Our bountiful food dilemma

America is awash in food. People from other countries who visit here or move here comment on the variety and volume of the food in our stores and the portions at our restaurants.

Then, they often like to comment on our collective obesity and tell us our food is crap.

It hits a nerve. But is it entirely deserved?

Our country has gotten fatter in the last thirty years. Since 1994, child obesity rates have doubled to nearly 20%. Nationwide, about 40% of Americans are considered obese, and another 30% considered overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I have also gotten fatter in the last thirty years. This would seem right, as my age group, those between 40 and 59, have the highest overweight and obesity rates of any other.

The world is gaining weight, too. Global obesity rates have tripled since 1975, and about 39% of adults worldwide are considered overweight and 13% are considered obese, according to the World Health Organization.

Whether worldwide, nationally, or in New Mexico, all the health experts point to the abundance of high-calorie, low-nutrition foods readily available in stores as the root of our species’ weight problem. And there is always a new bad-for-you food being raked over the coals in popular media. Thirty years ago, we had to avoid high-fat foods. Twenty years ago, it became high-carb foods.

Now, the enemy are ultra-high processed (UHP) foods, which covers nearly everything on the interior shelves of the grocery store, it would seem. We’ve watched the media campaigns over high-fructose corn syrup (“It’s just sugar,” said the serene Midwestern mother shilling for the corn producers). Now anything that’s hard to pronounce on the ingredient label is fair game.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the next round of government dietary guidelines, released every five years, may take UHP foods head on. Big Food is gearing up for a battle, noting that many of the additives that result in a UHP classification prevent food waste and keep prices low.

UHP is an imperfect term, and a can of otherwise inoffensive vegetable soup can be considered UHP if it contains added flavoring. Avoiding UHP food may well be like embracing other ubiquitous healthy food fads like buying butter that is labeled “gluten-free” or sugar that touts that it is “vegan.”

In my own household, there isn’t a lot of “true” UHP food. I like to cook real food from real ingredients. And I have the luxury of living in an area with access to a wide variety of markets - local, as well as regional and national chains – so I have a great deal of choice in fresh ingredients. And I read labels (the shorter the ingredient list, the better – and here’s a hack: the store brand often has fewer junky additives than the national brand).

Many households lack the time, resources, or the access to shop this way. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there are three entire counties in New Mexico – Catron, DeBaca, and Harding – where 100% of the population lives in a “food desert.” A food desert is defined as an area where residents are more than ten miles from a grocery store selling fresh food.

Even in urban areas of New Mexico, certain neighborhoods have become food deserts and residents that lack transportation wind up buying food at convenience stores or dollar stores – shelf-stable food that is usually high-calorie, low nutrition, or if you want to use the term, UHP.

While New Mexico’s overall obesity rates are lower than the national rates, around 32%, our Hispanic and especially our Native American populations are disproportionately impacted by obesity. Low income is also a contributor as high-calorie, low-nutrition foods tend to be cheap.

I think it’s quite ironic that as many of us head into January with fresh exercise resolutions, snappy new workout gear, and abstemious diet plans, there are also many who just can’t get to the healthy resources and food they require.

Wallis Simpson, socialite and wife to a British royal Nazi sympathizer famously quipped, “You can never be too rich or too thin.” Is it possible only the rich can truly be thin?

Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appeared regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican, she lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run one head of dog, and two of cat. She can be reached at news.ind.merritt@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Our bountiful food dilemma