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How do social determinants of health contribute to disease
How do social determinants of health contribute to disease
Social Determinants of Health: Thesis
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A major issue that is occurring in America is a phenomena known as “food deserts”, most are located in urban areas and it's difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. Whereas in the past, food deserts were thought to be solved with just placing a grocery store in the area, but with times it has become an issue that people are not picking the best nutritional option. This issue is not only making grocery store in food deserts are practically useless and not really eliminating the issue of food deserts because even when they are given a better nutritional option, and people are not taking it. In my perspective, it takes more than a grocery store to eliminate ‘food deserts’. It's more about demonstrating the good of picking the nutritional option and how it can help them and their families. For example, “Those who live in these areas are often subject to poor diets as a result and are at a greater risk of becoming obese or developing chronic diseases.”(Corapi, 2014). An important issue for Today is how can we make people pick the best nutritional option because giving the poor easy access to healthy food doesn’t mean they’ll buy It. For example, “In 2010, the Morrisania section of the Bronx …show more content…
was what is commonly called a food desert...That’s why it was the target of a city tax incentive program designed to bring healthy food into underserved neighborhoods. In 2011, a 17,000-square-foot supermarket opened, aided by city money that paid some 40 percent of the costs of its construction. The neighborhood welcomed the addition and perceived access to healthy food improved. But the diets of the neighborhood’s residents did not.” (Sanger-Katz 2015) It demonstrates that even wA major issue that is occurring in America is a phenomena known as “food deserts”, most are located in urban areas and it's difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. Whereas in the past, food deserts were thought to be solved with just placing a grocery store in the area, but with times it has become an issue that people are not picking the best nutritional option. This issue is not only making grocery store in food deserts are practically useless and not really eliminating the issue of food deserts because even when they are given a better nutritional option, and people are not taking it. In my perspective, it takes more than a grocery store to eliminate ‘food deserts’. It's more about demonstrating the good of picking the nutritional option and how it can help them and their families. For example, “Those who live in these areas are often subject to poor diets as a result and are at a greater risk of becoming obese or developing chronic diseases.”(Corapi, 2014). An important issue for Today is how can we make people pick the best nutritional option because giving the poor easy access to healthy food doesn’t mean they’ll buy It. For example, “In 2010, the Morrisania section of the Bronx was what is commonly called a food desert...That’s why it was the target of a city tax incentive program designed to bring healthy food into underserved neighborhoods. In 2011, a 17,000-square-foot supermarket opened, aided by city money that paid some 40 percent of the costs of its construction. The neighborhood, when given a better option the people are somewhat resisting. One type of explanation for the poor health decisions is that lower-income neighborhoods tended to have less healthy food nearby and that their residents tended to eat less healthy diets. I suggest that improving people’s diets by changing people’s perceptions and habits about diet and health. The issue with that would be that due to their income, their decision can differ to either chose the cheaper but not healthy. Even academic levels of the family have a huge impact on the food choices, but that could also result on their economic status because they wouldn't be considered of a lower class. For example, “…the National Bureau of Economic Research looked across the country and found that no more than a tenth of the variation in the food people bought could be explained by the availability of a nearby grocery store. The education level of the shoppers, for example, was far more predictive. “If you were going to put all Americans in the same retail environment, you’d end up only dealing with 10 percent of this disparity between college-educated and high-school-educated households”(Sanger-Katz 2015) She says that if the household has more of academic status they are more likely to make better choices because they more informed of the benefits and know what good they can receive with healthy eating. Another type of explanation is that focuses precisely on the customer's shopping behavior when it comes to buying food. It may be even more impactful than the cost of the food because they are so used to the way they eat that they don't see themselves doing something else. For example, “fixing food deserts will not do nearly as much to improve the health of poor neighborhoods as policy-makers had hoped. It seems intuitive that a lack of nearby healthy food can contribute to a poor diet. But merely adding a grocery store to a poor neighborhood, it appears, doesn’t make a very big difference. The cost of food — and people’s habits of shopping and eating — appear to be much more powerful than just convenience.” (Sanger-Katz 2015) What it argues, is that the way of life they been having for years has the result in their life of making poor health decisions. Even transportation can make a huge impact because many people in food desert may not have a form of transportation to get the nutritional option due to their low income.
For example, with Erika Nicole from the article No Myth Here: Food Stamps, Food Deserts, And Food scarcity, said “ Poor urban neighborhood in America are often food desert.” What she says that food deserts are in areas where money isn't the thing they have most and being able to afford a car may not be an option. With urban area people not having an income to afford a car, they happen to go to closer areas to get their food like liquor store, fast food joints, etc. Also, having to take a huge amount of food on the bus will be very difficult to even dangerous because of the chance of being
robbed. Finally, it is worth pointing out that, whilst we may believe with placing a grocery store in food desert won't necessarily solve the issue. It appears to be more of a living standard or convenience they family or people in food desert were living in in the first place and it happened to be something real complicated to wear off. The people of food desert areas have lived this certain way for so long, that it seems that it's the only way they know how to. You may give them a grocery store, but it doesn't mean they'll change their ways. Like they say 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink' I which means that you can give someone an opportunity but not force them to take it. It's more a journey of teaching individuals the what is good to make better choices and finally be able to get rid of poor food choices.
