Food Systems For Health

This comprehensive text provides the latest research on key concepts, principles and practices for promoting healthy and sustainable food systems. There are increasing concerns about the impact of food systems on environmental sustainability and, in turn, the impact of environmental sustainability on the capacity of food systems to protect food and nutrition security into the future. The contributors to this book are leading researchers in the causes of and solutions to these challenges. As international experts in their fields, they provide in-depth analyses of the issues and evidence-informed recommendations for future policies and practices. Starting with an overview of ideas about health, sustainability and equity in relation to food systems, Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems examines what constitutes a food system, with chapters on production, manufacturing, distribution and retail, among others. The text explores health and sustainable diets, looking at issues such as overconsumption and waste. The book ends with discussions about the politics, policy, personal behaviours and advocacy behind creating healthy and sustainable food systems. With a food systems approach to health and sustainability identified as a priority area for public health, this text introduces core knowledge for students, academics, practitioners and policy-makers from a range of disciplines including food and nutrition sciences, dietetics, public health, public policy, medicine, health science and environmental science.

How we produce and consume food has a bigger impact on Americans' well-being than any other human activity. The food industry is the largest sector of our economy; food touches everything from our health to the environment, climate change, economic inequality, and the federal budget. From the earliest developments of agriculture, a major goal has been to attain sufficient foods that provide the energy and the nutrients needed for a healthy, active life. Over time, food production, processing, marketing, and consumption have evolved and become highly complex. The challenges of improving the food system in the 21st century will require systemic approaches that take full account of social, economic, ecological, and evolutionary factors. Policy or business interventions involving a segment of the food system often have consequences beyond the original issue the intervention was meant to address. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System develops an analytical framework for assessing effects associated with the ways in which food is grown, processed, distributed, marketed, retailed, and consumed in the United States. The framework will allow users to recognize effects across the full food system, consider all domains and dimensions of effects, account for systems dynamics and complexities, and choose appropriate methods for analysis. This report provides example applications of the framework based on complex questions that are currently under debate: consumption of a healthy and safe diet, food security, animal welfare, and preserving the environment and its resources. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System describes the U.S. food system and provides a brief history of its evolution into the current system. This report identifies some of the real and potential implications of the current system in terms of its health, environmental, and socioeconomic effects along with a sense for the complexities of the system, potential metrics, and some of the data needs that are required to assess the effects. The overview of the food system and the framework described in this report will be an essential resource for decision makers, researchers, and others to examine the possible impacts of alternative policies or agricultural or food processing practices.

Ensuring optimal diets and nutrition for the global population is a grand challenge fraught with many contentious issues. To achieve food security for all and protect health, we need functional, equitable, and sustainable food systems. Food systems are highly complex networks of individuals and institutions that depend on governance and policy leadership. This book explains how interconnected food systems and policies affect diets and nutrition in high-, middle-, and low-income countries. In tandem with food policy, food systems determine the availability, affordability, and nutritional quality of the food supply, which influences the diets that people are willing and able to consume. Readers will become familiar with both domestic and international food policy processes and actors, and they will be able to critically analyze and debate how policy and science affect diet and nutrition outcomes.

Globalization of the food supply has created conditions favorable for the emergence, reemergence, and spread of food-borne pathogens-compounding the challenge of anticipating, detecting, and effectively responding to food-borne threats to health. In the United States, food-borne agents affect 1 out of 6 individuals and cause approximately 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths each year. This figure likely represents just the tip of the iceberg, because it fails to account for the broad array of food-borne illnesses or for their wide-ranging repercussions for consumers, government, and the food industry-both domestically and internationally. A One Health approach to food safety may hold the promise of harnessing and integrating the expertise and resources from across the spectrum of multiple health domains including the human and veterinary medical and plant pathology communities with those of the wildlife and aquatic health and ecology communities. The IOM's Forum on Microbial Threats hosted a public workshop on December 13 and 14, 2011 that examined issues critical to the protection of the nation's food supply. The workshop explored existing knowledge and unanswered questions on the nature and extent of food-borne threats to health. Participants discussed the globalization of the U.S. food supply and the burden of illness associated with foodborne threats to health; considered the spectrum of food-borne threats as well as illustrative case studies; reviewed existing research, policies, and practices to prevent and mitigate foodborne threats; and, identified opportunities to reduce future threats to the nation's food supply through the use of a "One Health" approach to food safety. Improving Food Safety Through a One Health Approach: Workshop Summary covers the events of the workshop and explains the recommendations for future related workshops.

