Food, Health and Social Inequalities

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

Classes will be taught using powerpoint presentations, documentary screenings with subsequent discussion with students and through the discussion of scientific articles that students have to read in advance.

Learning Outcomes

Food systems are at the basis of human health and support environmental sustainability. Climate change will have a huge impact on food production, with implications for human health, and with increasing social inequalities due to different access to quality food and food.

The student should acquire knowledge and skills that allow him to think about the current problems of society in relation to the relationship between human health and well-being and the current dietary pattern.

They must understand the current concept of “global syndemic” considered as the co-existence of obesity, malnutrition and climate change.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1- Evolution of the human diet: paleolithic, agricultural, industrialization and globalization

2- Food, nutrition and climate change

3- Global food transitions

4- Climate change and agricultural productivity: effects on nutritional status in some regions. Impact on social inequalities.

5- Effects of climate change on the nutritional content of food and implications for health

6- The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Changeunion: obesity, malnutrition and climate change.

Head Lecturer(s)

Cristina Maria Proença Padez

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Synthesis work: 100.0%

Bibliography

Kawachi, I; Wamala, S. 2007. Globalization and Health. Oxford University Press.

Marmot, M; Wilkinson, RG. 2006. Social Determinants of Health. Second Edition. Oxford University Press.

Lindberg, S. 2010. Food and Western Disease. Health and Nutrition from and Evolutionary Perspective. Wiley-Blakwell.

Swinburn et al 2019 The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change: TheLancet Commission Report. Lancet, Vol. 393, February: 791-846.

FAO, IFAD, WFP. The State of Food Insecurity in the Worls 2015. FAO.

Tilman, D.; Clark, M. 2014. Global diets link environment sustainability and human health. Nature, 515:518-522.