Food and Public Health. A Practical Introduction

Preface
Acknowledgments
Contributors

1. The History of Food and Public Health
Emily Contois and Anastasia Day

2. History and Development of the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans
Alice H. Lichtenstein and Allison Karpyn

3. Behavioral Design as an Emerging Theory for Dietary Behavior Change
NCCOR Behavioral Design Working Group

4. Health Disparities: Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Class
Alison G.M. Brown and Sara C. Folta

5. Healthy Food Marketing
Allison Karpyn

6. Policy Efforts Supporting Healthy Diets for Adults and Children
Courtney A. Pinard, Eric E. Calloway, Teresa M. Smith, and Amy L. Yaroh

7. Food Insecurity and Public Health
Molly Knowles, Joanna Simmons, and Mariana Chilton

8. Obesogenic Environments and Public Health Mitigation Strategies
Allison Karpyn

9. Food Controversies: The Healthy Pulse of a Democracy?
F. Bailey Norwood

10. The Obesity Pandemic & Food Insecurity in Developing Countries: A case study from the Caribbean
Kristen Lowitt, Katherine Gray-Donald, Gordon M. Hickey, Arlette Saint Ville, Isabella Francis-Granderson, Chandra A. Madramootoo, and Leroy Phillip

11. Intersections of Food and Culture: Case studies of sugar and meat from Australia, Japan, Thailand, and Nigeria
Wakako Takeda, Cathy Banwell, Kelebogile T. Setiloane, and Melissa K. Melby

12. From Soil to Stomach: Agritourism and Public Health
Erecia Hepburn and Allison Karpyn

• An accessible introduction to more than a century of food-focused regulation, policy, and education
• Suitable for courses in undergraduate and graduate public health, food studies, nutrition, medicine, and social work
• Distills the complex historical, political, sociological, and scientific discourse surrounding food into actionable insights for students and instructors of any background
• Emphasizes the global, interconnected nature of the U.S. food system and its effect on traditional diets around the world
• Pays special attention to food insecurity and its paradoxical role as a driver of both hunger and obesity

A new introduction to public health's most elemental topic

Food is baked in to most things that public health is and does. But for a field charged with carrying torches as divergent as anti-hunger and anti-obesity, it's unlikely, even impossible, to shape a unified approach to complex concepts like food environment, food access, or even nutrition.

Food and Public Health offers a contextualized, accessible introduction to understanding the foundations (and contradictions) at the intersection of these two topics. It distills the historical, political, sociological, and scientific factors influencing what we eat and where our food comes from, then offers actionable insights for future nutritionists, social workers, dietitians, and researchers in public health.

Guiding the reader through more than a century of food-focused regulation, policy, and education, Food and Public Health is an essential introduction to:

• food production and availability on a global and neighborhood scale
• dietary guidelines, agricultural subsidies, rationing, and other attempts by governments to shape their citizens' diets
• best practices in health promotion and chronic disease prevention
• food insecurity and its paradoxical role as driver of both hunger and obesity

Enriched with real-world examples and case studies, Food and Public Health offers a crucial link between kitchen tables and populations for the classroom.

Edited by Allison Karpyn, Associate Director, Center for Research in Education and Social Policy, and Associate Professor of Education and Behavioral Health and Nutrition, University of Delaware

Allison Karpyn, PhD, is Associate Professor of Education and Behavioral Health and Nutrition at the University of Delaware; she is also Associate Director of the Center for Research in Education and Social Policy at the University of Delaware and Associate Fellow for the Center for Public Health Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania. Karpyn previously served as the Director of Research and Evaluation at The Food Trust, a pioneering nonprofit in Philadelphia. Her research focuses on understanding how to increase access to affordable nutritious foods, healthy food purchasing and consumption behavior, especially among children.