs that support consumption of more healthful foods could shift the tide of the widening socioeconomic disparities in chronic disease. You should not be able to buy chips and soda with food stamps. By Mark Hyman, MD
Friday, January 3, 2014
How the Biology of Starvation Contributes to Disease
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