Last updated: Wednesday 15 August 2001
NATIONAL NEWS
Statistics Canada says 2.5 million Canadians eat poorly due to money
worries
TORONTO (CP) - About three million Canadians - many of them children - are
considered "food insecure" because of money worries, a Statistics Canada
study suggests.
In a re****t released Wednesday, the agency said almost 2.5 million
Canadians
had to compromise the quality or the quantity of their diet at least once
during the year because of lack of money. The National Population Health
Survey, which looked at the period 1998-99, also found that half a million
people worried they would not have enough to eat because they were short
on
cash.
Children up to age 17 were most likely to live in a food-insecure
household.
Seniors 65 or older were the least likely.
But children in such households are not necessarily undernourished,
StatsCan
said. "Adult caregivers tend to sacrifice their own diet so that children
will not be hungry."
The survey considered households to be "food insecure" if a respondent
acknowledged any of three cir***stances stemming from a lack of money:
worry
that funds would be insufficient to buy food; not eating the quality or
variety of food desired; or not having enough to eat.
"In general, households with food insecurity have limited or uncertain
access to enough food for a healthy, active life," the agency said in its
re****t. "These households have reduced quality and variety of meals and
may
have irregular food intake. There may be a need for recourse to emergency
food sources or to other services to meet basic food needs."
In fact, the agency found that about one-fifth of individuals in food
insecure households received help from food banks, soup kitchens or other
charitable agencies in the year prior to the survey.
More than one third of people in low-income households - with family
earnings of less than $20,000 per year - re****ted some form of food
insecurity in 1998-99. About 30 per cent said their diet had been
compromised.
But the survey found food insecurity is not limited to low-income
households. About 14 per cent of residents of middle-income households
re****ted some form of food insecurity and nearly 12 per cent re****ted
their
diet had been compromised.
Almost one-third of single-mother households were food insecure to some
extent, and 28 per cent re****ted their diet had been compromised,
The survey shows several health problems were more prevalent among people
with less than adequate food. Seventeen per cent of Canadians in
food-insecure homes described their health as fair or poor. Almost one
third
re****ted emotional distress.
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