Hello! Sorry for my lack of posting in the last two days, I was very ill and then celebrated my Dads birthday. I will be blogging regularly after today.
I have switched from the New York Times to BBC as New York Times only lets you access 10 articles a month before you have to start to pay.
So the top story on BBC and CBC was both diabetes related news. which is interesting because November is actually Diabetes Awareness Month in Canada.
The BBC article covered a political mishap by an MP that stated the diabetes is easy to control by diet and exercise. People were offended as only Type 2 diabetes is caused by this, Type 1 is an autoimmune disease that you cannot fix or solve, people cannot avoid getting Type 1 diabetes. This caused significant controversy, including some people to comment that as a MP, they should be fact-checking before making statements about different health problems that people face. Diet and lifestyle affect only one type of diabetes, which makes it very important for everyone to realize the preventive measures they can take to prevent Type 2 diabetes.
The CBC article was incredibly fascinating, it covered how Canada has one of the highest rates of diabetes in the world. This is partly due to our poor diet, which leads to obesity. The article demonstrates how geography dictates the type of diseases one might get. The Maritimes have the highest rates of diabetes, which a professor of medicine from the University of Calgary says is for two reasons. The first is that partly due to the poor weather, people are less active. The second reason is that culturally in Newfoundland, there is different eating habits. The article suggests that some of the ways that Canada can combat this is by limiting the kinds of advertising children see, taxing sugary beverages, and government policy ideas to drive home healthy eating.
The top Tumblr photo is a very skinny female, hash tagged with fitspo, which a hashtag used to inspire motivation to get fit. Although this photo fits with a larger food problem of eating disorders in our society (as the photo is also hash tagged skinny), it does fit in with the larger trend of diabetes news with the whole exercise thing being inspiration to exercise, to avoid diabetes. Even though it does not directly mention diabetes, it is about the benefits of exercise and being fit.
The top Instagram post is on someone who was in the process of making a clean-eating fruit bowl. Fruit is considered a high source of sugar, albeit natural, but it is also a new trend in the foodie world to do “smoothie bowls” which is this similar too. The clean-eating trend in the food world is quite popular, it focuses on eating whole foods and foods that are minimally processed.
All of these media sites today reflect on how geography determines your destiny, especially one’s food destiny & diet. Newfoundland weather makes it much harder to grow food, so a much higher population in Newfoundland does not have access to healthy, fresh food. They have to import in fresh food which causes rising food costs. Newfoundland is already one of the lower-income provinces in Canada, due to the shift in industry. There are high rates of animal product consumption, and low activity due to poor weather. This is not similar to other areas of the country. British Columbia is ranked as the #1 healthiest province in Canada (http://globalnews.ca/news/1827343/b-c-is-the-healthiest-province-in-canada-ranked-3rd-in-the-world/) , as fresh produce in BC is common with local orchards and the agricultural heartland in the lower mainland. Geography is so important in determining how you eat. Each area of the country has a cultural identity around food; food is a common denominator around people. If the culture of a place, such as Newfoundland, does not eat health or have high exercise rates, that can really dictate the health habits that someone grows up with.
Geography is extremely important in food systems and health. We eat what we know, and the culture of a place can determine what we know.
Cheers!-A
Works Cited
BBC News. “MP apologizes for diabetes ‘avoidable’ comments,” BBC News, Nov. 7, 2015. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-34755746
CBC News. “10% of Canadians have adult diabetes, report says,” CBC News, Nov. 7, 2015. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/canadians-diabetes-new-brunswick-1.3307501