Monday, November 24, 2014
Insecure
5:25 PM | 
Posted by
Kaplan Center for Health and Wellness
I was at a community get
together last Thursday and we were talking about passion. We were going around
and telling everyone about our passion in life. People had lots of really great
passions from horse-back riding to helping the elderly with activities of daily
living. My passion is insecurity.
What does it mean to be insecure?
Insecure, according to Oxford
dictionary (n.d.) means, if talking about a ‘thing’: “not firm or set; unsafe.”
If talking about a person it means “not confident or assured; uncertain and
anxious.”
Are you insecure?
I am not talking about those general
feelings of being uncertain if you look okay; if you said the right thing at
the meeting or if someone doesn’t like you.
I am talking about being food insecure.
Do you know what it is to be food insecure?
The USDA (2014) categorizes food
insecurity into two different domains. Someone is said to have low
food security if they have “reports of reduced quality, variety or desirability
of diet with little or no indication of reduced food intake”. At the more
severe level, very low food security is when there are “multiple
indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake” (USDA, 2014).
What does this all mean? How does it translate into
real life?
Food insecurity is not the
same thing as hunger – although it can result in hunger. Food insecurity is more about what happens when there is
uncertainty, anxiety and worry that comes as a result of not knowing where your
next meal is coming from. According to
the USDA (2014), over 80% of US household adults who were classified as food
insecure could not afford a balanced meal and were worried their food would run
out. Over 60% of US household adults were hungry but did not eat and when they
did, they ate less than they felt they should. And perhaps the cruelest irony
is that food insecurity results in a greater risk of obesity than food security
(Food Research and Action Center, 2010).
Of course there are nutrition
and health lessons to be learned here, but I want to encourage you to take the
first step. Not as a health professional, but as a caring human being. Pay
attention to the food and nutrition needs of your community. Support your local
foods banks. When they say they need food, they really do. Finally, if you find
yourself fitting into the category of being food insecure, seek out your local
resources to see who can help you get a little more stability in your diet.
So, let’s all take time this week to be thankful for what we have and
share whatever we can with whomever we can!
Emily
Insecure. (n.d.) In Oxford English Dictionary Online, Retrieved
November 24, 2014, from http://www.oed.com/search?searchType=dictionary&q=insecure&_searchBtn=Search.
United States Department of Agriculture. (September 3, 2014). Definitions
of Food Security. Retrieved from http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/definitions-of-food-security.aspx.
Food Research and Action Center. (2010). Why
Low-income and Food Insecure People are Vulnerable to Overweight and Obesity.
Retrieved from http://frac.org/initiatives/hunger-and-obesity/why-are-low-income-and-food-insecure-people-vulnerable-to-obesity/.
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