Food Security: Neighborhood Obesity In The United States

“We cant close the gap on health unless we talk about nutrition”. The issue of food security can have a negative impact on the wellbeing of individuals and families in Australia, there are a number of different groups who are more vulnerable to food insecurity than others, due to social whereabouts. Food insecurities is defined as “ access by all people at all times to enough food for an active healthy life” by saying this Australia has been shown as food secure but this has people asking “why are certain groups and cultures running out of food to feed there families through out the year, if we are food secure?’ about 5% of Australians suffer from food insecurities this is usually caused by the access they have to food or the inadequate food

America is experiencing an increasing problem with obesity that arose from numerous factors such as sugary processed foods, larger portion sizes, and lack of physical activity that lead to detrimental results like preventable diseases that lead to death. In order to stop this rising epidemic, it will take national effort to educate the public and to offer fetter food alternatives in schools and in grocery stores.

According to countyhealthrankings.org, (2017), the percentage of adult obesity in Brooklyn alone is high, with 23%, compared to the entire NYC with 25%. From my observation of the community, about a quarter of the adult population are either obese or overweight. During my assessment of the community, I noticed that there are lots of fast food restaurants, Chinese take-out/eat-in, pizzerias, Burger kings, McDonalds, Footprints, Dunkin Donuts, Jamaican restaurants and food trucks situated on almost every block. To my amazement, people of all ages, both adults and youths are seen coming in and out of these amenities. I observed only two of the holistic food stores, and each one is surrounded by multiple unhealthy food restaurants and remotely distant from each other. According to countyhealthrankings.org, (2017), about 32% of children in the community are living in poverty and have an income inequality of 6.4% which supports their decision of poor food choices because healthy food choices are too expensive and unaffordable (usda.gov, 2017). Additionally, about 26% of the community residents are physically inactive, which is associated directly with their unhealthy lifestyle (countyhealthrankings.org, 2017), and it is emphasized by www.nih.gov, that people with inactive sedimentary lifestyle are likely to gain weight due to their inability to burn calories accumulated during meal consumption and lack of physical

Food insecurity is a determent to health that has become more prevalent in low-income areas of the country. Food security is an important aspect of public health in which greater evidence is showing that food insecurity as a direct link to poor health. Food insecurity can be define as “the inability to acquire or consume and adequate diet quality or sufficient quantity of

The first intervention will be to implement the Healthy Bodegas Initiatives that will use a variety of approaches to help increase and promote healthy food in the corner stores within the underserved neighborhoods. The initiative will involve outreach staffs that will work in collaboration with the owners of the corner stores given limited resources. The outreach workers will help the owners to rearrange the stores in order to make shelf-space and increase visibility of healthier food items such as fresh fruits and vegetables and healthier beverages. The outreach staff will also help the owners to advertise the healthy food options by posting flyers and providing educational materials. Furthermore, the outreach workers will help the owner to obtain permits for displaying fresh fruits and vegetables in the storefront (Dannefer, Williams, Baronberg, et al.,

For numerous amounts of people, fruits and vegetables may take a backseat to other foods such as junk food, but for many these healthy food choices are just not options. This is a very widespread issue that has swept the nation and the individual cities that formulate it. In particular, the lack of food security in Columbus, Ohio has had devastating effects for many residents, especially those who live in rural areas and the many underserved communities. These effects include being more prone to chronic diseases and unhealthy Body Mass Index (BMI) measurements. For adults “Twenty-five percent of Franklin County, Ohio, adults say they don’t eat five servings of foods and vegetables each day” (NLC). The residents of Columbus City should be able

Food insecurity is a term that was introduced by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA labels the insecurity based on the severity with four different groups. One group is the Low Food Security; which means low quality, desirability or variety but no or little reduction of food. Very Low Food Security is reduced food intake and multiple disruptions of eating patterns. The opposite spectrum is High Food Security. This is no food limitations or no issues accessing food. Marginal food security is sufficient supply of food with some concern of ability to supply. (USDA, https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/definitions-of-food-security.aspx).

By 2012, the annual medical spending resulting from obesity hit $190 billion, impacting each and every American in the form of increased taxes towards Medicaid/Medicare and higher insurance premiums. This does not take into account the loss of productivity and the corollary effect on the overall GDP from the increased health problems affecting the over 1/3rd of Americans that are obese. However, recent data in terms of behavioral changes indicate that increased education and innovative solutions such as farmers markets and local food gardens have the potential to slowly change the negative trend in obesity. Furthermore, the Federal Government has elevated its involvement in responding to “food deserts” by mandating improved retail options for healthy foods, helping low income consumers purchase food, and providing guidelines for more nutritious school meals for

Nutrition is important for healthy life. Many people are still hungry around the world even though there is mass production of food. This is because of unhealthy food production. In today’s world we see many obese people because of high intake of high fat and cholesterol containing food. It is important to have a healthy diet/ nutritional intake for individuals to have good foundation for physical and mental health. Now a day’s healthy food is getting more expensive rather than unhealthy food. Poor people are forced to eat unhealthy food, while the rich can afford to eat whatever the please. Food insecurity is caused by individuals not having healthy food for their families due to their low income or political and

Excessive food intake and improper diet is a major contributor to obesity. Families of lower SES are more likely to reside in neighborhoods that make it difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Fresh fruits and vegetables tend to be considerably more costly and scarce compared to abundant accessibility of processed and canned foods. According to a 2010 estimate by the researchers in the US Department of Agriculture, 9.7% of the American population live in low-income neighborhoods that are more than one mile from a supermarket or health food store (Ver Ploeg et al., 2012).

Food security is defined as when all people have access to enough safe and healthy food to fit the preferences and needs of each person for a healthy life. Food sovereignty is one’s right to both nutritious and culturally appropriate food through ecologically safe methods. This means that even if people have food to eat, it does not necessarily mean they have food security nor food sovereignty (Rosenberger 2012:17). This also means that in a country, the poor must have as much access to nutritious and culturally relevant food as the wealthy in order to have true food security and sovereignty.

Food security is one of the largest problems facing our world today. To be "food secure" a country must have enough

Food security is historically defined as the overall regional, national as well as global food supply and shortfalls in supply as associated to requirements (Foster, 1992). The same author contended that, even though, the increased observation of differences in the sufficiency of food intake by certain groups despite overall adequacy of supply, the term has been applied recently at a local, household, or individual level and it has been widened beyond notions of food supply to include elements of access (Sen, 1981), vulnerability (Watts and Bohle, 1993), and sustainability (Chambers, 1989). Different organizations, scholars and institutions define food security differently. However, basic concept remains the same.

Food Insecurity is defined as access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life, and at a minimum includes the following: the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods and the assured ability to acquire personally acceptable foods in a socially acceptable way, qualified by their involuntariness and periodicity. Even though food insecurity affects everyone in the household, it may also affect them differently. Food insecurity mostly exists whenever food security is limited. Uncertain or limited availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods results chronic diseases psychological, and suicidal syndrome (Cook & Frank, 2008)

Food insecurity can be defined as the inability to acquire an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways or the uncertainty that one will be able to do so. One in six Americans are food insecure. There are five components of food security, including quantity, quality, suitability, psychological, and social factors. Food insecurity can occur for a variety of reasons, the main one being poverty. Decreasing the amount of food wasted has the ability to feed millions of these Americans.