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“Food systems are the foundation of human health and wellbeing.” Adriana Keating (2013) being a healthy individual depends hugely on the nutrition we consume. Food insecurity is the degree to which a person is able to access nutritious food. When there is stress connected to attaining the next meal or it is a constant difficulty to budget for healthy fresh food this can be described as being food insecure. Adriana Keating (2013) Food insecurity is influenced by many factors, such as geographic location, economic status and education level. Adriana Keating (2013)
The link between low socio-economic status and food insecurity as well as the link between low socio-economic status and obesity will be discussed in the essay. Rising obesity in Australia is a complex issue and this essay will not attempt to look at all possible causes, instead it will focus on how food insecurity, caused by low socio-economic status (not specific to rural areas), effects obesity in Australia.
For many reasons, including factors such as ill health, disability, sudden job loss, and high living
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Dixon (2010). The evolving obesity epidemic is taking a considerable toll on those affected, health services, and on our communities, John B. Dixon (2010). These health issues are so present in Australia that, “the total annual direct cost of overweight and obesity in Australia in 2005 was $21 billion” Colagiuri, S., et al (2010). The health risks associated with obesity need long term management and hence are very costly. Seeing such an impact from an easily avoidable condition (staying a healthy weight) can only indicate that the obesity epidemic is much harder to combat and control than first assumed, especially within low socio-economic status individuals and the food
“63% of Australian adults were overweight or obese in 2011–12, 70% of men and 56% of women. This has increased from 57% in 1995.
Pan, L., Sherry, B., Njai, R., & Blanck, H. M. (2012). Food Insecurity Is Associated with Obesity among US Adults in 12 States. Journal Of The Academy Of Nutrition & Dietetics, 112(9), 1403-1409. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2012.06.011
Obesity is becoming a major health problem in developing countries like Australia, North America, Europe and other developing nations. The Australian Diabetes, obesity and life style study (AUSDIAB) predicts the changes in glucose indices; health behaviour and incidence of diabetes in 5 year follow up experiments among 5842 participants (Barr et al., 2007). This study suggests that a large number of Australians suffered mortality due to cardiovascular diseases associated with abnormal glucose metabolism every year. The Framingham Heart Study revealed that hypertension, diabetes and left ventricular remodelling lead to the development of congestive heart failure (Levy et al., 1996). The Framingham Heart Study also found that a 5% increase in weight increases the chance of hypertension by 30% over a four-year period of time. An increased sympathetic activity, impaired renin-angiotensin system, retention of fluid volume, peripheral vasoconstriction, dyslipidaemia, increased blood viscosity due to the increased haematocrit and fibrinogen may increase pressure overload on heart in obesity (Schunkert, 2002). Several studies also suggest that the cause of hypertension itself may contribute to left ventricular hypertrophy in obese individuals as the increase of BMI increases the chance of hypertension (De Simone et al., 1994; Avelar et al., 2007). High dietary fat intake increases the expression of angiotensin IB(AT1B) and Endothelin A (ETA) receptors (Neilsen et al., 2004; Zhang et al., 2005). Plasma concentrations of angiotensin II and endothelin 1 (physiological vasoconstrictor agents) were increased in both obese patients and animal models (Barton et al., 2000; Neilsen et al., 2004; Zhang et al., 2005). Recent studies have shown that reduced synthesis of nitric oxide (NO; a major vasodilator) from L-arginine in endothelial cells is a major factor contributing to the impaired action of insulin in the vasculature of obese and diabetic subjects. Obesity results from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. Growing evidence suggests that arginine plays an important role in regulating metabolism of energy substrates in mammals (Frank et al. 2007; Jobgen et al. 2006). NO is synthesized from L-arginine by NO synthase. As a signalling molecule, physiological levels of NO stimulate glucose uptake, as well as glucose and fatty-acid oxidation in skeletal muscle, heart, liver, and adipose tissues (Jobgen et al. 2006). Nitric oxide also inhibits the synthesis of glucose, glycogen and lipid in liver and adipose tissues and enhances lipolysis in subcutaneous adipocytes (Jobgen et al.
