Poor Fat Canada

In developing nations, obesity exists largely within a narrow class of individuals who can afford more food than they need.In the developed world, however, the relationship between wealth and body weight is turned on its head. In Canada, for example, obesity is increasingly coming to be seen as a disease of the poor. Obese children go on to become obese adults

A 2009 study in Montreal, for example, demonstrated that low-income areas have less access to quality food than their high-income equivalents. The prevalence of fast-food restaurants has been shown in other studies to be greater in low-income neighbourhoods. As well, the cost of high-quality food is generally higher than the cost of pop, chips and other high calorie snacks.For those who are poor, it is easier and cheaper to buy junk than it is to buy real food for your kids. Vendors that sell quality food are harder to find and reach, and wise food choices take a bigger chunk of your annual income in the process. Furthermore, low-income neighbourhoods don't have the same access to safe, high-quality recreation facilities that are found in their high-income counterparts. Sport in Canada is expensive, especially compared with laying out a few hundred dollars for the latest X-box.

Other developed countries have similar findings. Studies in Australia, Britain, Sweden, France and the United States have shown links between both neighbourhood and individual incomes and the risk of obesity.

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/08/13/f-taylor-poverty-obesity-children.html