Mapping Obesity

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The Interdisciplinary studies program hosted its second annual Contours of Knowledge conference on Friday, Dec. 3. Students presented various projects from mapping social trends in obesity to mapping identity in memories and mapping a fictitious world.

Alisha Giles, a senior, presented to a room of about 100 students, teachers and guests the correlations between poverty and obesity in America. Part of her presentation included a map of the United States made up of green, yellow and red Jell-O. The color of the Jell-O represented poverty while the heighth represented obesity.

Texas was one of the states that showed a high rate of both poverty and obesity on the Jell-O map.

Giles grew up in a family with healthy eating habits and said she believes unhealthy eating is a choice.

“I then got married, got poor and only could buy cheap unhealthy food,” Giles said. “The key is getting enough food storage on your shelf to make healthy foods.”