Childhood Obesity and Food Insecurity
Obesity early in life strongly predicts obesity and risk of cardiovascular disease into adolescence and adulthood. Unfortunately, both childhood obesity and food insecurity rates continue to increase, making this a public health concern that needs to be addressed.
Childhood obesity and food insecurity rates have both increased dramatically over the past ten years. With 12 million children living in food insecure households and 14.6 million children having obesity in the United States, it is more important than ever to better understand how these two factors are related.
Although public health experts recognize obesity and food insecurity are related, referred to as the ‘Food Insecurity-Obesity Paradox’, there is not enough data to establish policies and interventions to help mitigate these issues. Paradoxically, living with food insecurity is strongly associated with the risk of developing obesity. Policies currently set in place lack data to back interventions to help mitigate these issues. For example, advising families consume higher-cost foods to manage obesity may worsen food insecurity, while providing lower-cost food options to lessen food insecurity could worsen obesity.
