essay about nutritious food spm

Essay on Healthy Lifestyle for Students and Children

500+ Words Essay on Healthy Lifestyle

It is said that it is easy to learn and maintain bad habits but it is very difficult to switch them back. The issue of a healthy lifestyle is very serious but the people take it very lightly. Often, it is seen that the people take steps to improve their lifestyle but due to lack of determination quits in the midway.

Moreover, for a healthy lifestyle is it important that you take small and one-step at a time. Also, do not go overboard with it. Besides, this healthy lifestyle will help you in life in a lot of ways.

Habits That Keeps You Healthy

For keeping your body and mind healthy you have to follow certain rules that will help you achieve your goal. Besides, there are certain measures that will help you to stay healthy.

First of all, for being healthy you have to plan and follow a strict diet. This diet should contain all the essential minerals and vitamins required by the body. Also, eat only healthy food and avoid junk and heavily carbohydrate and fatty food.

In addition, wake up early in the morning because first of all, it’s a healthy habit. Secondly, waking up early means you can get ready for your work early, spend some quality time with your family. Besides, this decides time for your sleep and sleep early because it de-stresses body.

Doing exercise regularly makes your body more active and it also releases the pent-up stress from the muscles.

Avoid the mobile- the biggest drawback of this generation is that they are obsessed with their mobile phones. Moreover, these phones cause many physical and mental problem for them. So, to avoid the negative effects of mobile the usage volume of them should be reduced.

Connecting with positive minds because the more you indulge with these people then less you will go to the negative side.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

The things that should be avoided for a healthy lifestyle

We knew that there are several bad habits that affect our healthy lifestyle. These habits can cause much harm to not only to the body but to the society too. In addition, these habits are also the cause of many evils of society. The major healthy lifestyle destroying habits are smoking, drinking, junk food, addiction , meal skipping, and overuse of pills.

All these activities severely damage body parts and organs which cannot be replaced easily. Besides, they not only cause physical damage but mental damage too.

Benefits of a Healthy Lifestyle

A healthy lifestyle has many benefits not only for the body but for the mind too. Also, if you follow a healthy lifestyle then you can reduce the risk of having cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and osteoporosis.

To sum it up, we can say that there are various benefits of living a healthy lifestyle. Also, a healthy lifestyle has many benefits to your social as well as personal life. Besides, it improves the relationships in the family. Most importantly, the person who lives a healthy lifestyle lives longer as compared to those who do not.

FAQs on Healthy Lifestyle

Q.1 Give some tips to live a healthy lifestyle. A.1 Some tips for staying healthy are eating a balanced diet, maintain weight, having enough sleep, sleep early and wake up early, use mobile lesser, etc.

Q.2 What is good health? A.2 Good health means freedom from sickness and diseases. It is a costly gift of nature to us for living a purposeful life. Also, good health means that we can do more work than our capacity without getting tired.

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Importance Of Eating Healthy Food (Essay Sample)

Food, air, and water are basic necessities of life. The food we eat represents our culture, ethics, tradition, and beliefs. Food is essential for survival as it provides us with energy to carry out daily activities like walking, running, working, and socializing. Healthy eating and a healthy diet promote a healthy lifestyle. On the contrary, unhealthy food that includes junk food results in many diseases. In this essay, I will discuss the importance of healthy food and how it can help us stay strong and active in life.

Table of Contents

Essay On Importance Of Eating Healthy Food – 700 Word Long Essay

Food is a basic necessity of life as it helps us to survive. Food provides us the energy to carry out our daily tasks that include working, walking, and socializing. The food we eat represents our personality, culture, and traditions. A healthy diet leads to healthy habits and regularly eating unhealthy foods leads to many diseases that negatively impact your physical and mental wellbeing. In this essay, I will discuss the benefits of healthy food and how it impacts our daily lives.

Eating vegetables and fruits in large quantities helps to reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases such as diabetes and reduces the risk of a heart attack. Vegetables provide many healthy nutrients that are needed to maintain good health. However, eating just vegetables and no meant content is not a very good practice. Being a vegetarian is good for health but there are some nutrients that you can only get from meat and not plants. Research has shown that some essential nutrients like vitamin B12 and vitamin D13   along with many other nutrients are only present in meat and other animal-sourced foods. Therefore, everyone should look to adopt a balanced diet that contains a little bit of everything in an adequate amount.

Obesity is one of the most common health problems being faced by the modern generation. Junk food is one of the key causes of obesity because junk food contains high-calorie, high fat, high sugar, and high salt content. Health experts identify high fats, sugar, and raw salt as key contributors that cause heart diseases, kidney failure, and other health problems.

Healthy foods have many health-related benefits.  Healthy foods can improve a person’s mood and enhance their mental status. When a person’s body is under stress, protein is often broken down into amino acids which aid the body to deal with stress. Protein-rich diets such as dairy products can help to enhance the protein level in the body. Moreover, diets rich in omega-3 fats such as nuts, as well as vitamin-rich and mineral-rich diets including fruits and vegetables help maintain stable blood sugar levels. Healthy foods such as beetroot, apricots, and radishes also improve the overall body appearance. Sugary items have been linked to dry skin and early aging. These are the reasons why one should always eat healthy food.

Unhealthy foods have many disadvantages as they are the main reason for many diseases. Consuming processed food, junk food, and all types of fast foods can have very bad effects on the body. These problems lead to weight gain, excess body fat, increase the risk of heart disease, cause high blood pressure, and even early death in some cases. Artificial sweeteners

High calories have been shown to increase blood pressure and increase the chances of an early death occurring. However, vegetables, fruits, exercise, and overall calorie reduction enable the body to work efficiently. Junk food does not have vital micronutrients such as minerals and vitamins. Consequently, the consumer misses the vital nutrients needed to boost the body’s well being hence his risk of early death is enhanced.

In conclusion, everyone should make a healthier choice by eating healthy foods and developing healthy eating habits. The human body can be kept perfectly healthy by eating healthy food and maintaining a healthy diet. Always make a wiser choice because your body deserves better!

Eating Healthy Food Leads To A Healthy Life Essay In 200 WordsShort Essay

Food is one of three basic necessities in life, the other two being air and water. Food is essential to survival. Our food choices reflect many things about our life and personality. In today’s world, we mostly see only two kinds: the ones who live to eat and those who eat to live. Both of them are food extremists and people should move towards a balanced diet that comprises everything in adequate amounts.  Healthy foods lead to a healthy body and a healthy weight. On the contrary unhealthy foods destroy our digestive system and damage the whole body. In this essay on healthy food, I will discuss how and why healthy food leads to a healthy lifestyle.

Eating healthy food and pursuing a healthy diet is an essential way to add important nutrients to your food intake. Nutritionists encourage eating more vegetables to make digestion easier. They also suggest that we should avoid eating more calories than what is required by not eating meat every day. A person who only relies on junk food, fast food, and processed food becomes obese in no time. Obese people cannot live a healthy life because they are unable to do more physical activities. Lying on the bed all day and eating junk only leads to more troubles like diabetes, high blood pressure, and problems with the digestive system.

Some common healthy food easily includes whole grains, dairy products, green vegetables, eggs, and lean meat. However, always making a healthy food choice is not easy. Nowadays the world is becoming fast, busy, and demanding; there is a limited time to do everything. The same goes with food as most people don’t have enough time to prepare healthy food so they opt for fast food instead. Processed foods, energy drinks, deep-fried snacks, and sodas are also among the most unhealthy foods.

In conclusion, healthier choices enhance our health by making our lives healthy and happy. On the contrary, unhealthy food choices lead to chronic diseases, malnutrition, high cholesterol, and obesity. Given the high rate of deaths in the U.S. caused by factors related to poor diet, lack of physical exercise, and high consumption of junk foods, people need to consider consuming healthy food.

Do you like these sample essays about The Importance Of Eating Healthy Foods? Reach out to Essay Basics to get a professionally written plagiarism-free and unique custom essay on any topic in less than 3 hours.

FAQ About Importance of Having a Good Diet Essay

How does healthy food improve your mood.

Healthy foods like protein which is most available in dairy products can quickly break down in your digestive system and stop you from stressing too much. Just like eggs and dairy products, many other foods can also improve a person’s mood.

What are the 5 benefits of healthy eating?

Healthy eating promotes good health, reduces stress, keeps your body in good shape, helps you get rid of pimples and other skin problems, and helps you live longer.