Many in the U.S., today, try to eat well,balanced, meals to order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. They do so by purchasing their food at farmers markets or making their own meals, so their food isn’t processed or genetically modified. Even though people are trying to maintain health in order to live long lives, without medical complications, many don’t have the opportunity to pursue life like this. In “Research shows food deserts more abundant in minority neighborhoods,” the author, Kelly Brooks, portrays an anecdote and logical reasoning, from Kelly Bower’s research, to thoroughly describe the food deserts in poor minority neighborhoods and how this issue needs to be repaired.
In her essay, “Food’s Class Warfare,” author Tracie McMillan promotes the inclusion of both “individual changes and structural ones” (217), particularly “class consciousness” (217), in the fight for quality diets in America. She reveals the most common sides of the healthy food debate as the inherent “just-buy-better stuff logic” (215) and the opposing “structural challenges of eating well” (215). The main strategies for defeating the American “obesity epidemic” (216) have been reaching out to the individual, as well as changing the structure of the American food system itself. The favorite concept for structuralists is “food deserts - neighborhoods with insufficient grocery stores and thus insufficient supplies of healthy food” (216). She deems the concept insufficient in practice, as it ignores smaller markets and equates large stores with a healthy food source. While the individual viewpoint and structuralists argue with each other, they share common ideals. According to
Cities are becoming more proactive about dealing with food deserts, mainly by giving tax breaks, as in Baltimore, to grocers that are willing to come to low-income, desertous areas. Pushes from environmental groups are also taking an impact on the cause, as the fight for healthy food has become a hot topic in that arena as well. Communities themselves are also taking a stand against food deserts, by doing their own growing of food and creating urban farms, starting up community markets, and starting programs to bring fresh food to deserts (Block, Chavez, Allen, & Ramirez,
It is heart breaking to see an obese American on the street,because one instinctively knows that the obese American is not making the best food choices. We are constantly establishing new and innovative ways for improving society in terms of technological advances and transportation, although as stated from Budiansky we are also to be blamed for transportation and environmental consequences. “A single ten-mile round trip by car to the grocery store or the farmer’s market will easily eat up about 14,000 calories of fossil fuel energy.”(8) Growing food locally and consuming food locally will save a trip to the grocery store. Innovative technologies don’t always have to be the case. Agriculture only makes up 2 percent of our nation’s energy usage,which is used for running farm machinery and manufacturing fertilizer. Using these effectively will allow us to avoid processed foods and reduce the obesity rate. Individuals with food allergies are able to ask farmers about how the food was grown or ask chefs at a restaurant what ingredients were used in a specific dish. As most of us we desire social interaction. Going to a local food market, allows us to meet different individuals that may offer favorable advice for selecting food items. Our lifestyles all come down to ourselves,which means choosing foods that are advantageous toward our health. If we are aware of where the food comes from, it is easier to make those choices that will benefit
Alviola IV, Rodolfo M. Nayga Jr., and Michael Thomsen to learn more about what food deserts and how they impact the society around them. I believed that this was a good source because it went into what food deserts are and how they might be connected to the increase of obesity. I learned that a food desert is an “area where access to healthy foods is limited or constrained” (Alviola 106). I also learned that studies have shown people who live in food deserts “are likely to pay higher prices for food and have limited options in terms of purchasing healthy foods” (Alviola 106). After reading this article I have realized that Xavier may also be in a food desert because the closest grocery store is Kroger whose produce is almost always non-fresh and does not look edible to eat which encourages people to leave and resort to eating fast food for every meal. Needing more information about the effects of Food Deserts I started to look at an article called, “The Effects of Food Deserts on the Weight Status of South Dakota Children”, written by Emily Niswanger, Elizabeth Droke, Suzanne Stluka, and Kuo-Liang Chang. I believed that this was a great next source to look into because the name of the article was exactly what I wanted to get more information about. The source was about one study that was made in the state of South Dakota to discover if food deserts do have an effect on
America is by far one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations worldwide. But to be such a powerhouse and beacon of some much opportunity, The United States is struggling to provide families with the sufficient amount of food. The parts of the country that lack adequate food supply are known as food deserts. The term food desert can be used when describing areas with limited resources and little to no access to fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products. Affordable and nutritious food is almost impossible to gain access to in food deserts. Approximately 2.3 million of Americans live over a mile away from a supermarket and do not have a car. This equates to about 2.2 percent of all U.S. households. These statistics are according the data provided by the United States Department of Agriculture. The reports also indicate that some of these areas include vast, rural parts of West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, as well as urban areas like New York City, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. The people residing in majority of these food deserts are predominantly African Americans.
