As part of my study of heath this semester, I have started watching the Coursera lecture series Introduction to Global Health Policy, taught by a professor from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins.
In the first lecture, the professor introduced the concept of the “ecological model” of health behaviors. To demonstrate the model, he used the example of the use of insecticide-impregnated bed netting intended to prevent malaria and other mosquito-carried diseases in Africa.
The model involves 5 layers of influence on the eventual outcome of heath related decisions. I decided to try to apply the model to different health behavior: eating vegetables.
1. Individual: I like the taste of vegetables. Apparently, I’ve liked vegetables since I first started eating solid foods. My parents tell stories about how when I was a baby, I would cry and scream while pointing at bowls of steamed broccoli, delayed from serving while the family lit the Shabbat candles with friends.
Some people choose to eat vegetables because they are healthy, but I wouldn’t say that thinking applies to me. Although I don’t choose to eat vegetables because of their “healthiness” per se, I do often decide not to eat junk food because it isn’t healthy.
2. Family: I have always eaten the food my family cooks and grows in our front-yard garden. We eat most of our meals at home as a family. Since my parents have always bought and prepared a lot of vegetables, and then modeled eating them happily, I’ve always eaten lots of vegetables. While both parents stress the importance of a healthy diet of unprocessed whole foods, they serve vegetables mostly because they love to eat them.
3. Community: We live within walking distance to two wonderful Farmers Markets. I live around many vegetarians and other people interested in the politics of food, local food, unprocessed food, organics, etc
4. Institutions: I don’t go to school which I have heard feeds students poorly-prepared vegetables. And we live within walking distance to both a natural foods co-op and a chain natural foods grocery store.
5. Policy & Law: Most things I can think about don’t affect me directly, like the fact that organic farms have regulations, making organic foods more expensive. I have been exposed to national campaigns focusing on healthy eating such as Michelle Obama's Let’s Move as well as national guidelines like the food plate (and formerly, the pyramid).
One of the things I was curious about was where pop-culture would fit into the ecological model. For relatively isolated communities in Africa, this factor might not be relevant. But for us here in the US, I think it is very important. So I have added a sixth category:
6. Society: While it is not something that affects me greatly, because I don’t go to school or have a tv, I know that it is a great influence on many kids my age. That eating vegetables is uncool. While it could fit into community (what people in our community tell us) or that it might fit into institutions since so much of it is corporation and ad based, it could very nicely fit into policy as a social policy. Because of this overlapping nature, maybe it should be its own level of society and pop-culture (at least in America.)
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Diabetes and Bugs
Over the weekend, I took my grandparents to visit the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore. My grandfather has Type II Diabetes, so we thought it might be especially interesting to visit the Diabetes exhibit on the second floor. We enjoyed it a lot and it was great to see Grandpa smile.
The exhibit was primarily about Type II diabetes but there was also information about Type I diabetes, which my uncle has. Most people who are diagnosed with Type I diabetes are young. Their pancreases have stopped producing insulin and they therefore need to inject insulin into their bodies throughout the day. Type II diabetes is usually diagnosed in older adults and results when their cells fail to use insulin effectively. In other words, their bodies have become insulin resistant.
People who have Type I diabetes must take insulin regularly since their bodies cannot produce it. Some people with Type II take insulin, but many people only take medications that make their bodies more
sensitive to the the insulin their bodies naturally produce.
A significant way both Type I diabetics and Type II diabetics can take care of themselves is by eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly. These actions can help prevent the long-term consequences of diabetes, which can include cardiovascular problems, nerve damage and amputations, kidney damage, and blindness.
One of the central points of the museum exhibit was to explain the impact of diabetes on patients. I felt the number of special effects and graphics detracted from that goal. For example, there was an arcade game contraption which was supposed to teach how difficult it is to balance insulin and glucose. Unfortunately, the instructions did not really explain how the process worked. On top of that, the game did not work much of the time.
The exhibit talked a lot about how difficult it is to develop treatments (and perhaps one day a cure) for diabetes. The FDA will not approve a medicine that hurts 1 in 10,000 people. Therefore, any drug that helps many but can hurt particular individuals cannot be released. I have mixed feelings about the process. The FDA should protect people from harm, but if the drug has a potential to help others, it might still have a use. My father pointed out (and I agree) that the exhibit seemed to be sponsored by pharmaceutical corporations who were trying to convince people that manufacturing new and expensive drugs is the only appropriate way to combat diabetes.
* * *
While we were at the science museum, I watched a demonstration of common ways of cooking insects. At the end, the chef served samples of a cricket stir-fry (which was excellent). Surprisingly enough, the taste and texture of crickets is similar to the taste and texture of sunflower seeds. They also have similar nutritive properties. For dessert, I had a chocolate-chip mealworm cookie which was unbelievably good. Despite my recommendations, my grandparents decided not to sample the bugs.
--Abe
The exhibit was primarily about Type II diabetes but there was also information about Type I diabetes, which my uncle has. Most people who are diagnosed with Type I diabetes are young. Their pancreases have stopped producing insulin and they therefore need to inject insulin into their bodies throughout the day. Type II diabetes is usually diagnosed in older adults and results when their cells fail to use insulin effectively. In other words, their bodies have become insulin resistant.
People who have Type I diabetes must take insulin regularly since their bodies cannot produce it. Some people with Type II take insulin, but many people only take medications that make their bodies more
sensitive to the the insulin their bodies naturally produce.
A significant way both Type I diabetics and Type II diabetics can take care of themselves is by eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly. These actions can help prevent the long-term consequences of diabetes, which can include cardiovascular problems, nerve damage and amputations, kidney damage, and blindness.
One of the central points of the museum exhibit was to explain the impact of diabetes on patients. I felt the number of special effects and graphics detracted from that goal. For example, there was an arcade game contraption which was supposed to teach how difficult it is to balance insulin and glucose. Unfortunately, the instructions did not really explain how the process worked. On top of that, the game did not work much of the time.
The exhibit talked a lot about how difficult it is to develop treatments (and perhaps one day a cure) for diabetes. The FDA will not approve a medicine that hurts 1 in 10,000 people. Therefore, any drug that helps many but can hurt particular individuals cannot be released. I have mixed feelings about the process. The FDA should protect people from harm, but if the drug has a potential to help others, it might still have a use. My father pointed out (and I agree) that the exhibit seemed to be sponsored by pharmaceutical corporations who were trying to convince people that manufacturing new and expensive drugs is the only appropriate way to combat diabetes.
* * *
While we were at the science museum, I watched a demonstration of common ways of cooking insects. At the end, the chef served samples of a cricket stir-fry (which was excellent). Surprisingly enough, the taste and texture of crickets is similar to the taste and texture of sunflower seeds. They also have similar nutritive properties. For dessert, I had a chocolate-chip mealworm cookie which was unbelievably good. Despite my recommendations, my grandparents decided not to sample the bugs.
--Abe
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