Mahayu Firsty Ramadhani

Assignment 4 Academic Writing-AJ13001

1. Topic: The role of food in health
2. Thesis: Food have a big role in determining global community health

Nutrition for Determining Community Health
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to give an understanding to the reader about the interaction
between food and the community health. Using some books and article related to public
health and nutrition, this article will explain the recent phenomena in the public health. This
phenomenon, which is known as double burden of disease, causes high rate of mortality and
morbidity in the community. It also spends high cost of health expenses for the treatment.
These diseases and declines actually can be prevented with some strategies. This article will
provide some information regarding the solution to maintain community health and prevent
further severely development of the diseases.
Keyword:
Community health, nutrition, lifestyle changing, double burden of disease, malnutrition, chronic
disease, food consumption, food marketing

Since pregnancy process until elderly, one always needs nutrition for their life.
Nutrition has a direct effect on ones growth, development, reproduction, and both physical
and mental well-being. It is also one of the most important factor for the health of an
individual or a community, and is, consequently, a fundamental issue in modern public
health. There is lifestyle changing, as well as food consumption style in the worldwide,
enables malnutrition, various kind of disease and health problem in the community.
Malnutrition contributes to half of all childhood deaths (Tulchinsky & Varavikova, 292).
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, and diabetes account for two thirds of all mortality in
United States. The common causes of these preventable chronic illnesses are physical
inactivity, poor diet, and obesity (Spark, 119). Now the public health practitioner is striving
to find the solution to manage food consumption in order to maintaining community health
and not to increase health expenses.
According to Spark (3), the term nutrition in community health refers to nutrition as a
component of the community health branch of public health that focuses on promoting the
health of individuals, families, and communities by providing quality services and
community-based programs. Recently, the greatest issue in community health is the double
burden of diseases in most of developing countries, which means two major health and
nutrition problems occur together at the same time. Particularly in the rural area, children
suffer undernutrition due to poor feeding and sanitation. In the other hand, mostly in the
urban area, people begin suffering chronic disease associated with a changing dietary pattern,
increased consumption of fats, and refined carbohydrates. Moreover, these patterns are
combined with an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. Those diseases have consequence in the
high expenditure for health, which is actually preventable if the people have self-awareness
for their health. According to World Health Organization (WHO) data in 2009, about US$
700 billion in direct and indirect costs each year is spent for those diseases (Spark, 119).
Denton (2009) argues that the food we eat gives our bodies the "information" and
materials they need to function properly. If we do not get the right information, our metabolic
processes suffer and our health declines. If we get too much food, or food that gives our
bodies the wrong instructions, we can become overweight, undernourished, and at risk for the
development of diseases. One example, researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine in
Houston report that children who eat daily in fast-food restaurants have about 50% more
episodes of abdominal pain than those who eat fast food only once per week. "The more fast
food they ate, the greater the chance they suffered recurrent abdomen pain," says Hoda
Malaty, MD, associate professor of medicine. Eating fresh fruits, on the other hand, reduces
the risk of recurrent abdominal pain in half (Laino, 2004).
In the dialogue of Global Compact Policy Dialogue on Sustainable Consumption -
Marketing & Communications WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Waxman (2004) expresses
the strategy to overcome this community problem is to manage and control food consumption
in the community. Firstly, there should be healthy food and lifestyle promotion program from
related stake holders. Secondly, government should make some regulation related to food
marketing and distribution, to distribute food resource evenly and reducing gap within rural
and urban area. Related to the food marketing, there should be limitation of fast food
advertising because majority of food products promoted to children are considered to
contribute to an unhealthy diet. And the last thing is labeling the food products, in order to
make the consumers understand what is contained in their food and how much calories they
consume, so that the consumers can control their consumption.
In conclusion, this is undeniable that food is responsible to ones health. It provides
not only essential material for ones body but also harmful effect if somebody has bad habit
of food consumption. Various kinds of disease and health problem in the community are
partly related to diet which demand high cost for the treatment. This means there should be
health and nutrition promotion strategy for the community based on preventive instead of
curative program. There should be better management for food distribution and marketing to
control the consumption of the community.


























BIBLIOGRAPHY

Denton, Carolyn How Does Food Impact Health? University of Minnesota 2.11.2009
http://takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/explore-healing-practices/food-medicine/how-does-
food-impact-health (15.11.2012)

Laino, Charlene Food Can Have Powerful Effect on Health WebMD 17.05.2004
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20040517/food-can-have-powerful-effect-
on-health (15.12.2012)

Spark, Arlene Nutrition in Public Health Principles, Policies, and Practice (pp 3, 119) New
York: CRC Press, 2007

Tulchinsky, Theodore H. & Varavikova, Elena A The New Public Health Second Edition (pp
119) London: Elsevier Academic Press, 2009

Waxman, Amalia WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health Global
Compact Policy Dialogue on Sustainable Consumption -Marketing &
Communications Paris, France 2-5.04.2004