• https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/7-nutrients-you-cant-get-from-plants#1.-Vitamin-B12

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• Healthy Lifestyle Essay

Essay on Healthy Lifestyle

The top secret of being physically fit is adopting a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle includes regular exercise, a healthy diet, taking good care of self, healthy sleep habits, and having a physically active daily routine. Lifestyle is the most prevailing factor that affects one’s fitness level. A person leading a sedentary lifestyle has a low fitness level whereas living a healthier life not only makes a person fit but also extends life. Good health has a direct impact on our personality. A person with a good and healthy lifestyle is generally more confident, self-assured, sociable, and energetic.

A good and healthy lifestyle allows one to relish and savor all the pleasures in life without any complications. Even all the wealth is less valuable when compared to sound health. Having all the luxuries in the world does not fulfill its purpose when one is continuously ill, depressed, or suffering from a significant health complication. A healthy person has a clear and calm perception of everything without prejudice. His actions and decisions are more practical and logical and are hence more successful in life.

A good habit is a key factor for a healthy lifestyle. To maintain a stable body and mind, one needs to inculcate good habits. Waking up early in the morning, regularly exercising or a good morning walk helps to keep our body energetic and refresh our mind. Maintaining a balanced and nutritious diet throughout the day is vital for maintaining a good lifestyle. Too much indulgence in alcohol or smoking excessively is not at all appropriate for a healthy lifestyle.

Self-Discipline

Self-discipline is important for maintaining a good lifestyle. When we are self-disciplined then we are more organized and regular in maintaining good health. A disciplined life is a regulated life. A man without discipline is a ship without a rudder. Discipline needs self-control. One who cannot control himself can seldom control others. The level of discipline and perseverance largely determines a person’s success. Self-discipline is the act of disciplining one’s own feelings, desires, etc. especially with the intention of improving oneself. It strengthens our willpower. The stronger our will power the positive will be our decision. It enables us to conquer our own self.

Punctuality

Punctuality is the habit of doing things on time. It is the characteristic of every successful person and everyone must observe punctuality in order to win success in life. Punctuality is necessary for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It should become a habit with us. A punctual person is able to fulfill all his responsibilities and hence is treated with respect in society. It is needed in every walk of life.

Diet is an important component for overall fitness and works best in combination with exercise. A balanced diet and exercise regularly help to maintain good health. It is necessary to reduce weight if one is overweight or obese, failing which one cannot be physically fit for long. For people with obesity, more exercise and a strict regime are necessary, preferably under guidance. There are many ways of making the diet healthier.

Use less sugar and salt while cooking food.

Use less oil while cooking. Avoid deep-frying as much as possible. 

Eat more fruits daily. They provide more vitamins and minerals to our bodies.

Add sprouts of gram and moong dal to at least one meal in a day. Add fiber to your diet. Use whole grains instead of polished cereals. Eat lots of salad and yogurt.

Eat fermented food regularly. Fermented food contains many useful bacteria that help in the process of digestion.

Prevention of Lifestyle Diseases

By adopting a healthy lifestyle one can avoid lifestyle diseases. The following are some ways in which we can prevent lifestyle diseases.

Eat a balanced diet that contains important nutrients. One must include more fresh fruits and green vegetables in the diet. Refrain from eating junk food. Stay away from foods that contain large amounts of salt or sugar.

Exercise regularly. Spend more time outdoors and do activities such as walking, running, swimming, and cycling.

One must avoid overindulgence in alcohol, junk food, smoking, and addiction to drugs and medicines.

Avoid spending too much on modern gadgets like mobile phones, laptops, televisions, etc. Spend time on these gadgets for short intervals of time only.

Set a healthy sleeping routine for every day. Waking early in the morning and going to bed early at night should be a daily habit. Lead an active life.

Unhealthy Lifestyle

Bad food habits and an unhealthy lifestyle such as less or no physical activity may lead to several diseases like obesity, high blood pressure or hypertension, diabetes, anemia, and various heart diseases. An unhealthy lifestyle reduces productivity and creativity in a person. It also adversely affects moods and relationships. It leads to depression and anxiety in human beings.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle not only makes a person confident and productive but also drives him to success. A person with a healthy lifestyle will enjoy both personal and social life.

FAQs on Healthy Lifestyle Essay

What Do You Understand about a Healthy Lifestyle?

A healthy lifestyle is a lifestyle that includes regular exercise, a healthy diet, taking good care of self, healthy sleep habits and having a physically active daily routine.

How is Punctuality Important for Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle?

Punctuality is the habit of doing things on time. It is the characteristic of every successful person and everyone must observe punctuality in order to win success in life. It should become a habit with us. A punctual person is able to fulfil all his responsibilities and hence is treated with respect in society. It is needed in every walk of life.

What Happens When One Does Not Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle?

When one does not maintain a healthy lifestyle then several diseases like obesity, high blood pressure or hypertension, diabetes, anaemia and various heart diseases can occur. An unhealthy lifestyle reduces productivity and creativity in a person. It also adversely affects moods and relationships. It leads to depression and anxiety in human beings.

What are the Main Factors that Determine a Good and Healthy Lifestyle?

In order to maintain a good and healthy lifestyle, one must be self-disciplined, self-motivated, maintain punctuality and have good habits like waking early in the morning and maintain a regular fitness regime and a balanced and nutritious diet.

Is writing an essay hard?

Essay writing is a difficult task that needs a great deal of study, time, and focus. It's also an assignment that you can divide down into manageable chunks such as introduction, main content, and conclusion. Breaking down and focusing on each individually makes essay writing more pleasant. It's natural for students to be concerned about writing an essay. It's one of the most difficult tasks to do, especially for people who aren't confident in their writing abilities. While writing a decent essay is difficult, the secret to being proficient at it is reading a lot of books, conducting extensive research on essential topics, and practicing essay writing diligently.

Why is it important for one to aspire to have a healthy lifestyle?

A healthy lifestyle is an important way for reducing the occurrence and impact of health problems, as well as for recovery, coping with life stressors, and improving the overall quality of life. An increasing collection of scientific data suggests that our habits have a significant impact on our health. Everything we eat and drink, as well as how much exercise we get and whether we smoke or use drugs, has an impact on our health, not just in terms of life expectancy but also in terms of how long we may expect to live without developing chronic illness. A large proportion of fatalities are caused by conditions such as heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, joint disease, and mental illness. A healthy lifestyle can help to avoid or at least delay the onset of many health issues.

How to download the Essay on Healthy Lifestyle from the Vedantu website?

The Essay on Healthy Lifestyle, which is accurate and well-structured, is available for download on the Vedantu website. The Essay is accessible in PDF format on Vedantu's official website and may be downloaded for free. Students should download the Essay on Healthy Lifestyle from the Vedantu website to obtain a sense of the word limit, sentence structure, and fundamental grasp of what makes a successful essay. Vedantu essay is brief and appropriate for youngsters in school. It is written in basic English, which is ideal for kids who have a restricted vocabulary. Following the Vedantu essay ensures that students are adequately prepared for any essay subject and that they will receive high grades. Click here to read the essay about a healthy lifestyle.

Who prepares the Essay for Vedantu?

The Essay on Healthy Lifestyle designed for the Vedantu is created by a group of experts and experienced teachers. The panel of experts has created the essay after analyzing important essay topics that have been repeatedly asked in various examinations. The Essays that are provided by Vedantu are not only well-structured but also accurate and concise. They are aptly suited for young students with limited vocabulary. For best results, the students are advised to go through multiple essays and practice the topics on their own to inculcate the habits of time management and speed.

What constitutes a healthy lifestyle?

Healthy life is built on the pillars of a good diet, frequent exercise, and appropriate sleep. A healthy lifestyle keeps people in excellent shape, it also gives you more energy throughout the day, and lowers your chance of developing many diet-related chronic diseases. Healthy living is considered a lifestyle choice that allows you to enjoy more elements of your life. Taking care of one's physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being is part of living a healthy lifestyle.

Good Nutrition, Eating Right and proper diet.

Getting Physically Fit, Beneficial Exercise and working out often.

Adequate rest and uninterrupted sleep.

Proper Stress Management.

Self-Supportive Attitudes.

Positive Thoughts are encouraged.

Positive Self-Image and body image.

Inner Calmness and peace.

Openness to Your Creativity and Self-care.

Trust in Your Inner Knowing and your gut feeling.

Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Nutrition & Dieting — Nutrition

Nutrition Essays

The best nutrition essay prompts to kickstart your writing.

Embarking on the journey of writing a nutrition essay begins with understanding the prompt. A well-chosen prompt can illuminate the path to a compelling narrative, enriched with insightful analyses and groundbreaking conclusions. Here are examples to ignite your creativity:

• Explore the impact of vegan diets on athletic performance.
• Analyze the role of micronutrients in preventing chronic diseases.
• Discuss the socio-economic barriers to healthy eating in urban areas.

