Skipped Meals and Gambling
by Jerry "Jet" Whittaker
March 04, 2006
Meals:
Food
insecure without hunger includes affirmative responses
to anxiety about having adequate money or food to feed
the family and perceptions that the food eaten by adults
or children was inadequate in quality or quantity.
Cutting down on the size of the meal, eating less than
you felt you should, not eating for a whole day and
being hungry because there wasn't enough money for food
are the most severe condition. The frequency of
occurrence of these conditions or behaviors provides
additional insight into the severity of food insecurity.
At least half of families reported they often worried
about being able to afford enough food, often ran out of
money to buy food and often relied on few kinds of
low-cost foods to feed their children. The more severe
conditions, such as adults cutting the size of their
meals or skipping meals, affected one third of families
almost every month and 18% of adults reported not eating
for a whole day almost every month because they were
unable to afford enough food. In 24% of families,
children skipped meals almost every month because there
was not enough money for food. Food insecure with hunger
refers to the more severe items on the child scale,
namely skipping meals
because there wasn’t enough money for food, doing so at
in least three months in the past year, going hungry and
not eating for a whole day.
Gambling:
There are a number of ways to gamble.
-
Buying lottery and
raffle tickets
-
Betting on sports
events, horse races.
-
Using slot machines,
playing craps and blackjack
For most people, gambling
is a social event done for recreation. It is often done
with family or friends and lasts a limited time. An
acceptable amount of money that can be lost is decided
upon ahead of time and is adhered to. In this case,
gambling doesn’t control the person’s behaviors. For as
much as 1-3% of all adults, though, gambling can be a
real problem. When gambling is constant and disrupts a
person’s life, it is called pathological gambling. This
type of gambling usually begins in the early teen years
for males and later in life for females. It may follow
years of social gambling, but then may be set into
motion by a stressful event or greater exposure to
gambling.
A pathological gambler becomes addicted to gambling:
-
Abuses alcohol or
drugs.
-
Sleeps poorly
-
Is prone to stress
related conditions, such as high blood pressure,
peptic ulcers, headaches and mood disorders.
-
Have thoughts about
suicide.
-
Gambles constantly
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