Can you determine your economic status by how healthy you are?

In my opinion, the answer to this question is NO, because health is independent of socioeconomic status (SES).**

Eating well, and being conscious of your health should be a top priority in everyone’s life. If you agree with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it is easy to see how failing to satisfy the needs of good food and health will cause a major weakness in your personal pyramid.

We live in a world in which obesity has reached epidemic proportions. With more than 1 billion adults overweight (at least 300 million of them clinically obese), this extra bulk is a major contributor to the global burden of chronic disease and disability. Often coexisting in developing countries with under-nutrition, obesity is a complex condition, with serious social and psychological dimensions, affecting virtually all ages and socioeconomic groups.

We as North Americans pride ourselves on being part of the developed world and having the resources to feed our population. It is sad that the way we have chosen to feed these people is with refined corn products such as high fructose corn syrup, and meat that has been so pumped full of antibiotics that it’s slowly destroying our immune systems. Combined this with an increasingly sedentary lifestyle and it is easy to see why obesity rates are exploding across all socioeconomic levels.

Figuratively speaking, yes everyone eats, but most of them eat crap!

To get back to Brandon’s question, just as economic status doesn’t determine health, health can’t determine your economic status. It works similar to trying to judge SES by looking at the clothes someone is wearing, or the car they are driving. Almost impossible in today’s credit supported, culture of stuff.

What health can determine or at least positively affect however, is a person’s happiness.

A healthy body, fueled by good food is an excellent vehicle for fun. You will be able to take part in more experiences, not miss out due to illness, and living your life upright and able instead of overweight and in a chair.

If you are worried about how to finance your new healthy way of eating, consider this: An apple cost less than a bag of chips, water is free, and when you stop spending money on cheap carbohydrates which have little food value, and only make you feel more hungry. You will have all that money to spend on good quality protein and fats.

** In the developed world.

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