Food Security : More than a Determinant of Health

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Mcintyre, Lynn
Copyright Year	2003
Abstract	MARS 2003 46 F ood used to be called a basic human need along with water, peace, shelter, education and primary health care. It has also been called a prerequisite for health. Food security is now listed among the social determinants of health. It is clearly a determinant of a lot of things— life, health, dignity, civil society, progress, justice and sustainable development. On October 16, 2002, World Food Day, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a report entitled The State of Food Insecurity in the World. The report chronicles the 840 million people who were undernourished in 1998-2000, of whom 11 million or 1.3 percent lived in industrialized countries. There is no further mention in the report of the 11 million, who they are, how they live, and how their undernourishment has come to be? These are the people I study—those who are hungry and food insecure in Canada. It is important to have a balanced perspective with respect to hunger in developing and developed countries. Malnutrition is synonymous with hunger in developing countries. Malnutrition is defined as the failure to achieve nutrient requirements, which can impair physical and/or mental health. Also of concern are micronutrient deficiencies such as iron, iodine, and vitamin A. Developing countries measure malnutrition through anthropometric, or growth, indicators. Stunting or low height for age is arguably the best indicator of chronic malnutrition. Sometimes absolute poverty and low per capita energy consumption are cited as indirect measures of hunger in the developing world. Food insecurity is the term best used to define hunger in developed societies. Food insecurity is defined as “the inability to acquire or consume an adequate diet quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways, or FOOD SECURITY: MORE THAN A DETERMINANT OF HEALTH
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Alternate Webpage(s)	http://www.chumirethicsfoundation.ca/files/pdf/FoodSecurity-MorethanDeterminantofHealth.pdf
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article