Strategies to Brainstorm and Select a Captivating Nutrition Essay Topic

Choosing the right topic is crucial for your essay's success. Consider these points to spark a brainstorming session that leads to the selection of a compelling topic:

• Relevance: Choose a topic that is relevant to current trends and research in nutrition.
• Interest: Pick a subject you are passionate about to maintain motivation throughout your writing process.
• Originality: Aim for a unique angle or perspective to stand out from commonly discussed topics.
• Resources: Ensure there are enough resources and research available to support your essay.

Exploring Unique Nutrition Essay Topics for an Engaging Read

To captivate your audience, veer away from the beaten path and explore these thought-provoking topics:

• The effects of gut microbiota diversity on mental health.
• Nutritional strategies for managing autoimmune diseases.
• The influence of cultural practices on dietary habits across the globe.
• Future trends in nutrition: The rise of personalized diets.

Inspiring Examples of Paragraphs and Phrases for Your Nutrition Essay

Let these samples inspire your writing, enhancing the flow and depth of your essay:

"As we delve into the intricate relationship between diet and mental health, it becomes evident that the gut-brain axis serves as a critical communication pathway. This symbiotic relationship underscores the importance of nutritional choices in maintaining mental well-being."

"The concept of personalized nutrition, tailored to an individual’s genetic makeup, lifestyle, and environment, heralds a new era in dietary science. This bespoke approach promises to revolutionize our understanding and management of nutrition-related health outcomes."

Persuasive Essay on Eating Healthy

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The Impact of Nutrition and Physical Activity on Health

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The Importance of Proper Nutrition and Healthy Diet

Foods that boost creativity, master of nutrition and dietetics, nutrition plan for muscle growth, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

Expert-written essays crafted with your exact needs in mind

Nutritional Influences of Carbohydrates and Proteins on Depressive Symptoms

The importance of nutrition education in school, nutrition concept for the football players, nutrition rules that will fuel your workout, the importance of nutrition management in respiratory diseases and mechanically ventilated patients , assessment of my nutrition and dietary routine, importance of proper nutrition in bodybuilding, a study of the relationship between nutrition and brain function, parenteral nutrition in cancer chemotherapy, how identification of genes and genetic expression can contribute to nutritional assessment, all about fats: why you need them in your diet, vegan lifestyle: why veganism is more than a diet, the importance of eating organic food, the differences between nutrient-dense foods and empty-calorie foods and their effects on health, evolution as one of the major determinants in the obesity setting, veganism - the best solution to nowadays' problems, why palm oil is bad for your health, should chocolate milk be served in schools, the process of canning and history of canned food, advantages and disadvantages of different fruits.

Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life.

Nutrition process includes ingestion, absorption, assimilation, biosynthesis, catabolism and excretion.

Human nutrition deals with the provision of essential nutrients from food that are necessary to support human life and good health. In humans, poor nutrition can cause deficiency-related diseases such as blindness, anemia, scurvy, preterm birth, stillbirth and cretinism, or nutrient excess health-threatening conditions such as obesity and metabolic syndrome. Undernutrition can lead to wasting in acute cases, and stunting of marasmus in chronic cases of malnutrition.

Supplements can never fully replace real foods. Unprocessed food is healthiest. Omega-3 fats are crucial and most people don’t get enough. There is no perfect diet for everyone.

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PTE EXAM PREPARATION

PTE Academic Exam Practice Material

Healthy Food Essay

Read healthy food essay in English in 300 words. Know more about essay on healthy food for students of class 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Learn how to write healthy food essay for kids or what is the importance of healthy food essay.

Healthy Food Essay 300 Words

Healthy food contains an adequate amount of vitamins and nutrients that are essential to keep our body fit and fine. Health is the most important aspect of life and if we eat healthy we can live a more prosperous life. However, people nowadays tend to eat junk food that is harmful to our body and has proved to be fatal many times.

Therefore, it is important to make people aware of the benefits of healthy eating so that they can adopt a healthy lifestyle and keep themselves away from diseases and infections. Food forms the basis of our life and eating good and healthy food keeps us in good physical shape as well increases our immunity and strength.

Eating a healthy diet puts a positive impact on our lives and improves our mental, physical and internal health. Including fruits and vegetables in our diet prevents us from various diseases like heart attacks, blood pressure, cholesterol problems, diabetes and much more. Green veggies are considered very beneficial for good metabolism and resistance to diseases.

These days’ people are suffering from obesity problems which in turn results in various illnesses. Junk food is the main cause of obesity as it contains high sugars and fats. So, in order to live a healthy life, one must cut down on junk food intake and should start eating healthy food.

So, in conclusion, one must resort to alternative ways to have tasty and healthy food at the same time. We must drink lemon water and herbal tea instead of soft drinks; one should drink plant-based milk, eat raw fruits instead of juices, switch to lean protein diet, and eat less processed foods to keep the body healthy and fit. Hence, we must realize this fact that even though junk food looks amazing and appetizing, we must not eat it and should include healthy food in our diet to live a long life full of health and good well-being.

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SPM Essay Writing Guide – Format & Examples

What is spm.

Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia, or SPM, is a significant national exam that Malaysian students who have completed Form 5 education—typically at the age of 17—take. It’s crucial since it determines whether or not they can continue their education after high school and serves as a measure of their overall academic success. Writing an essay is a significant part of the SPM exam since it evaluates the test taker’s command of the English language, analytical reasoning skills, and ability to form coherent arguments.

SPM Essay Format

Excellent SPM essays may only be written by students who have a firm grasp of the proper essay format. An essay typically consists of three primary components:

1. Introduction

The introduction of an essay serves as the initial section, strategically designed to captivate the reader’s interest and provide essential contextual information for the subsequent content of the paper. The factors that contribute to the level of interest in an introduction are:

A hook: A hook is a provocative statement or query that grabs the reader’s attention.

Background context: Introduce the topic and its relevance in a brief background context.

Thesis statement: Clearly state your essay’s principal contention or goal.

The body of your essay comprises several paragraphs, each of which deals with a different aspect of your thesis or a related concept. When composing the body, adhere to the following guidelines:

Topic sentences: Each paragraph should begin with an introduction to the key concept that is succinct and straightforward.

Supporting evidence: To support your claims, offer statistics, examples, or supporting proof.

Smooth transitions: Make sure the transitions between paragraphs are reasonable, retaining the coherence of the structure.

3. Conclusion

The conclusion is the last section, where you restate your thesis and briefly review your significant points. To write a strong conclusion:

Summarise main points: Briefly summarise your main points from the body paragraphs.

Restate thesis: Rephrase your thesis statement to reinforce your main argument.

Closing thought: A provocative statement or call to action should be the closing thought.

How to Write an SPM Essay?

Essay writing is a craft that can be honed with time and focus. Write an excellent SPM essay by following this simple outline:

1. Understand the Question

To completely understand the criteria of the essay question, carefully read and consider it. Indicate the essay type (e.g., descriptive, narrative, argumentative) and the keywords that will be used.

2. Plan Your Essay

The key ideas you intend to cover in each part should be included in an outline. Planning ensures a clear essay structure and helps you organize your thoughts.

3. Start with a Strong Introduction

Write a captivating beginning that introduces the subject, establishes the mood, and expresses your thesis statement succinctly.

4. Develop the Body Paragraphs

Each paragraph should focus on a single idea, with supporting details and arguments. Make seamless transitions between ideas.

5. Craft an Impactful Conclusion

Reiterate your thesis, restate your essential points, and give the reader a thought-provoking conclusion.

SPM Essay Writing Tips

Take into account these helpful tips to improve your essay-writing abilities:

1. Read Widely

Your vocabulary and knowledge base will grow due to exposure to various reading sources, including books, newspapers, and articles.

2. Practice Regularly

Consistent writing practice improves your writing abilities and increases your comfort level while confronting various essay subjects.

3. Seek Feedback

To pinpoint areas for growth, get comments from teachers, peers, or family members.

4. Time Management

Use your time effectively during the exam to allow enough time for preparing, writing, and reviewing.

5. Grammar and Vocabulary

Pay close attention to your grammar, spelling, and language choices for your writing to remain coherent and clear.

Types of SPM Essays

SPM essays can take many forms, each requiring a different strategy. Here are a few common types:

1. Narrative Essay

It tells a tale with aspects including characters, setting, and plot, frequently from the viewpoint of the author.

2. Descriptive Essay

It uses sensory details to create a realistic image of a person, location, or event to capture the reader’s attention.

3. Argumentative Essay

Presents reasons and proof to persuade readers to take a specific stance on a hotly debated subject.

4. Expository Essay

Gives details, justifications, or analyses on a subject backed up by examples and facts.

5. Reflective Essay

Reveals one’s own feelings, thoughts, and experiences while highlighting the lessons learned from a certain incident.

