cycle reflection on poverty and food

This cycle we tackled some interesting subjects about hunger, poverty, and access to drinking water. We looked at the polar extremes relating to food: the obesity and cardiovascular disease epidemic in the United States, and the widespread hunger in Africa and parts of Asia. We watched a variety of videos and looked at statistics form all around the world about hunger and water. In one TED talk in particular, the presenter talked about the sad cycle of poverty in the places where people are starving. She went in depth about the affects on the brain that malnutrition had. At one point she showed an image of a normal brain and the brain of a child with malnutrition. These people are being physically stunted and held back from leaving the cycle of poverty. If people don’t even have food for developing neuron connections, how can they do anything? This resonated with me because these people are being robbed of their chance to learn and to improve their current situation because they are physically stunted, and so the cycle of poverty continues. I found it absurd that people are starving in some areas of the world while others have so much surplus that they are eating their body fat to oblivion. Watching "Forks Over Knives" talked about just that, the impact the Western diet has on the body. In the documentary, they showed how arteries were getting clogged from the excess fat in the body and people were having heart attacks and strokes. It is simply unfair that such absurd inequality exists. On a lighter note, there is a lot of hope. There are many solutions to these problems, it is only a matter of enforcing these solutions and getting to work!