Over the last 30 years, overweight and obesity prevalence has stirred up in Australia. The condition is not just bound among men and women but child obesity cases are rising too. The factors influencing the rise in the condition are unhealthy food habits & lifestyle, rise in fast food junctions, socioeconomic status, education, race/ethnicity, and inherited hunger gene, lack of exercise and immigrant population. Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics (based on self-reported height and weight) from the 2011–12 Australian Health Survey to calculate BMI reported nearly 63% of Australian adults are overweight or obese (1), which was 61% in the year 2007-08 (2). This means 2 out of 3 were obese or overweight. Former chair of the National Preventative Health Taskforce, Professor Rob Moodie has stated that obesity rates in Australia will dramatically worsen as other health priority
"Treating Obesity Vital For Public Health, Physicians Say." Science Daily. 2006. Web. 10 May 2014. .
Overweight and obesity problem is becoming more and more serious in Australia. Not only Australians but also the world’s problem obesity is studied as one of the main causes of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and some cancers and sleep apnoea as well as other serious conditions, which put national economies and individual lives at risk. Obesity is also regarded as epidemic. Obesity is caused by a calorific imbalance between diet intake and consumed calories. Obesity has become the biggest threat to Public Health in Australia shown by Australia Bureau of Statistics (2013). Also, the prevalence of obesity is predicted as the ratio of obesity in adults and children will be doubled by 2025 (Backholer et al.2012). It is believed that this phenomenon is happening due to many social determinants of health, which have a strong negative impact on not only individuals but also society and economy. (Wilkinson and Marmot 2003) The social determinants of health are explained as conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age by WHO (Wilkinson & Marmot 2013). Different circumstances can be formed depending on their finance, power and global resources. These social determinants seem to be responsible for health inequities, which seem to be unfair and avoidable. Social determinants of health including social gradient, high calorie food intake, excessive amounts of stress and poor early life care are the relevant factors to contribute to be or being obesity. It is important to understand that the correlation of social determinants of health and obesity to manage the health problems and enhance public’s health.
Poverty is regarded as the major cause of food insecurity. A household food security depends on access to food. America has access to good healthy food. However, a family too poor to buy them do not enjoy food security. Rosenbaum and Neuberger (2005) report that each year the number of people using government food assistance programs grows. “Food stamps are targeted to those with the greatest need for help in purchasing food… [and] helps to lessen the extent and severity of poverty (Rosenbaum and Neuberger 2005)”.
Since 1970, the obesity rates in America have more than doubled. Currently two-thirds of (roughly 150 million) adults in the United States are either overweight, or obese (Food Research and Action Center). According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “overweight is defined as a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25 whereas obesity is defined as a BMI greater than 30.” There are numerous factors that contribute to obesity such as: biological, behavioral and cultural influences (Food Research and Action Center). While these factors all have a large role in obesity, there is no factor with as great of an influence as poverty.
Obesity is a physiological condition characterised by an excessive accumulation of body fat, specifically the build-up of adipose tissue beneath the skin. In recent years, the number of people diagnosed with clinical obesity has increased dramatically, with governments desperately trying to tackle the obesity epidemic and its associated consequences (McLannahan and Clifton, 2008). Studies have found that the prevalence of obesity once stood at an estimated 9.8% (Kelly, Yang, Chen, Reynolds & He, 2008), a considerable figure representing almost 400 million individuals worldwide. Even though obesity has now been recognised as a major problem the number of people affected is increasing rapidly, with almost 300,000 deaths attributable to obesity in the USA each year (Allison, Fontaine, Manson, Stevens, & VanItallie, 1999). Excessive amounts of fat can prove dangerous as the condition has a very high comorbidity rate with other long term health issues such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and cancer (Pi-Sunyer, 1993). Numerous examples of media, medical journals and educational literature concerning obesity refer to the condition as a disease, with an increasing use of the word ‘Epidemic’ to describe the somewhat recent surge of obesity cases in western societies (Boero, 2007), however there is little material available that offers evidence for obesity meeting specification for disease. Instead it has been proposed that obesity is alternatively a risk factor for developing other potentially harmful diseases, influenced by a variety of other factors i.e. genetics, cultural ideals and biological impairments.