SPM Essay Example for Malaysian Students

To provide you with a practical reference, here is a brief example of an SPM essay provided by Malaysian Essay Helpers :

Example Title: “The Impact of Technology on Education”

Introduction:.

The digital era has completely transformed every part of our life, including education. Classrooms have changed as a result of the growing use of digital devices and the internet, with both positive and negative effects.

Paragraph 1 (Positive Impact)

The educational process has been greatly improved by technology. Interactive instructional software and applications provide pupils with fun ways to understand difficult ideas. Additionally, e-learning platforms have made it possible to receive a degree from a distance, eliminating geographic restrictions and fostering lifelong learning.

Paragraph 2 (Negative Impact)

But there are negative consequences to using too much technology in the classroom. The decline of conventional methods of instruction may lead to a shortage of students with strong critical thinking and interpersonal skills. Additionally, the digital divide between kids from various socioeconomic origins has the potential to make educational disparities worse.

In conclusion, it is undeniable that technology has significantly influenced modern schooling. To guarantee that every student receives a well-rounded education, educators must strike a balance between tech-based instruction and conventional teaching techniques, despite the fact that technology has many benefits in terms of accessibility and learning opportunities.

For Malaysian students who want to perform well on their exams, mastering the art of SPM essay writing is essential. Students may improve their writing talents and create compelling essays highlighting their knowledge and critical thinking skills by adhering to the correct essay style, employing effective writing approaches, and practicing frequently. Remember to experiment with different essay formats to increase your writing versatility and use other people’s work as inspiration to enhance your own.

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Access to nutritious food, socioeconomic individualism and public health ethics in the USA: a common good approach

Jacquineau azétsop.

1 Département de Santé Publique, Faculté des Sciences de la Santé de l’Université de N’djaména, Avenue Mobutu, B.P. 1117 N’djaména, Tchad

Tisha R Joy

2 Department of Medicine, Western Ontario University, B5-107, 268 Grosvenor Street, London, Ontario N6A 4V2, Canada

Good nutrition plays an important role in the optimal growth, development, health and well-being of individuals in all stages of life. Healthy eating can reduce the risk of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancer. However, the capitalist mindset that shapes the food environment has led to the commoditization of food. Food is not just a marketable commodity like any other commodity. Food is different from other commodities on the market in that it is explicitly and intrinsically linked to our human existence. While possessing another commodity allows for social benefits, food ensures survival. Millions of people in United States of America are either malnourished or food insecure. The purpose of this paper is to present a critique of the current food system using four meanings of the common good--as a framework, rhetorical device, ethical concept and practical tool for social justice. The first section of this paper provides a general overview of the notion of the common good. The second section outlines how each of the four meanings of the common good helps us understand public practices, social policies and market values that shape the distal causal factors of nutritious food inaccessibility. We then outline policy and empowerment initiatives for nutritious food access.

Introduction

A significant number of people in the United States of America (USA) are confronted with food insecurity [ 1 - 3 ]. Food security refers to “a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” [ 4 ]. Lack of accessibility to healthy food is an important aspect of food insecurity, as good nutrition plays an important role in the optimal growth, development, health and well-being of individuals in all stages of life. Healthy eating can also reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancer. The economic cost of food insecurity is about $90 billion per year in increased medical care costs [ 5 ]. Access to food is a “problem of special concern for women and children. Female-headed households had a food insecurity prevalence of 30.2%, or almost 3 times the national average, and more than 12.4 million children experienced food insecurity in 2007” [ 4 ]. With such a number of children confronted with food insecurity, “sizable segments of the population are at risk for poor development and impaired performance in school” [ 5 ]. The impact of food insecurity on children needs to be considered as an issue that may diminish national productivity. Other consequences of food insecurity include the loss in educational attainment and worker productivity, as well as an investment burden into the emergency food system [ 5 ].

We intend to rely on the common good approach as an innovative and valuable lens to critically understand and address healthy food insecurity and its public health consequences in the USA. The notion of the common good has been central to conceptions of society from Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine to Thomas Aquinas [ 6 - 8 ]. Its most basic meaning refers to the way the community and its institutions treat citizens. This notion can be understood as a set of conditions that favor human flourishing [ 9 ]. In this paper, we will refer to the common good as an analytical tool, an accusatory-rhetorical device, a normative concept and a practical tool that may possibly shape the search for a better understanding of the origin of and concrete solutions to nutritious food inaccessibility. This paper relies on these four possible usages of the common good to show that inaccessibility to nutritious food is less an issue of an individual’s inability to access quality food than a problem of structural injustice.

The common good tradition

The common good refers to “the set of conditions that facilitate social living by which persons or groups are enabled to more fully and readily achieve their goals and perfection” [ 9 , 10 ]. It describes a specific “good” that is shared by and beneficial for all or by most members of the community. Due to the divergence of interests between individuals, the role of the state or community is important for the promotion of citizens’ welfare. By playing its welfare-enhancing function as well as its regulatory role, the state ensures that human rights are respected and individuals are free to participate in the state’s affairs. The public provision of these key dimensions of well-being ensures public participation in the state’s affairs and guarantees a certain level of social justice.

Approaches to the common good are not homogenous and, at times, can be antagonistic. David Hollenbach and Michael Novak, two important common good thinkers, clearly depart from each other. While Hollenbach defends an approach to the common good which is rooted in a communitarian notion of society based on the social nature of the human person [ 8 ], Novak develops a libertarian approach to the same notion based on his understanding of the human person as an individual endowed with the capacity for insight and choice, from which derives the principles which are the bases for human dignity [ 11 ]. The contemporary debate on the common good navigates among liberal, communitarian and egalitarian views of a just society.

Thomas Hobbes’s view of political society was based on a negative perception of human nature. Hobbes argued that human behavior is inclined to anarchy, and therefore, he advocated for a strong central authority which could be the guarantor of the law [ 12 ]. John Locke did not really believe in the common good per se , but rather approached it as definable in terms of private property [ 13 ]. Subsequently, the enlightenment moved from the idea of the common good based on human nature to a contractual understanding of social life. Jeremy Bentham argued that the meaning of the common good was derived from a notion of private interests [ 14 ]. In the same line of thought, Adam Smith did not see the common good as the sum total of private interests. He understood moral persuasion to be the only way of solving the injustices that could result from the consideration of private interest as priority [ 15 ].

Modernity brought about a conception of personhood that appears to be a threat to social cohesion and the common good. The fragmentation of the modern world has been expressed in terms of the decrease in social capital [ 16 ], failure in social integration [ 17 ] and weak sense of community and civic engagement [ 18 ]. The dominant approach to the common good in contemporary USA is essentially libertarian, stemming from the Anglo-American political tradition grounded in private property and liberal citizenship [ 12 ]. In human society, there is not only a responsibility not to harm the individual or public interest [ 19 ], but also the moral obligation to remedy social evils and overcome the problems that create a threat to human survival, no matter who has caused them. Even though there are rights pertaining to individuals, their realization often requires a common ground without which it cannot be achieved. The obligations that we have as a society are preconditions to the fulfillment of human flourishing. The common ground that society promotes and institutionalizes prevents fratricidal individualism and promotes genuine solidarity which is at the service of social cohesion and communal welfare. The future of society is at stake when we claim that we are bound by ends and roles we have chosen while our daily experience shows that ends we have not chosen shape our behaviors and determine public practices [ 18 ]. The widespread notion of liberal citizenship does not fully capture the veracity of human existence. Our choices are determined not simply by our own will but also by our identities as persons caught up in religious, family, neighborhood and other civil society networks [ 18 ]. The common good offers a space of relationality, where personal and social goals can be achieved justly. Individual autonomy and communal ventures are not mutually exclusive, but rather mutually enriching and intertwined. Underneath the common good tradition resides a fundamental attempt to reconcile personal interest and communal goals. The individual is a member of a moral community that sustains his or her life and in which he or she should participate fully. While society provides individuals with the social conditions for flourishing, individuals contribute to building a society where all members can flourish and prosper. This is done through various mechanisms that promote social and contributive justice.

The approach to the common good that will be advocated in this paper is fundamentally social and institutional and does not begin with the libertarian emphasis on the individual. Instead, our approach emphasizes individual dependence and social interdependence. It stresses the welfare-enhancing role that public institutions should play in human societies in order to include those who are economically and politically marginalized. Asserting that there are goods which are common to members of society presupposes the recognition of sociality as an important dimension of human existence. Human society is not an atomistic entity but essentially a relational one. Society is a space where mutuality and interdependence shape human relationships and public institutions. Justice is not simply understood in terms of individual good and civil-political liberties but also in terms of structural equity and well-being understood at the population level. Hence, there is a moral relevance to the affirmation of the inherent sociality of the human person, since individuals are by necessity embedded in a social network that provides goods for the benefit of each member of society. Although sociality is both a choice and necessity, it is more a necessity than a choice, because human beings are finite beings. The achievement of personal goals and the satisfaction of an individual’s needs often transcend the strength of an individual person. Public institutions’ intervention or individual support is often needed to support those who lack ability to live a decent life. The human person by himself or herself has limitations that demand integration into a larger web without which the attainment of a full life would be impossible.