Food deserts are places where healthy foods are not produced nor sold. Unfortunately, Chicago is filled with food deserts. Approximately 600,000 people reside in areas that consist of food deserts (Gallagher, 2006). Nearly 200,000 of those people are children. These children do not have the opportunity for healthier options, which shows an increase in obesity rates (News One Staff, 2011). There are 77 Chicago communities and out of that 77, 23 are food deserts (Gallagher, 2006). Chicagoans-particularly the black communities- are forced to live off the accessible food that is near them. The food deserts are in Austin, North Lawndale, Armour Square, Near South Side, Fuller Park, Grand Boulevard, Washington Park, Woodlawn, West Lawn, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Ashburn, Auburn Gresham, Beverly, Washington Heights, Morgan Park, Roseland, Pullman, South Deering, Riverdale, South Chicago, and West Pullman (Grossinger, 2007). The communities are usually served by junk food- filled corner stores, which do not offer an abundance of healthy foods. The communities are in desperate need of change.
Many of the people living in food deserts are people with low incomes. These low-income families often turn to the junk food provided at the convenience stores and fast food restaurants because it is all they can afford. Socio-economic status is a defining characteristic of food deserts. Food deserts are most commonly found in areas dominated by minorities and low-income families. Studies show that wealthy areas have about triple the amount of supermarkets as poor urban areas do.
“Food Deserts” are arears where people have a hard time finding affordable, healthy food. These places are usually low-income neighborhoods that do not have any supermarkets nearby but have convenience stores that sell junk food and fast food places around them. Ron Finley, a guerrilla gardener, lives in a “food desert” in South Central Los Angeles. He plants fruit and vegetable gardens to help nourish his community with healthy eating. In the article “Giving the Poor Easy Access to Healthy Food Doesn’t Mean They’ll Buy It,” Margot Sanger-Katz states that “merely adding a grocery store to a poor neighborhood doesn’t make a very big difference” because the diets of the residents living in those neighborhoods did not change. I think “food deserts” are only a part of the bigger problem in America because obesity is everywhere, not just in low-income
“Food Deserts” as defined by the CDC, are “areas that lack access to affordable fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk, and other foods that make up the full range of a healthy diet” (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). In simpler terms, a food desert is a community with little to no grocery stores. Many reports show that neighborhoods with less access to neighborhood grocery stores have a higher risk for obesity and unhealthy diets unlike neighborhoods where residents have better access to neighborhood grocery stores. The “USDA estimates that 23.5 million people, including 6.5 million children, live in low-income areas that are than one mile from a supermarket. Of the 23.5 million, 11.5 million are low-income individuals in households with incomes at or below 200 percent of the poverty line. Of the 2.3 million people living in low-income rural areas that ...
Economic Research Service, US Department of Agriculture. Access to affordable and nutritious food. Measuring and understanding food deserts and their consequences: report to Congress. Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture; 2009. Retrieved from: http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/ap/ap036 .
A food desert is a location in which a wide variety of nutrition food is not generally available (Wrigley et al. 261). Food deserts exist in places such as inner cities and isolated rural areas (Morton and Blanchard 1). The purpose of the paper supported by this annotated bibliography is to argue that food deserts do not exist because of discrimination against the poor, but because of forces related to supply and demand. This hypothesis ought to be kept in mind when considering each of the sources (Just and Wansink; Wrigley, Warm and Margetts; Jetter and Cassady; Epstein et al.; Schafft, Jensen and Hinrichs; Bitler and Haider) described in the annotated bibliography.
When considering the topic of poverty and hunger, many Americans look outside the borders of the United States. However, food insecurity is an issue that plagues millions of American households each year. The United States Department of Agriculture found that 14.5% of American households faced food insecurity during 2012. These households were defined as having “difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources” (Nord, Singh, Coleman-Jensen).
Foods from Africa, which have impacted North American cuisine are numerous, and common in the everyday eating habits of Americans. In the 21st century, Americans take for granted the history of the food they eat, and the origins of the foods that are eaten today. In the early part of the history of the United States, people of European descent brought recipes from home and adapted their recipes to the ingredients which were available. The slave trade was directly responsible for what many Americans think of as American food, and those foods are traceable to Africa. Because slaves incorporated their own foods into the everyday lives of their masters, some of the unique foods from Africa and their history are not well known today. American
26). This dish was very simple and did not require too much time, but I was still able to gain an appreciation for the types of meals that are cooked by Moroccans. Many of the ingredients that were incorporated into this dish are also used in a vast variety of dishes within North Africa. The paprika, cumin garlic, parsley, and red pepper flakes gave this dish a unique flavor that is different from typical eggs and vegetables. There was a hint of spice that seasoned the eggs and vegetables perfectly. The eggs were soft and warm, while the vegetables added a slight unique crunchy and soft texture. Although this dish did not incorporate staple ingredients like lamb, bread, or fish, it did incorporate many of the spices and vegetables that are used in many dishes and on a daily basis. I was able to gain a great deal of appreciation for the types of meals that are prepared in a Moroccan