If you ever wonder how the food you consume daily get on your plate, you are thinking about the food system. Food provides essential nutrients for growth and development, energy to carry out physical work, as well as tastes and pleasure that add enjoyment to life and help define who we are (Cornell, 2011).
Food is defined as any nutritious substance that people and/or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb to maintain life and growth. System is a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done, an organized framework or method. System is a group of interrelated and interdependent elements, as result a change in one element of a system affects every other element in the system, whether directly or indirectly. An example of a system is the human body.
A Food System is how we get our food, it is a complex set of interdependent processes from seed to table and back again. It includes five major parts: 1) production, 2) processing, 3) distribution ,4) consumption and 5) food waste management (see Image 1). Even though our food system is largely hidden where we do not see the many parts and resources require to maintain, most of us interact with food daily. We all eat, it is our common experience. Consequently, it is important to make the connections that food can have an impact in our community, economy, health, and the natural environment. Understanding the food system help us make informed food-related decisions that have the power to improve our health, our economy, the social and environmental well-being of our communities.
The food system includes all processes involved in feeding people: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consuming, and disposing of food and food packages. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each step. The food system operates within and is influenced by the social, political, economic, and natural environments. Each step is also dependent on human resources that provide labor, research, and education. The food system is connected to many other areas of life, such as nutrition, food, health, community economic development, and agriculture (Cornell, 2011). Food system can also be operating at local, regional, national, or global levels.
The current American food system model tend to place focus on profit rather than sustainable food production and distribution. It also promotes consumption of the unhealthiest foods that are highly processed, low in nutrients, high in calories, fats, sugars, and salt. Highly processed foods, meats, and grains are cheaper, but also less healthy (Burdo, 2018). According to the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC), about 90% of Americans 2 years or older consume too much sodium (salt). Studies has shown that a diet high in sodium can elevate blood pressure which is going to put stress on the heart and the cardiovascular system. In addition, about 70% of Americans consume more added sugar than the recommended limits which is associated with weight gain/obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney diseases, non-alcoholic liver disease, tooth decay and cavities, and more.
The current American food system is broken. As we have witnessed in the early months of the COVID-19 Pandemic, food workers disappeared, which caused the rise of food waste, while long lines are formed in food banks parking lots. That is possible because the American Food System has long been plagued by massive inefficiencies and injustices. We have an obesity epidemic, at the same time there's “soaring rates of food insecurity, exploitation of food workers, massive volumes of food waste, widespread nutritional deficiencies leading to alarming rates of diet related disease, the challenging economics of farming and disproportionate harm to underserved and Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities — all of these existed at near-crisis levels before the coronavirus first infected a single human. The virus and resulting public health measures simply brought these issues to the front burner and turned them up to a rolling boil” (Beyranevand, 2020).
Now more than ever before is the need to consider a more sustainable food system model. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics formerly known as the American Dietetic Association, developed the Sustainable Food System Framework, which place emphasizes on the human, economic, and natural resources on which the food system is built and the interactions among key components of the food system (See Image 2). Also, the Harvard Deans’ Food System Challenge (See Image 3).
Until then, do your best to eat healthier home cooked meals which are cost effective and can also save you from potential health risks you can endure through eating too much fast foods. Prioritize fresh products over non-perishable products. Freeze any leftovers for another meal to avoid food waste.
Sources:
Beyranevand, LJ., Leib, EB. (2020). Our food system is broken — there's a blueprint to fix it. The Hill. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/535070-our-food-system-is-broken-theres-a-blueprint-to-fix-it
Burdo, H. 2018. The Price Difference Between Healthy Food & Fast Food. Healthy Eating. Retrieved from https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/implement-healthy-eating-plan-daily-life-9677.html
Cornell University. (2011). Discovering Our Food System. Retrieved from https Our://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/f/575/files/2016/03/newlogoDiscovering- -Food-System-2lyk76c.pdf February 2021
Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health Promotion (2020). CDC. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/data-statistics/sugar-sweetened-beverages-intake.html February 2021
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2020). Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/sodium.htm February 2021
By Bid-Lose O. Francisque, MPH, RD, LDN | February 26, 2021
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