Changing the Social Determinants of Health

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Assignment #3: Changing the Social Determinants of Health Week 5: What are some negative effects of industrial production on our food supply? How does our social location affect our access to good food? Industrialized food production in today’s society poses many risks to the average consumer. Manufacturers of illness are constantly producing synthetic and processed foods that are entering our bodies and having affects on morbidity and mortality rates (Abramson, 2012). These processed foods are made increasingly convenient to those that are living a busy lifestyle and in low income areas as they are easily obtainable and make healthier foods scarcely available. Our social location, a result of our income, affects the availability of healthy foods and clean water. Low income areas have more access to cheaper and easily accessible processed foods. Nutritional implications are caused by consumption of these foods such as cardiac problems, diabetes or malnutrition (McIntyre & Rondeau, 2009). Food is a daily necessity worldwide and our contaminated food supply continues to grow as it poses many of these health risks. Organic fresh food availability is vital in order to preserve healthy living. Social movements such as Canadian Biotechnology Action Network are available to protest against genetically modified food production. The Toronto Mobile Food Market and Canadian Association of Food Banks provide healthy fresh foods to low income areas and are incremental steps taken to solve the issue locally. Week 6: How does inadequate housing negatively impact our health? What other aspects of our surroundings should we consider? Adequate shelter is a necessity to safe and healthy living however many Canadians are finding i... ... middle of paper ... ...phael (ed.) Social Determinants of Health—Second Edition (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press) pp. 114-124 Smylie, Janet (2009) Chapter nineteen—The health of Aboriginal peoples, in Dennis Raphael (ed.) Social Determinants of Health—Second Edition (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press) pp. 280-301 Tremblay, D-G (2009) Chapter five—Precarious work and the labour market, in Dennis Raphael (ed.) Social Determinants of Health—Second Edition (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press) pp. 75-87 Vancoe, C., Pauly, B., & Lailberte, S. (2011) Chapter seventeen—Intersectionality justice, and influencing policy, in Olena Hankivsky (ed.) Health Inequities in Canada: Intersectional Frameworks and Practices (Vancouver: UBC Press) pp. 331-348 Welcome to the City of Toronto website. (n.d.). Housing & Homelessness Services. Retrieved December 2, 2013, from http://www.toronto.ca/housing/

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