Healthy People Objective essays

Healthy People Objective essays Healthy People 2010 Objective: Reducing childhood obesity in poor communities One of the stated goals of Healthy People 2010 is to eliminate health disparities between different socioeconomic groups. Promoting a healthy weight and increasing physical activity must be the cornerstones of any health promotion policy, particularly in light of Americas burgeoning obesity epidemic. Everyone in America, poor and rich, is growing fatter-however, the epidemic seems to be suffered by the poor in greater numbers, and the poor have fewer resources to treat the causes of obesity. The 1994-1996 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes of Individuals (CSFII) survey showed significantly higher Healthy Eating Index (HEI) scores for wealthier respondents (Martin 2005:2). Most of the currently existing literature suggests that poverty and obesity is causal as well as correlational. The poor have less access to lower-calorie, nutritious food and safe places to exercise. Poverty and disease can participate in a vicious cycle wherein each one perpetuates the other. Deprived living conditions, malnutrition, and poor access to health care can advance the progression from poverty to disease. The resultant disease can lead to more poverty via the association of disease with limited employ-ability, high health care expenses, and losses of skills and ability. This can become a tough cycle to break for the members of the next generation, who often continue to emulate their parents unhealthy lifestyle and remain in poverty (Martin 2005). The School Nutrition Program notes that nutrition and lack of exercise lead to poor concentration, lower test scores and higher rates of school absence (Childhood obesity crisis poses financial losses to schools, 2004, Busines s Wire). In America, sugary, energy-dense foods are both highly palatable and cheaper than less processed,more difficult to prepare but healthier foods like fr...

A Summary of Margaret Atwoods The Edible Woman

A Summary of Margaret Atwoods The Edible Woman The Edible Woman is the first novel by Margaret Atwood, published in 1969. It tells the story of a young woman who struggles with society, her fiancà ©, and food. It is often discussed as an early work of feminism. The protagonist of The Edible Woman is Marian, a young woman with a job in consumer marketing. After she gets engaged, she becomes unable to eat. The book explores Marian’s questions of self-identity and her relationships with others, including her fiancà ©, her friends, and a man whom she meets through her work. Among the characters is Marian’s roommate, who wants to get pregnant but surprisingly does not want to get married. Margaret Atwood’s layered, somewhat fanciful style in The Edible Woman explores themes of sexual identity and consumerism. The novel’s ideas about consumption work on a symbolic level. Is Marian unable to consume food because she is being consumed by her relationship? Additionally, The Edible Woman examines a woman’s inability to eat side by side with the unhappiness in her relationship, although it was published at a time when the psychology of eating disorders was not commonly discussed. Margaret Atwood has written dozens of books, including The Handmaid’s Tale and The Blind Assassin, which won the Booker Prize. She creates strong protagonists and is known for exploring feminist issues and other questions of contemporary society in unique ways. Margaret Atwood is one of the most prominent Canadian writers and a major figure in contemporary literature. Main Characters Clara Bates: She is a friend of Marian McAlpin. Quite pregnant with her third child as the book begins, she dropped out of college for her first pregnancy. She represents traditional motherhood and sacrifices for ones children.  Marian finds Clara rather boring and believes she needs rescuing. Joe Bates: Claras husband, a college instructor, who does quite a bit of the work at home. He stands for marriage as a way to protect women. Mrs. Bogue: Marians department head and a prototypical professional woman. Duncan: Marians love interest, very different than Peter, Marians  fiancà ©. He is not particularly attractive, not ambitious, and he pushes Marian to be real. Marian McAlpin: The protagonist, learning to cope with life and people. Millie, Lucy, and Emmy, the Office Virgins: they symbolize what is artificial in womens stereotypical roles of the 1960s Len (Leonard) Shank: A friend of Marian and Clara, a lecherous skirt-chaser according to Marian. Ainsley is trying to trick him into fathering her child, but he is the opposite of the married father, Joe Bates. Fish (Fischer) Smythe: Duncans roommate, who plays a special role near the end in Ainsleys life. Ainsley Tewce: Marians roommate, the ultra-progressive, aggressive opposite of Clara and, perhaps, also Marians opposite. She is anti-marriage at first, then switches two different kinds of moral earnestness. Trevor: Duncans roommate. Trigger: A late-marrying friend of Peters. Peter Wollander: Marians  fiancà ©, a good catch who proposes to Marian because it is a sensible thing to do. He wants to mold Marian into his idea of the perfect woman. Woman Down Below: The landlady (and her child) who represents a kind of strict moral code. Summary Marians relationships are introduced and she introduces people to each other.  Peter proposes and Marian accepts, giving over her responsibility to him, though she seems aware that is not her true self. Part 1 is told in Marians voice. Now with an impersonal narrator of the story, people shift. Marian becomes fascinated with Duncan and begins to have trouble eating food.  She also imagines her body parts are disappearing. She bakes a cake-woman for Peter, who refuses to take part in it. Ainsley teachers her how to put on a false smile and a fancy red dress. Marian shifts again, finding herself rooted again in reality and she watches Duncan eat the cake.