The common good is a good which is applied to a human community. This community can be the family, professional groups, a social institution, and a national or an international community. The common good tempers individualism and all sorts of partisan interests that do not seek to achieve the goals set by society [ 20 ]. However, the need for constructing society should not undermine the dignity of the person and interfere with human rights. The institutionalization of a genuine solidarity can be implemented in such a way that individual welfare and liberty are not undermined. As a contestation to totalitarian misuse of political power by the Nazi regime, Jacques Maritain clearly stressed that in no way would the common good hinder the good of the human person [ 21 ]. He argues that the person transcends the social order and is ordained to the society of divine persons; the common good enables progress toward absolute goods [ 21 ]. The population-based dimension of health promotion, as well as the importance accorded to the community by health promoters, gives a prominent place to the common good language in public health. This notion can be referred to as “the welfare of individuals considered as a group” [ 22 ]. He draws his views on traditions which see the good of society as more than the sum of individual goods, and where that good is expressed through practices.

The common good as an analytical framework: framing healthy food inaccessibility as a public health issue

Framing, in public health discourse, refers to the process of evaluating a particular problem for the purpose of developing policy recommendations and an adequate intervention. Social justice is often used as a prism through which evaluation is done and intervention carried out [ 23 ]. In the present case, this framing process can help uncover the causes and consequences of healthy food inaccessibility in some population groups.

When framed within the common good perspective, inaccessibility to quality food questions the degree of social cohesiveness in the USA. There is something morally disruptive about individualism, because it does not seem to promote the goods which are common to society. The common good challenges us to highlight how the lack of social cohesiveness [ 22 ], the progressive erosion of social capital and social relationships [ 16 ], prevents the institutionalization of a genuine solidarity [ 24 ]. The causes of healthy food inaccessibility are essentially structural. The recourse to the common good helps frame this issue in such a way that we come up with “the fundamental cause” [ 25 ]. The concept of fundamental cause “involves resources like knowledge, money, power, prestige, and social connections that determine the extent to which people are able to avoid risks for morbidity and mortality” [ 26 ]. As for the common good, the concept of “fundamental cause” emphasizes the need for contextualizing the reasons for poor diet and an individual’s inability to access healthy food by examining what puts people at risk of risks and what healthy food inaccessibility means to Americans as a nation. The same concept points to the fact that socioeconomic status and the lack of a genuine institutional support are likely to be the “fundamental causes” of healthy food inaccessibility because “they embody access to important resources, affect multiple disease outcomes through multiple mechanisms, and consequently maintain an association with disease even when intervening mechanisms change” [ 26 ]. Policy-makers and health professionals should pay attention to these possibilities in order to adopt broad-based societal interventions that could improve people’s access to quality food and reduce the burden of disease [ 26 ].

The association of diets high in fat, salt, and sugar with the development of obesity, type 2 diabetes (DM2), dyslipidemia, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is well-documented [ 27 - 29 ]. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans focus on dietary quality, emphasizing consumption of fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains [ 30 ]. National efforts to increase healthy food consumption have included health promotion campaigns aimed at educating individuals regarding the dietary guidelines and reading nutrition labels. Moreover, meeting these dietary recommendations often proves difficult, particularly among low-income adults and certain ethnicities such as First Nations and non-Hispanic blacks [ 31 - 35 ]. Although cost and availability are important constraints to healthy food accessibility, addressing these barriers may be overlooked when prescribing lifestyle intervention or solutions based only on government provision for food stamps. Altering access barriers through policy may improve individual ability to choose a good lifestyle.

Food insecurity is not simply an expression of an involuntary absence of food, rather, that poor diet can result from entitlement failure [ 36 ]. Access to adequate nutrition is influenced by structural and socioeconomic arrangements that prevent individuals from acquiring basic capabilities to function as agents of their own destiny [ 36 , 37 ]. Mariana Chilton and Donal Rose highlighted the social dimension of food insecurity. These authors considered food insecurity as an “outcome of social and economic processes that lead to lack of access to food. These are: lack of adequate education and living wages, lack of access to health care and health information, and exposure to unsafe living conditions such as unsafe water, poor housing, and dangerous neighborhood environments. Each of these is recognized to be integrally associated with poverty” [ 5 ].

Within the common good frame, food inaccessibility is amenable to broad policy solutions when the determinants of accessibility are rethought in systemic terms. The common good framework is not an individualizing frame. Individualizing frames limit the causes of a problem to particular individuals, often those who are afflicted with the problem [ 23 ]. Instead, the common good broadens the focus, assigning responsibility for poor diet and its public health consequences not only to individuals but also the government, corporate business and larger social forces [ 23 ]. Since the common good refers to both social and personal realities, it includes both systemic and personalizing elements, even though the systemic pole tends to be dominant.

Common good as an accusatory concept

As an analytical tool, the common good helps interpret empirical facts of socioeconomic marginalization and their impact on individual well-being and on society. The economic and human cost of healthy food insecurity cannot be underestimated. A socially grounded analysis allows us to understand the connection between the fact of exclusion and the impact of food insecurity on individuals and communities. When the freedom to choose healthy food is constrained by factors beyond consumer control, it is morally unjustifiable to hold an individual accountable for the health damages caused by poor diet. The common good unveils the economic and health consequences of uneven access to nutritious food.

Socioeconomic status has been inversely linked to type 2 diabetes (DM2) [ 38 ] and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk [ 39 , 40 ], and low-income consumers have cited unavailability and cost as constraints to healthy eating, thereby participating in behaviors that may be ultimately detrimental to their health [ 41 ]. Typically, healthy diets are more expensive than unhealthy ones [ 42 - 45 ]. Social barriers to food accessibility include crime and poverty which may not only deter residents from walking to local grocery stores but also may impede chain supermarkets from locating in these areas [ 46 ]. Consequently, geographically-isolated populations or low-income neighborhoods may be served only by smaller grocery stores, which often have limited access to healthy foods [ 47 ]. Even when these products are available, a recent US study demonstrated that transforming the recommended standard food basket (based on the US Department of Agriculture’s Thrifty Food Plan) to a healthier alternative resulted in an additional 17-19% in cost, equivalent to 35-40% of a low-income consumer’s food budget [ 47 ]. Although state-based food assistance programs are in place in the USA, these have been demonstrated to be either inadequate for covering the cost of purchasing healthy foods or variably accepted by stores [ 48 , 49 ].

The consequences of poor diet resulting from food insecurity are significantly important. Even when income and educational status are controlled for, food insecurity is “associated with poor health status in children and adults, depression and anxiety among adolescents and adults and adolescent suicidal ideation, even the mildest form of food insecurity is associated with risk of poor cognitive, social, and emotional development of children younger than 3 years in the USA” [ 5 ]. Food-insecure households are confronted with “lower nutrient intakes, poor child development, poor health, and forced trade-offs between paying for basic needs such as housing, heating, and medical care. Each trade-off situation increases vulnerability” [ 5 ]. Those who already carry the burden of social and/or geographical marginalization become further victims of economic discrimination and market tactics that do not promote their health.

The common good framework offers the possibility of highlighting the moral significance of community as a space for mutual care and reciprocity. A call for individual responsibility for poor eating and its health consequences becomes less significant for people living in neighborhoods where access to healthy food represents a real challenge. Lasting changes incorporating the common good argument entails more than a call for behavior change and mere charity. It calls for change in culture and environment to support behavior change. Though mere distribution of healthy food is not the solution either—it can be a transitional solution. Instead, a change in the mindset and public practices that determine the configuration of the food environment and patterns of social relationships is much needed. The individualistic mindset that shapes social institutions and risk perception should be questioned because, with such an ideology, issues of food security and their health consequences pertain to individual responsibility especially for those who live where healthy food is not accessible.

Disparities in food insecurity rates have not changed since 1998: “African American and Latino households continue to have 2 to 3 times the prevalence of household food insecurity compared with White households. It has been well documented that geographic disparities also exist in access to healthy foods” [ 5 ]. A common good approach entails focusing on those who are most vulnerable, understanding what causes this vulnerability or susceptibility to adverse outcomes, and changing conditions to improve their situation.

