Beyond food and nutrition: How can cities be made healthy?

Abstract

Urbanization is one of the predominant demographic trends of the late 20th century, with populations in developing countries moving in ever greater numbers from the rural countryside to cities of all sizes. The nutrition community is logically mostly fixated on issues of intake of foods and determination by nutritional status, and see urbanization and urban populations through that prism. Aside from assorted positive implications for better nutrition and health of urbanization, urban residence can have negative trade-offs including: social deterioration with drugs, crime and homelessness; sedentarism; and chemical, radiation, noise and illumination pollution. Pollution interacts with diet to the extent that there is balancing to be accomplished between the freeradical damage of pollutants and dietary antioxidants. Environmental lead contamination continues to be a problem in Jakarta, Indonesia. Sedentarism and lack of solar exposure in cities has negative implications for bone health, and risks for osteoporosis. Moreover, the processes in rural areas to produce agricultural products for urban populations can produce airborne pollutants that flow to cities, affecting the quality of urban life. Given these considerations, pollution and environmental factors should be added to the alimentary and healthrelated determinants often placed into the causal models for malnutrition used for planning policy and programs by international agencies.

Climate change and health with an emphasis on interactions with ultraviolet radiation: a review

“…Nevertheless, increasing prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in these regions could exacerbate the already high incidence of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases, unless other factors, such as warmer temperatures encouraging time outdoors, are compensatory. Urban migration from rural areas may result in lower sun exposure and vitamin D (Mckinley et al ., ), with consequent risks to health (Gross, ).…”

Stunting rates in infants and toddlers born in metropolitan Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

“…In specific localities, this prevalence can reach 80%, specifically in the Western Highlands of the republic. Urbanization, however, has been long recognized as a modifying factor for growth and development in low-income societies [5]. Hence, as a practical matter for designing policy and programs to improve growth outcomes for Guatemalan children, it is important to identify the socioeconomic and MR was involved in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; drafting of the manuscript; and approval of the final version of the manuscript.…”