2. What is food insecurity? - A state in which someone is without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. Further, food insecurity is a condition related to the supply of food, and the access people have to it.
Now it has come to point, where our family comes into this scenario. You might be the one who is severely affected by obesity, but it is your family who will be paying the health care costs for you. In America obesity costs Americans ‘10 percent of their health-care bills, 150 billion dollars a year’. Furthermore, in about ‘10 years it’s set to double’ (Jamie Oliver, 2010) So when considering these facts, if Australia’s obesity rates continually increase, the health care costs will also severely go up and will result in more Australians lives in danger,
Food insecurity defined, is ‘the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food’ (Oxforddictionaries.com, 2014). This in turn leads to hunger, which can have three possible meanings; 1) ‘the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite, also the exhausted condition caused by want of food’, 2) ‘the want or scarcity of food in a country’, and 3) ‘a strong desire or craving’ (Worldhunger.org, 2014). Food insecurity also leads to malnutrition, with 870 million people in the world or one in eight, suffering from chronic undernourishment (Fao.org, 2014). From this alarmingly high figure, 852 million of these people live in developing countries, making it evident that majority of strategies used to solve this problem should be directed at them (Fao.org, 2014). The world produces enough food to feed everyone, with an estimated amount of 2,720 Kcal per person a day (Worldhunger.org, 2014). The only problem is distri...
In the UK, 64% of the adults are classed as obese and nearly two third of men and women are either obese or overweight(BBC Health,2014). Obesity has always been indeed a serious problem in the western world and is increasing day by day. However, the poor population in the western society is the most effected one and still their number is increasing. This essay will investigate firstly, what is obesity and its causes, moving on to the poor population of the western society who are the most effected one and why they are effected and finally a contract/comparison of the western poor society with the poor population of Pakistan that why poor in Pakistan is not effected by obesity.
Childhood obesity is a growing problem not only in New Zealand but worldwide. This is due to many factors and has many effects on society. Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of greater than 30. BMI is a measure of your weight divided by your height, the normal range is considered to be from 18 to 25 and over 30 is said to be obese. BMI became an international standard for obesity measurement in the 1980s (S.Wilson, 2000). Obesity is not just a modern day problem, Ancient Egyptians are said to consider obesity as a disease, having been drawn in a wall of depicted illnesses. Perhaps the most famous and earliest evidence of obesity is the Venus figurines, statuettes of an obese female torso that probably had a major role in rituals. Ancient China has also been aware of obesity and the dangers that come with it. They have always been a believer of prevention as a key to longevity (L.Dobbins, Dec 2007). Obesity is considered to be a problem because it is a risk factor for many chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes. The New Zealand health strategy has two objectives that relate directly to obesity, to improve nutrition and to increase physical activity (Reuters, Feb. 15 2008). Experts and the media are feeding us with information on this ‘,obesity epidemic’, but is there actually a problem? An epidemic is the occurrence of more cases of a disease than would be expected in a community or region during a given time period. According to New Zealand Herald 95% of parents considered the number of overweight and obese children to be a significant problem. In other words there is sufficient evidence to say we do have an obesity epidemic on our hands.
Modern poverty is so closely related with obesity for many reasons. First of all, poor people are ignorant and uneducated about their health and nutrition. Obviously, because of that they don’t really know what they are doing or even how they are taking the risk of eating some kinds of food. Poor people go for good tasting food without paying attention to the food’s freshness and safety. Moreover, children grow up without a proper understanding of good nutrition, so it is time to reintroduce nutrition to families and even in schools to kids. Second of all, poor people cannot afford buying healthy food. A person who is poor and hungry is going to buy the cheapest calories that he or she could find. In fact in today’s world, the cheapest calories come from junk food. It is cheaper and ...