295933
Growing Health Across the Lifespan: A Food Systems Approach
Monday, November 4, 2013
: 9:30 a.m. - 9:50 a.m.
David Wallinga, MD, MPA,
Food and Health Program, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), Minneapolis, MN
Four of the six largest causes of morbidity and mortality are considered food-related: heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer. However, science now links additional chronic disease-including Alzheimer's autoimmune and GI disease-to a food system where many of the most prevalent, most affordable food products are the most pro-inflammatory. From this perspective, an inflammatory food system is also a food system linked at the cellular level to rising or epidemic diseases of old age marked by inflammation as a key mechanism. To promote wellness, it is insufficient to think of food as just adequate calories across life span. A healthy population will require policies supporting a food system that is resilient and anti-inflammatory, as well. The potential benefits of making anti-inflammation a core principal of food policy is enormous.
Learning Areas:
Public health or related public policy
Learning Objectives:
Explain the importance of inflammation as a mechanism underlying much chronic disease across the lifespan.
Describe specific pathways by which the food system is inflammatory at the cellular level.
List 2-3 research policies or other policies that might begin to address factors currently promoting an inflammatory food system.
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Invited speaker, working for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, discussing growing health across the life span.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
