Dr. Tahereh Alavi Hojjat is a professor and the Chair of Economics at DeSales University where she teaches numerous courses in economics and finance for both graduate and undergraduate levels. In addition to being a professor, Dr. Hojjat is a celebrated author, having written several books on economics. Her most recent achievement is the completion of her book “The Economics of Obesity: Poverty, Income Inequality, and Health, 2^nd edition.”

According to Hojjat, she first became interested in the issue of obesity and its link to poverty when she was developing a new course on Global Economics Issues for DeSales University. She was deep in her research, exploring a wide range of books, articles, podcasts, and even social media to better understand major global issues.

“What I found among those topics were the wealth and income inequality gaps and poverty growing in the U.S and globally. This helped me to connect the impacts of these issues on public health,” Hojjat said. “I noticed health gets worse at every step down in the social ladder, so that the poor are less healthy than those in the middle, who in turn also less healthy than those further up on the social ladder. This made me curious to look into the relationship of poverty, income inequality and health.”

Initially, Hojjat started writing a research paper on her findings. Yet when she submitted it for publication, the editor said it was too long and if certain parts were extended, it could be a book. So Hojjat was encouraged to sign a contract to write the book that became “The Economics of Obesity” she just published.

“As poverty grows, so does food insecurity and food-related diseases among consumers. Low-income families are spending larger percentages of their income on food. They are facing unequal access to healthy, affordable food and an increased risk of food insecurity and obesity,” explained Hojjat.

In comparison, higher social classes can afford better quality food that is organic and less processed, and can compensate for a sedentary lifestyle due to having access to better health information and exercise opportunities.

According to Hojjat, a lack of social cohesion is leading to lower participation in political activities like voting, serving in local government, and volunteering in political campaigns. This can affect government spending on social programs that would play a major role in subsidizing health food, providing health education, and access to health care that would address the ever-growing obesity issue.

Hojjat hopes the information presented in her book will help stress the importance of this issue to the general public, academics, and those in government.

“This was not my first book to publish, but I can certainly say writing this book was very fulfilling and personally rewarding as I had sabbatical leave and it was during the pandemic that I could not do anything just read and write,” said Hojjat. “I wanted to make this book interesting to all types of readers, not just for the academicians but for the public and policymakers to act upon.”

Read more about Dr. Tahereh Hojjat here.