WHO is promoting the implementation of a package of game changing food systems actions, that complement each other and focus on improving the nutritional quality of food along the food supply chain and creating healthier food environments. Today’s food systems are simply failing to deliver healthy diets for all. If food systems are transformed, they can become a powerful driving force towards ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms. WHO is promoting this package of actions also in the context of the UN Food Systems Summit, the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit 2021, as well as for the uptake of the CFS Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition. The package of actions comprises of taxing unhealthy options and subsidising healthy options, protecting children from harmful marketing of food and beverages, ensuring clear and accurate nutrition labels, reducing the levels of salt, sugars and harmful fats in processed food and drink products, fortifying staple foods by adding extra vitamins and minerals, ensuring nutritious foods for healthier diets are served or sold in schools, hospitals and other public places, improving surveillance of and response to foodborne diseases and assessing and strengthening national food control systems. This information brief outlines for each of these actions what it is about and why it is important, with reference to WHO guidance. Moreover, country case studies are presented and examples of SMART commitments for interested countries.

Indigenous Food Systems addresses the disproportionate levels of food-related health disparities among First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people in Canada, seeking solutions to food insecurity and promoting well-being for current and future generations of Indigenous people. Through research and case studies, Indigenous and non-Indigenous food scholars and community practitioners explore salient features, practices, and contemporary challenges of Indigenous food systems across Canada. Highlighting Indigenous communities’ voices, the contributing authors document collaborative initiatives between Indigenous communities, organizations, and non-Indigenous allies to counteract the colonial and ecologically destructive monopolization of food systems. This timely and engaging collection celebrates strategies to revitalize Indigenous food systems, such as achieving cultural resurgence and food sovereignty; sharing and mobilizing diverse knowledges and voices; and reviewing and reformulating existing policies, research, and programs to improve the health, well-being, and food security of Indigenous and Canadian populations. Indigenous Food Systems is a critical resource for students in Indigenous studies, public health, anthropology, and the social sciences as well as a vital reader for policymakers, researchers, and community practitioners.

Food--how we produce, prepare, share and consume it--is fundamental to our wellbeing. It also connects the human body to the complex and dynamic systems of our environment. This is more significant than ever before in human history, as climate change and increasing population impact on global ecosystems. This fourth edition of Food and Nutrition has been completely rewritten to reflect an ecosystems approach to human health. It is shaped around four dimensions of human nutrition: biology, society, environment and economy. Food and Nutrition provides a comprehensive overview of food components and the biochemistry of foods and digestion. It outlines nutrition needs at different life stages, dietary disorders, and social and cultural influences on food selection and consumption. It also explores the increasing influence of technology on agriculture and food preparation, and recent research into intergenerational nutrition and nutrigenomics. At every stage it points to how you can impact your own health and the health of others as a global citizen and as a health or other food-system-related professional. Extensively illustrated with informative graphs, diagrams and data, and with examples, glossaries and reflective exercises, Food and Nutrition is the ideal introduction to the field of nutrition and dietetics for the 21st century, and a valuable professional reference for early career dietitians.

This book takes a transdisciplinary approach and considers multisectoral actions, integrating health, agriculture and environmental sector issues to comprehensively explore the topic of sustainable diets. The team of international authors informs readers with arguments, challenges, perspectives, policies, actions and solutions on global topics that must be properly understood in order to be effectively addressed. They position issues of sustainable diets as central to the Earth's future. Presenting the latest findings, they: - Explore the transition to sustainable diets within the context of sustainable food systems, addressing the right to food, and linking food security and nutrition to sustainability. - Convey the urgency of coordinated action, and consider how to engage multiple sectors in dialogue and joint research to tackle the pressing problems that have taken us to the edge, and beyond, of the planet's limits to growth. - Review tools, methods and indicators for assessing sustainable diets. - Describe lessons learned from case studies on both traditional food systems and current dietary challenges. As an affiliated project of the One Planet Sustainable Food Systems Programme, this book provides a way forward for achieving global and local targets, including the Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition commitments. This resource is essential reading for scientists, practitioners, and students in the fields of nutrition science, food science, environmental sciences, agricultural sciences, development studies, food studies, public health and food policy.