Poor diet with consequent obesity can lead to the increase in chronic diseases. Obesity generates increased health-care costs and reduced economic productivity. Looking at obesity in terms of annual health-care costs, we discover that “obesity accounts for US$75 billion, half of which is paid by the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Health-care spending on obesity accounted for more than a quarter of the rise in per-capita health-care spending from 1987 to 2001” [ 25 ].

Common good as an ethical concept

The common good is a normative concept because the act of framing directly or indirectly implies a judgment of value. The “good” we are talking about is that which perfects a human person as well as social institutions. The common good perfects, achieves, and completes a person as a relational and rational being. Rethinking healthy food access cannot be done without judging the level of justice in society and questioning the public values that shape the official discourse on food access. Social inequalities generated by individualism and justified by appeals to the self-regulatory market argument are not justifiable in a country where some have far more than what they actually need and others go without the minimum required to be healthy. Quality food inaccessibility affects the individuals and population groups and reflects what goes on in society. Inaccessibility points to the way individuals relate with each other and social institutions. It also shows how dimensions of well-being are distributed and how government fulfills its duty as public health protector and social justice promoter. Inaccessibility raises both human rights and social justice questions. Justice requires that those lacking healthy food be provided with the basic dimensions of well-being which are instrumental for having access to it [ 37 ].

Access to food as a basic right

Access to healthy food is a right, not a privilege to be enjoyed by few. This right is usually inherent in the right to an adequate standard of living for health and well-being [ 50 ], where food adequacy refers to both food quality and food quantity. It is one of those rights that provides an individual with the ability to function properly in order to participate in society’s affairs [ 51 ]. For us, this right should be explicit in its provisions to ensure people with the important dimensions of well-being. The constitutional law of countries that ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) acknowledges that the state has to guarantee adequate living conditions for everybody [ 50 ]. Whenever individuals or groups are unable, for reasons beyond their control, to obtain adequate food through the means at their disposal, states have the obligation to fulfill that right directly.

Although food is necessary for human survival, individual purchasers are reduced to consumers within a market, rather than humans seeking subsistence. As a result, food is categorized as a commodity available to consumers with purchasing power rather than as a universal human right. Food is purchased and sold by individuals under free competition and is subject to the “invisible hand” of the market [ 15 ]. The capitalist mindset that shapes the food environment has favored the commoditization of food. Food is just a marketable commodity like any other commodity. However, food is different from other commodities in the market as it is explicitly and intrinsically linked to our human existence. While many other commodities confer social benefits, food ensures survival.

National governments have the duty, under international law, to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to adequate food. The right to food is grounded in the respect for equality between persons, which is affirmed as the foundation for all human rights [ 51 ]. The concept of equality is not just a conclusion derived from philosophical premises, but refers to the absolute necessity to consider a fellow human being always as an end and never as a means to any social endeavor [ 51 ]. The reification of human dignity is fundamentally unjust from the standpoint of international law; fundamental equality, stated by the preamble of the UDHR [ 52 ], is at stake when some people are marginalized and do not have access to health-promoting foods. Having the basic material goods to sustain a healthy life is an expression of respect for the dignity of each person. Equality requires institutional solidarity which is not a matter of charity, but essential to what means to be being a good and healthy society. The human rights obligation to improve healthy food accessibility requires national stakeholders and the global community at large to advocate for and to implement strategies “that are comprehensive in their scope and coordinated in their implementation. Such strategies must be linked to pro-poor initiatives which include concrete actions for the various duty bearers [ 53 ].” As an important entitlement, the right to food questions the market philosophy that promotes socioeconomic exclusion and disregards the claims of the poorest among the poor. Access to quality food is an important dimension of the right to food. Hence, “it also allows claimants to assert and claim their rights, making the critical shift from treating hunger and food insecurity as a charitable endeavor to recognizing adequate food as a right that must be protected by law [ 53 ].”

Access to food, an issue of social justice

Poor diet and ill health are causally connected due to constraints imposed by structural inequality rather than individual failure—that is, a social justice versus a victim-blaming explanation. Social justice is concerned with what society, as a whole, owes to its individual members [ 22 ]. Every approach to justice implies an existing common ground that binds individuals together for some common causes including health promotion, respect for private property, national security, promotion of the common interest of citizens and so on [ 22 ].

Our approach to justice focuses on the well-being of people in social communities and groups because reliance solely on distributive principles cannot be the bedrock for solving nutritious food inaccessibility in isolation from larger issues of social equity that shape the overall context of well-being in the USA [ 37 ]. This approach includes many dimensions of well-being of which each represents something of independent moral significance [ 37 ]. It provides tools to show how access differentials to healthy food across populations can be understood as resulting from the lack of important dimensions of well-being in marginalized population groups. Compared to men, women’s access to food is constrained by factors beyond their control.

It is argued that “Female-headed households have a high prevalence of household food insecurity—30.2% compared with 11.1% in the general US population” [ 5 ]. A woman who is a head of a low-income household may be vulnerable to food insecurity because she lacks many dimensions of well-being, including decent income and childcare support compared to a woman who is married and educated and has adequate skills. The low-socioeconomic status of single woman who is a head of a family may be related to the fact that she has less education, fewer skills, less access to higher paying jobs, and, thus, more stress and anxiety about affording food [ 5 ]. Similarly, the facts of vulnerability to food insecurity and the risks of poor health that she faces in her life shows that such a woman lacks basic dimensions of well-being. Most single-headed households and other vulnerable individuals or groups are faced with social exclusion and lack of social support that reduce their ability to participate in the market and other social ventures. The access to healthy food emerges as a requirement of justice, based on the uncompromised worth that every human enjoys by the fact of being a human being. It is not given to someone by another person; instead, it is a quality one enjoys by virtue of being part of the human family [ 8 , 9 , 20 , 51 ]. Whatever interferes with human worth cannot be tolerated.

The common good as a practical tool

How and in which policy domains can we translate our normative concerns into concrete proposal for action? Ethical reflection is not a mere rhetorical enterprise. The common good cannot be reduced to a rhetorical, normative and critical device with no influence on practical matters. Instead, it should serve as a tool to identify practical solutions which are informed by real world realism and the structural etiology of poor eating. In this regard, it can be a means for socially grounded decisions and policies that challenge socioeconomic and geographic barriers to quality food. An ethical reflection fulfills its purpose when it moves from rhetoric to the realm of social activism. There is no ethics without action. Analyzing quality food inaccessibility through the lens of the common good cannot be limited to a mere act of denunciation. It points to the need for solidarity rooted in a lasting social change and institutionalized through social policy. Lasting initiatives rooted in solidarity should include advocacy and the empowerment of those who cannot have access to healthy foods by themselves.

The need for a genuine institutional solidarity

One of the major problems with the common good approach as a tool for justice lies in its opposition to the dominant moral language in the USA. The conception of moral life gravitates around the individual and not the community. Making the case for the common good is somewhat challenging given the ideological roots of policy preferences in the USA [ 25 ]. The prevailing political ideology perceives the common good as being opposed to individual autonomy which provides freedom to have access to whatever one wishes, as long as one’s choices do not harm others [ 10 , 25 ]. An ongoing challenge in the history of public health in the USA has been the struggle between the rights of the autonomous individual versus the needs and goals of the community. The individual autonomy pole of the struggle is praised by most Americans while that of the community tends to be undermined [ 22 , 23 , 25 ]. This cultural resistance to communitarian values reinforces the political resistance of powerful entities that could be targeted for blame and made to bear some burden in the solution [ 25 ]. Governmental regulation designed to proactively shape the food environment therefore involves a serious battle for political and popular support.

Understood from the standpoint of moral and political liberalism, the rights language predominantly conveys the core of moral life in the USA. Dan Beauchamp distinguishes the first language and the second language of moral life in the USA [ 22 ]. The first language stems from the constitutional-republican conception of liberty and civil-political rights of individuals while the second language stems from the American communitarian heritage [ 22 ]. Beauchamp emphasizes that “Public health as a second language reminds us that we are not only individuals, we are also a community and a body politic, and that we have shared commitments to one another” [ 22 ]. The language of individualism is the most prominent expression of moral life in such a way that the articulation of the second language, the common good of the body politic, becomes quite hard [ 17 ]. The sociopolitical underpinnings of public health emphasize community values. This language is obviously not the dominant one in contemporary USA where the emphasis placed on the individual makes it very difficult to appeal to the common good. However, in the USA, one can find active tradition that emphasizes interdependence and communality which contradict individualism as a moral ideal [ 22 ].

