weightloss vs hunger

I once read that the amount of money spent on dieting and weightloss products could actually stop world hunger. Of course this is just a figure and doesn't factor in the political and logistical issues regarding stopping world hunger, but it got me thinking.

Then I stumbled across the Stop the Hunger website, which goes a step further into comparing dieting and world hunger. The page is a constant stream of live stats regarding the world population, the number of undernourished people, the number of overweight people, etc. What is perhaps most astonishing is the comparison of the dollars spent on weight-loss programs in the USA today (~$97m) and the cost of feeding the hungry today (~$18m).

In Australia, it is estimated that people will spend $827m on counselling services, low-calorie foods and shakes, diet cookbooks, weight loss guides, dietary supplements and surgery in an effort to lose weight throughout 2012-13.

Now I'm not saying that all of this is a waste of money, but surely someone is trying to link the money spent by the overweight with the needs of the hungry. (Although I imagine that there are plenty of people in the healthy weight range that also spend money on diet products.)

A short google search later and I find out that Zumba started a Great Calorie Drive. Basically, you use the Zumba Fitness app to donate the calories you have burned to people struggling with hunger (through The United Nations World Food Programme).

Unfortunately, this seems limited to calories burned in Zumba classes exclusively.

There are a few bloggers that have encouraged people to eat one bowl of rice for one day (per year) and donate the money they would have spent on food or encouraged people to donate a pound of food for each pound of weight they lose (which seems based on a similar promotion by Subway).

Of course there are other initiatives aimed at reducing hunger, such as Outnumber hunger and P4P, but this is unrelated to the weight loss industry.

I am most interested in turning dollars that would be spent on weight-loss programs or unused gym memberships into dollars for the hungry.

Does anyone know of anything like this in the market already?

- Dani

just another mind-numbing, spirit-crushingly boring young person

Let me digress from my transformation journey for a moment. There are a plethora of thoughts running through my head and I need get them out, or at least make them seem orderly. So I hope you will bear with me or ignore me, either is fine.

This is my response to an opinion article recently published in the Sydney Morning Herald.

***

Alecia Simmonds' article describes Gen Y as being "nauseatingly conservative", that they are more concerned with money and "duck-faced photos of themselves on Instagram" than real issues. And to a degree, she is right. But then I think about people I know and, hmm... all of them, regardless of age, are concerned with money and it certainly isn't just the youth flogging Instagram with 'selfies'.

What strikes me as so blatantly ridiculous, is that Alecia appears to be basing her analysis on a lack of student protests. Yes, you read right. The archaic, less than useful act of congregating as a group to 'take a stand' in the hope that public action will lead to further action.

Oh and clearly the Gen Y participants in the recent union protests don't count. (Not that these protests have particularly achieved a lot.)

Perhaps dear Alecia has not realised that Gen Y have decided to approach social change with actions and tools more suited to our contemporary society. It is not that we don't care. We have gotten business savvy and don't mix our drive for change with the need for a sense of belonging. (Read into that what you will.)

Is outrage for the sake of outrage really preferred? Would people rather today's youth just jumped on the bandwagon for whichever agenda was popular in that moment? And if engaging in public protests is the only measure by which we can be deemed to have spirit. Then maybe the word 'spirit' requires a new definition.

I personally know young men and women that are campaigning for change either through fundraising (e.g., to establish a community learning centre in Mto Wa Mbu, Tanzania) or establishing businesses (e.g., a bar sourcing products from developing countries and feeding profits into development projects in those countries).

These people don't spend hours painting large pieces of cardboard or create chants. These people aren't expecting someone else to action change. These people, these young people, are changing the world themselves.

Subtlety might not win you any awards in Alecia's book, but genuine passion and drive to change is what really counts - no matter how you dress it up.

- Dani