4 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
4 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
[[Health Week 4]]
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1. I read the article from CNN about how retailers have been lowering consumer prices after raising them to much over time. Retailers are always trying to earn the most money from consumers, and to do this they often raise prices as high as they can while consumers are still willing to pay. With the recent economic downturn and much less people having discretionary money to spend on things like extra clothing and furniture, retailers have realized that they might have raised prices too much. Many companies, including Ikea, Walmart and Michaels are lowering their prices in an attempt to bring consumers back into their stores to spend money. This didn't directly mention food insecurity, but it does mention that not only are the lower and middle classes spending less, but so are the higher classes. If even the higher classes aren't spending as much on discretionary purchases, the lower and middle classes are likely struggling to put food on the table and have enough to eat every day.
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2. I was assigned the state of Alabama. In Alabama, there are 896,510 food insecure people which make up 17.5% of the population. 52% of the population of Alabama is also above the SNAP threshold. Overall, this wasn't too surprising to me since the statistics from Alabama are pretty similar to the national average, and especially similar to states around Alabama. the national average percentage of food insecurity is about 3% lower than Alabama's though, so they do have a higher percentage of people that are not able to get enough food. Compared to states in the North like Minnesota and North Dakota, Alabama does have a much higher food insecurity rate, although there are other states like Arkansas and Oklahoma that are even higher than Alabama.
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3. I am pretty lucky, since there is a grocery store a few blocks from where I live. This makes it a pretty easy 5 minute walk and I will often go there to pick up something we are missing for dinner or another meal. While it doesn't have the best variety of foods, it still does have some fresh produce and will usually have what we are looking for. For my diet, I try not to eat too many processed foods and minimize the number of microwaved or pre-made meals. I also try to eat fruits or vegetables with every meal to ensure that I am getting the nutrients that I need. There are definitely still areas for improvement though, and making sure that I get enough of each of the food groups would help to make my diet better. |