The economic expression of this rejection of the common good is market individualism which is defined as confidence in the free market as a regulatory mechanism and as a belief in the importance of allowing individuals to make choices within the market and to accept responsibility for consequences that arise from them [ 25 ]. Market individualism has been so dominant that the call to individual responsibility has overshadowed the power of collective agency. The market imposes limits on the state’s intervention in individual pathology and welfare, and thus favors the growth of unjustifiable inequalities that weaken the cohesiveness of society and validate, implicitly or not, racism and socioeconomic exclusion. It is, thus, regrettable that an important public health issue such as the access to healthy food would be discussed among some policymakers and intellectuals “exclusively within the dominant discourse of political individualism, relying either on the harm principle of Mill or a narrow paternalism justified on grounds of self-protection alone [ 22 ]”. The communitarian language of constitutional republicanism, which reflects the language of public health, is important for communal life because health and safety are a signal commitment of the common life—a central practice by which the body-politic defines itself and affirms its values [ 17 , 22 ].

We justify our recourse to the common good on the basis that market individualism has failed as a model for food security and health policy [ 25 ]. The notion that consumers make free and informed choices is not always true because factors beyond persons’ control shape the food environment and determine consumers’ choice [ 25 ]. Unlike market individualists, government can intervene to reshape the food environment and to reduce the economic and the human cost of food insecurity. Intervention in the market is justified by the fact that the lack of access to quality food creates social and health costs that other citizens must bear. Intervention is warranted when the common good is at stake. Instead of individualism, which often sustains the logic of the market, solidarity is the way forward. Far from being a mere expression or attitude of condescending charity, solidarity refers to the institutional solutions and interventions designed and implemented by the state or federal authorities to attend to the needs of individuals or population groups who are facing quality food challenges. As a social virtue, solidarity opposes socioeconomic exclusion through which individuals or population groups are often left by their community to bear terrible burdens alone [ 17 ]. Solidarity requires state intervention to prevent suffering wherever it is possible and to monitor the activities of greedy market strategists.

Market individualism and food system

The promotion of equity in access to quality food demands a shift from a food system which is exclusively market-based to one which is justice-based. Such an approach to food access requires a population-based understanding of justice that requires justice not only in the food domain but also in other domains of social life. As a country that has publicly pledged to promote the human right to food, the federal government needs to carry this notion into action by creating national governing bodies that will actively address the setbacks in each sector of production, consumption, distribution and transportation to ensure food security. Surprisingly, the US government tends to favor the market at the expense of people [ 25 ]. Even though there is a growing opposition to the power of food corporations; the food system has not changed. This inertia reflects the liberal understanding of the common good that shapes economic and political decision-making in the country. The US policy environment reflects a preference for markets over government intervention to prevent and to reduce controllable risks [ 25 ]. A market-driven mentality has excluded other conceptions of political life, with access to funds widely defining political influence [ 25 ]. A market model of competition, bargaining, and profit winning defines the new norms of political conduct. Developing policies that support the market may compromise initiatives in favor of health promotion. Social justice is advanced through activities intended to alter dynamics that affect the common good by modifying social structures and institutions to achieve more democratic and equitable opportunities and outcomes in the distribution of dimensions of well-being.

Accurate food labeling ensures consumers’ right to know about issues that may affect them and promotes informed decision-making in food purchasing. The food industry and corporations should not only keep people nutritionally informed but should produce healthy food in order to promote consumers’ health. Producing, promoting or selling food that is known to be destructive to human health is ethically problematic. To name a social or market practice as unethical or vicious is in a way to assert the need for change due to potential harms that such a practice may cause to individuals or society. Unfortunately, primacy seems to be given to profit generated by the capital and not to human beings. Targeting poor or vulnerable population groups as potential consumers of health-damaging food is ethically vicious. Children, a vulnerable population group, are an important target of the food industry. Regulations that aim at limiting the advertising of unhealthy foods and beverages to children in a variety of media should be developed by the national government. Other measures to limit the promotion of unhealthy foods, such as refusing offers from food and beverage companies to sponsor equipment and programs in schools, are also important [ 54 ]. As an institution functioning within society, the food industry has the moral obligation to promote public health. Food corporations should refrain from advertising and selling products that affect the human health.

Although “the food industry has already begun taking many of these actions and should continue to do so in the future” [ 23 ], government officials need to monitor the achieved gains and to ask for more. The call for more responsibility is evidenced by the 2007 American Public Health Association policy statement on food system sustainability in which it is stated that “larger agricultural, processing, and retailing companies dictate food prices; influence public policy; control information; and determine the choices and risks available to consumers, food producers, and other workers” [ 55 ]. American public health experts furthermore note that “food system impacts are unequally distributed, with the greatest costs (health effects and health-related costs, low wages, stressful conditions) borne by food producers and other workers, rural communities, and low-income consumers. Taxpayers also support this system through health care, social services, infrastructure, and subsidies and other benefits that accrue disproportionately to the largest agri/food businesses” [ 55 ].

As a prime promoter of public health, the government should continuously monitor food corporations to ensure that they properly inform the public about food quality [ 23 ]. Adequate monitoring will ensure that access to healthy nutritional food will help to facilitate healthy food choices. Federal and state officials should monitor the marketplace so as to eliminate deceptive and greedy practices. It is worth mentioning that “Various government agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration and the US Internal Review Service, have already taken action” [ 23 ]. The European Union (EU) has developed a health policy framework that focuses on the determinants of health and places governmental responsibility at the center of health promotion. The EU health policy focuses on the social determinants of health, in particular as they affect the health divide in Europe, as well as the social gradient in individual societies and in vulnerable population groups. This policy addresses other determinants of health, such as lifestyles, the environment and climate change, and food safety [ 56 ]. The EU health policy understands health promotion as a governmental responsibility and emphasizes the need for inter-sector collaboration, while maintaining the important and critical role played by the health minister, who should take the lead for all health-related matters within and beyond the health care system [ 56 ]. A close analysis of the EU health policy shows that governmental intervention in the health and health-related spheres, such as access to nutritious food, should not be considered as a dictatorial intrusion in the marketplace because the market does not seem to promote public health and to ensure a successful access to quality food [ 56 ]. The analysis of the EU policy shows that the values and beliefs of the public health community often stand in contradiction to the libertarian thinking that shapes the dominant values of the market in the USA. Advertisement to children of foods high in sugar and fat represents an example of this discord. Faced with such an assault on public health, the government cannot help but strengthen its regulatory role in order to protect vulnerable individuals.

Policy and advocacy initiatives for healthier eating

Since cost and availability are cited as two important barriers to healthy eating [ 54 ], lifestyle change initiatives and health education may not be completely effective in increasing healthy food consumption if it does not take into consideration neighborhood segregation, market strategies, retailer competition, poverty, and major forms of social discrimination as important modifiers of accessibility. A recent USA survey has demonstrated that there has not been any increase in fruit and vegetable consumption from 1988 to 2002 despite a fruit and vegetable campaign initiated in 1991 [ 32 ]. Some studies have also demonstrated that these nutritional interventions are less effective among those of lower socioeconomic status [ 57 , 58 ], likely due to a combination of socioeconomic barriers and neighborhood segregation. Thus, health education intervention needs to be combined with a macro-level policy that will address the impact of advertising on consumer choice and will change the economic environment that destabilizes food supply and influences food accessibility in low-income neighborhoods.

Healthy food access is often influenced by several factors, including affordability, availability, food environment, media/advertising, in addition to health education. Affordability refers not only to income, but also the price of healthy foods in relation to unhealthy foods, the price of services that influence the price of healthy foods (such as transportation), and external factors (taxes, subsidies). Several studies have demonstrated that manipulation of cost can lead to increased healthy food consumption [ 59 - 61 ]. For example, experiments that directly reduced the prices of lower-fat snacks by 10%, 25%, and 50% in vending machines resulted in an increase in the sales of these snacks by 9%, 39%, and 93%, respectively [ 60 ].

The federal and local governments should address all forms of socioeconomic discriminations and social inequities that prevent individuals and families from living a decent life. Possible policy options would consist of raising minimum wage, providing greater tax benefits or income supplements, and increasing welfare assistance. These policy proposals require further research, since their effectiveness to increase healthy food consumption remains unknown. There are also concerns that raising minimum wage may increase payroll costs and thereby increase the price of goods such as healthy food, as well as increase income taxes paid by low-income workers, perhaps precluding welfare or other benefits and thus, ultimately, decreasing disposable income for food purchases.

