XPost: can.adiac.gen, can.arts.sf 
 From: istjohn@noemail.usa 
  
 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 report 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 circumstances 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 
 report. "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 - reported 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 
 reported some form of food insecurity and nearly 12 per cent reported their 
 diet had been compromised. 
  
 Almost one-third of single-mother households were food insecure to some 
 extent, and 28 per cent reported 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 
 reported emotional distress. 
  
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