Difference between revisions of "Food/Food and health"

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(New page: A shortage of food is not the only problem. Over a billion people are overweight, and 300,000,000 are obese <sup>[http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/publications/facts/obesity/en/]</s...)
 
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A shortage of food is not the only problem. Over a billion people are overweight, and 300,000,000 are obese <sup>[http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/publications/facts/obesity/en/]</sup>. A third of all children born in the USA in 2000 are expected to become diabetic <sup>[http://articles.latimes.com/2003/jun/15/nation/na-diabetes15]</sup>. {{wp|Metabolic_syndrome|Metabolic syndrome}} is estimated to affect a quarter of the US population.  
 
A shortage of food is not the only problem. Over a billion people are overweight, and 300,000,000 are obese <sup>[http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/publications/facts/obesity/en/]</sup>. A third of all children born in the USA in 2000 are expected to become diabetic <sup>[http://articles.latimes.com/2003/jun/15/nation/na-diabetes15]</sup>. {{wp|Metabolic_syndrome|Metabolic syndrome}} is estimated to affect a quarter of the US population.  
  
How did Western diets become so unhealthy and what can be done to change it? Unfortunately, changing human behaviour is not as straightforward as finding a solution to an engineering problem. But it is hoped that the suggestions given here will sufficiently change the food environment that a change in diet will follow. The methods discussed in the other panels enable people to have high-quality fruit, vegetables and herbs on their doorstep with minimal effort. In other words, these methods change the situation from one where the easiest thing is to grab a burger to one where the easiest thing is to grab a fresh orange. One can hope that this will lead to a reduction in preventable diseases and {{em}} along with good application of [[Open Source Medicine/Advanced automation and artificial Intelligence in medicine|advanced automation and artificial intelligence in medicine]] {{em}} help take the burden off our overworked medical system.
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Unfortunately, changing human behaviour is not as straightforward as finding a solution to an engineering problem. But what the suggestions given here can achieve is a change in the food environment. Hopefully, by creating an environment where unprocessed fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds are readily available locally, we can mitigate obesity and diabetes as well as hunger.

Revision as of 03:23, 14 July 2010

A shortage of food is not the only problem. Over a billion people are overweight, and 300,000,000 are obese [1]. A third of all children born in the USA in 2000 are expected to become diabetic [2]. Metabolic syndrome 11px-Wikipedia_logo.jpg is estimated to affect a quarter of the US population.

Unfortunately, changing human behaviour is not as straightforward as finding a solution to an engineering problem. But what the suggestions given here can achieve is a change in the food environment. Hopefully, by creating an environment where unprocessed fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds are readily available locally, we can mitigate obesity and diabetes as well as hunger.