RESEARCH
To show why people in our community eat a lot of fast food and make bad food choices, we compiled a list of statistics that prove how income and food options are the reasons that lead up to the choices that people made.
Statistics on obesity and overweight americans
top reasons for eating unhealthy according to huffington post:
- 33.33% of americans are considered to be overweight
- 18.2% ARE CONSIDERED TO BE OBESE
- Nearly 45% of children living in poverty are overweight or obese compared with 22% of children living in households with incomes four times the poverty level.
- Overweight adolescents have a 70% chance of becoming overweight or obese adults
- In 2008, an estimated 49.1 million people, including 16.7 million children, experienced food insecurity (limited availability to safe and nutritionally adequate foods) multiple times throughout the year.
- Empty calories from added sugars and solid fats contribute to 40% of total daily calories for 2–18 year olds and half of these empty calories come from six sources: soda, fruit drinks, dairy desserts, grain desserts, pizza, and whole milk
- US adults consume an average of 3,400 mg/day [of sodium], well above the current federal guideline of less than 2,300 mg daily.
top reasons for eating unhealthy according to huffington post:
- Eating healthful foods is too expensive.
- Social settings are too tempting.
- I don't have time to prepare healthy meals.
- My family prefers less healthy meals.
- I'm not sure which foods are healthy.
- Unhealthy habits are too hard to change.
- stress causes me to eat mindlessly
- does not satisfy appetite
Our survey responses:
Most people who took the survey we created were teens and yound adults. 82.4% agreed that schools offered healthy options. Though many agree that they have unhealthy eating habits, they are willing to become healthier and change.