buy custom The Relationship between Local Food Environment and Residents Diet essay

buy custom The Relationship between Local Food Environment and Residents Diet essay Is there a relationship between Local Food Environment and Residents Diet in the prevention of Arteriosclerosis? There is acloseassociationbetween diet and diseases such as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and birth defects. Arteriosclerosis is one of these diseaseshighlyassociated with cholesterol intake. Reports indicate that taking foods containing saturated fats increases the risk of getting arteriosclerosis. At the same time, consumption of fruits and vegetables reduces the chances of one getting the disease. This paper arguesthat there is anassociation between thelocal foodenvironment, and the residentsdiethenceaffects the risk of arteriosclerosis. In this study, participants were thepopulationfrom the Arteriosclerosis Risk in Communities study in the period from 1993-1999. The participants were from Washington County, Forsyth County, Jackson City and Minneapolis. There were various reasons for the selection of these populations. First the data from the studywerereadily available from a large population sample with information on dietary intake. Secondly thepopulationinvolved was from adiversegeographic area and contained people ofvariedeconomic, educational andracialclases. Thirdly, there was information on neighborhood differences on diet. The numbers of participants were 2392 Black Americans and 8231 White Americans. The researchers used food frequency questionnaires to obtain the estimations of the intakes, the recommended foods and nutrients from the 10623 participants in the Arteriosclerosis Risk Communities study. They obtained thedataon availability of recommended foods through the presence of supermarkets, food stores and full service restaurants. These were the main suppliers of food to the communities. They varied the local food environment by increasing the number of the food suppliers. They obtained the increases in the amount of food taken by the participants due to the presence of a local foodenvironmentby computing the daily intake of calories in saturated fats, and daily intake of cholesterol. Othervariationfactors considered were the level of education, the amount of income and therace. Discussion Arteriosclerosis is aheartdisease that results from the clogging of blood vessels. The causal agent of the disease is high fat intake of fats. The disease is not transmissible, but it is common in families with a history of heart diseases. Intake of foods with low fat content, intake of vegetables and fruits is one of the prevention measures. There are a lot of recommendations outlined in the US for prevention of the disease. One of the measures is the availability of recommended foods in the vicinity of people. There are several other factors associated with the disease. Age is one of the contributing factors. The risk of the disease seems to increase with old age. In addition, othersassociateit with an increased concentration of cortisol in the blood that results from long timestress. There is one school of thought thatbelievesthediseaseis as a result of high intake of cholesterol. Another schoolbelievesthat stress is themaincause of the disease. Various prevention measures have be en stipulated depending on the school of thought. The study found out that the local foodenvironmentinfluences the intake of the recommendedfoodfor prevention of Arteriosclerosis. An increase in the number of supermarkets, food stores and full service restaurants in the study area increased intake of recommended foods. The study madevariousassumptions. One of them is that the supermarkets provide all the recommended foods. Another limitation to the findings was the fact that it did notconsiderage. Apart fromeducation, income and race, age among other factors is a determining factor in the choice of food. Buy custom The Relationship between Local Food Environment and Residents Diet essay