What does this mean for the impoverished and ill?

In conclusion, we can understand health as a basic component of human capital and can thus contribute to greater and more equitably distributed wealth.

The unequal distribution of wealth contributes to many qualities that have a direct impact on health and risk for obesity, such as a lower level of education, less access to information, a lower capability to cope with risks, reduced access to health services, and a reduced possibility of engaging in healthy activities (Peña and Bacallao 2002, 241).

Improved nutrition is a means of escaping income poverty. Since the unequal distribution of income has a close relationship to health indicators, improving one’s health can contribute to reducing poverty. Improving nutrition throughout the whole life course is an indispensable strategy for better health (Peña and Bacallao 2002, 241).

Participatory poverty assessments have documented how vital health is to those living in poverty, and how ill health and income poverty continuously reinforce one another. While one's income, housing, and job tend to be of focus when health is normal, sickness can force income poverty into one's peripheral. Malnutrition interacts with health and poverty in this aspect (Heltberg, 2009).

“Health is a basic component of human capital and can thus contribute to greater and more equitably distributed wealth” (Peña and Bacallao 2002, 242).