media – Fresh Advantage®

Aug

The Right to Food: Building Upon “Food Is Medicine”

Published by: Ellen K. Barnidge, PhD Sandra H. Stenmark, MD Marydale DeBor, JD Hilary K. Seligman, MD

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749379720301951

INTRODUCTION

During the past decade, the “food is medicine” movement has captured momentum and successfully acted upon evidence that a nutritionally adequate diet supports better health outcomes. Despite progress being made in integrating provision of food into healthcare services, there are on the ground limitations of “food is medicine” interventions that need to be acknowledged as barriers to creating lasting change. Goals must now expand beyond remediating the physiologic impacts of a poor diet and reducing associated healthcare costs and evolve toward the larger goal of promoting health over the long term. To do so, the authors advocate for adoption of a framework of thinking and action based upon the concept of the right to food,¹ a concept embodied in international law and undergirded by rich philosophical and moral traditions. The healthcare sector can help lead change toward the recognition of food as a human right upheld by systems-level protections. Although the healthcare sector alone is not responsible for this needed paradigm change, it can help to inspire it.

May

The Sickness in Our Food Supply

Originally published by Michael Pollan

“Only when the tide goes out,” Warren Buffett observed, “do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” For our society, the Covid-19 pandemic represents an ebb tide of historic proportions, one that is laying bare vulnerabilities and inequities that in normal times have gone undiscovered. Nowhere is this more evident than in the American food system. A series of shocks has exposed weak links in our food chain that threaten to leave grocery shelves as patchy and unpredictable as those in the former Soviet bloc.

May

How to Crisis-Proof Our Food System

Before the current pandemic, few Americans put much thought into our food system. The more privileged among us could find anything we wanted at the grocery store and could comfortably afford to feed our families. Some of us ate out multiple times each week and could choose among many different cuisines and eateries. We didn’t need to think about what went into growing our food, how the supply chains that delivered our meats and vegetables functioned, or the economic and safety realities of those who harvested, delivered, and prepared our meals.

May

I’m Sick of Asking Children to Be Resilient

A baby born in Flint, where I am a pediatrician, is likely to live almost 20 fewer years than a child born elsewhere in the same county. She’s a baby like any other, with wide eyes, a growing brain and a vast, bottomless innocence — too innocent to understand the injustices that without her knowing or choosing have put her at risk.

May

Today is the W.P.A.’s 85th Birthday. Let’s Bring it Back for a Food Industry in Crisis

The Covid pandemic has had an enormous impact on America’s food systems. Workers in the food service industry—servers and bartenders, chefs and dishwashers—account for an estimated sixty percent of jobs lost since the pandemic reached the United States.

Apr

Coronavirus pandemic should shift our focus to a more locally sourced food supply

A positive side effect of the pandemic: Demand for local food is through the roof.

Feb

Food Insecurity: A Key Social Determinant of Health for Older Adults

Marydale DeBor recently co-authored a paper that was published in the journal of the American Geriatrics Society on Food Insecurity: A Key Social Determinant of Health for Older Adults.

Oct

Lessons Learned from Implementation of the Food Insecurity Screening and Referral Program at Kaiser Permanente Colorado

Marydale DeBor recently co-authored a paper on current developments in addressing food insecurity in medical practice.

Mar

Building Healthier Food Systems

Created with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Health Care Without Harm’s “Delivering community benefit: Healthy food playbook” supports hospital community benefit professionals and community partners in developing initiatives to promote healthy food access and healthy, local and sustainable food systems. Marydale DeBor was excited to serve as Senior Adviser to this important three year project.

The playbook and events throughout the year offer inspiration and tools to address food- and diet-related community health needs throughout the community health engagement process.

Jul

Check out this article from the Christian Science Monitor on how culinary medicine re-envisions food

According to the Christian Science Monitor, “Hospitals in the US are setting up food banks, and medical schools are putting cooking classes on the curriculum – part of a shift in focus away from simply treating disease toward caring for the whole person.” Read this insightful article to learn more.

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INTRODUCTION

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