More recently, policy proposals have focused on “fat” taxes and “thin” subsidies as a means to promote healthy food consumption, whereby fat taxes refer to sales taxes imposed on unhealthy foods while thin subsidies refer to subsidies for healthy food consumption. Although small to moderate taxes on “snack” food may negatively affect consumption, the resulting health gains may be moderate, estimated at almost 1500 deaths from coronary heart disease (CHD) prevented [ 62 ]. The primary objection to this policy is grounded in equity, since fat taxes may disproportionately affect low-income individuals who often spend a greater proportion of their income on food [ 63 - 65 ]. The definition of snack foods that qualify for this type of taxation is also blurred – is a granola bar a unhealthy snack that requires taxation? Currently, a number of countries impose taxes on unhealthy foods such as soft drinks, candy bars, and chips. However, revenue from these taxes is not used solely to subsidize healthy foods. The impact of this policy intervention depends on the size of the subsidy and the consumer response to price changes, which, in turn, depends on the price elasticity of demand. Thus, to be effective, the size of a subsidy must take into account the price elasticity of demand [ 66 ]. Simulation analysis of thin subsidies has revealed that a 1% price decrease in all fruits and vegetables can prevent a total of 9680 cases of CHD and ischemic stroke, but the benefits are lowest among low-income compared to high-income individuals (2668 vs. 4834 cases prevented) [ 67 ]. Although subsidies do not demonstrate the “regressiveness” of fat taxes, subsidies alone will not suffice to improve healthy food consumption, particularly in low-income households.

Beyond affordability and retail competition, healthy food consumption also depends on consumer choice and availability. Availability is influenced by cultural preferences, health education, retail competition, geographic consideration and advertising/media. Policy proposals to increase advertising of healthy foods and to limit advertising of unhealthy foods during peak television viewing hours may be beneficial to reducing unhealthy food consumption. Within the food environment, promotion of local market efforts such as farmers’ markets through governmental incentives and increased law enforcement where crime precludes the establishment of grocery stores may ameliorate accessibility. Several provincial governments already regulate the price of alcohol/tobacco but do not do the same for healthy foods. While many would suggest caution with respect to increasing the presence of local government intervention in food access and marketing, the US government already collaborates with marketing boards such as dairy and egg farmers to help ensure quality, affordability, and availability of these products. The current discrepancies in food accessibility may encourage local governments to expand their market regulatory role in partnership with local communities, food manufacturers, retailers and marketing boards.

In order to promote healthy eating, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) changed the food pyramid to the plate method. The Plate Method was originally developed as a way of teaching people with diabetes about portion control and what to eat at each meal [ 68 ]. The Plate Method of eating has gone on to become an easy way to teach adults and children about how to eat the right amount of foods from different food groups. The Plate Method is a way to visually control one’s diet [ 68 ]. According to the American Diabetes Association the breakdown of food on your plate should include: “50% of vegetables, 25% of carbohydrates, 25% lean protein; one serving of milk, yoghurt or calcium; and one serving of fruit” [ 69 ]. This shows that significant efforts have been deployed by the US government and other social constituencies to promote healthy eating. This change addresses the issue of quality but does not address the issue of accessibility to the type of food required for good health. Access strategies aiming at improving food quality and consumption have been developed and implemented in Pennsylvania, New York and Los Angeles [ 69 ]. These strategies include increasing the availability of supermarkets and corner stores selling healthier foods; promoting institutional procurement policies to increase healthier foods at work sites; supporting farm-to-institution programs, and limiting the availability of high-energy dense foods and sugar-sweetened beverages [ 69 ]. Poor and low-income individuals are the prime targets of these interventions. In Pennsylvania, the Fresh Food Financing Initiative, for example, targets underserved areas for which funds are provided to supermarkets in order to improve access to health foods [ 23 ]. In the same vein, “the Healthy Bodegas Initiative of New York City has funded local bodegas to expand the availability of healthier food choices throughout the metropolitan area” [ 23 ]. In the city of Los Angeles, “a one year moratorium on the development of new fast-food establishments within a neighborhood of thirty-two square miles of poor and low-income residents restricts access to less healthful products by using zoning regulations” [ 23 ].

To increase healthy food consumption, there is a need for partnership and advocacy on several fronts – government, food manufacturers, retailers, marketing boards, media, health professionals, and local communities. One of the major functions of any government is to ensure public safety and protect public health. To address disparities in healthy food consumption, both federal and state officials can play an important role. They have to develop and implement policies focused on favoring the social inclusion of low-income population groups, challenging neighborhood segregation and addressing other forms of social inequities. To achieve these goals, both federal and state government would expand their partnerships with marketing boards, transportation providers, and food manufacturers to increase availability while limiting increase in cost of healthy foods. At the state level, governments can work with stakeholders and local communities to improve neighborhood safety, and to promote additional sources of healthy foods. Working in partnership with local communities, health professionals, and media to promote culture-specific and multilingual health education efforts can improve accessibility. Community agency plays an important role in mobilizing residents to join coalitions with health professionals and other constituencies to collect evidence and lobby their elected officials and legislators to improve healthy food consumption.

Journalists can play a key role in increasing awareness of the disparities in healthy food consumption, stirring up local communities and forging partnerships among the various groups, including groups of health professionals. Individually, health professionals can act as resources for educating and increasing awareness in patients and communities, monitoring food insecurity, and providing information to policy-makers. Collectively, medical associations can lobby policy-makers and national stakeholders for increased awareness and monitoring of disparities in healthy food consumption on a population level, advocating for health insurance coverage of nutrition counseling as part of “preventive” health efforts, working with urban planners to ensure favorable neighborhood characteristics for food retail establishment, urging government initiatives to provide incentives to food manufacturers for the development of healthy food alternatives, and increasing research with policy-makers and economic analysts regarding the potential benefits of policy changes on disease outcomes. As a critical mass, health professionals can act as attorneys of the marginalized, transcending mere medical solutions to argue for structural change [ 70 ].

Empowerment, advocacy and community agency

Public health emphasizes the interconnection among human beings in a democratic society as well as the importance of individual and community participation in health promotion initiatives. The improvement of people’s participation is a basic requirement of democratic governance. Participation is a basic dimension of well-being that every citizen should, in one way or another, enjoy. All in society must have both the right and the capacity to participate effectively in defining what is common to members of the community—and what is not—through discourse, and action. All citizens should have full and equal possibility to participate directly or indirectly in political decision-making. Political participation is important for effective advocacy initiatives. Advocacy initiatives will not work if, at the grassroots, affected people are not empowered to change their situation. Empowerment presupposes effective participation of people affected by the situation that needs to be changed. It also demands the democratic ruling and policing of the food environment. Empowerment aims at facilitating people in taking direct responsibility for themselves so that they resort to state assistance only where necessary. Genuine activism on behalf of affected individuals or population groups enables them to become part of the solution, as has happened with anti-retroviral treatment campaigns.

To improve access significantly, there is a need to address issues of individual and community agency, because initiatives aiming at distributing food to hard-to-reach or low-income population groups do not suffice. Very often, approaches to distributive justice focus on commodity distribution based on the concept of basic needs. Addressing the social and political environment of food accessibility requires that one goes beyond the immediate need for healthy food to identify lasting strategies for change. The point is to look for ways of changing power configuration so that victims of food discrimination can actually act, at least at the local level, upon the causes that prevent them from having access to healthy food. Our approach to empowerment does not focus on actual functionings, such as healthy consumption or health care delivery, but on capabilities [ 71 , 72 ] or dimensions of well-being [ 37 ]. Whether we focus on capabilities or dimensions of well-being in relation to healthy food accessibility, we argue that it is important to refer to conditions that make it possible for poorly malnourished individuals or population groups to have adequate access to food.

Interventions that have been most integrated with economic, education, and/or political sectors have resulted in greater psychological empowerment, autonomy and authority, and have substantially affected a range of health outcomes [ 73 ]. For example, multi-level empowerment strategies for HIV/AIDS prevention which address gender inequalities have improved health status and reduced HIV infection rates [ 73 ]. Furthermore, women’s collaborative empowering interventions in the economic, educational, and political sectors have shown the greatest impact on women’s quality of life, autonomy and authority and on policy changes, as well as on improved child and family health. Similarly, empowering affected people will increase their abilities to manage their environment, to adopt healthier behaviors, to use health services more effectively, and to advocate for their needs [ 73 ]. Coalitions and inter-organizational partnerships in affected neighborhoods or communities can promote empowerment through enhanced participation and environmental and policy changes. To increase chances for locally-grounded actions, federal governments need to support and encourage the work of subsidiary bodies.

When we use the common good to address the accessibility to healthy food in the USA, we move away from focusing on the individual access to food and on individual vulnerability to poor diet to a focus on the social determinants of access. The common good brings about connections between single entities and social networks on the one hand, and individuals and social institutions on the other. We then reject moral and social individualism as potential analytical framework. As an analytical tool, individualism cannot account for the social roots of poor diet and food insecurity. Instead, the common good leads us into the search for both the immediate and the distal causal factors of healthy food inaccessibility at the population level. In contrast to the reliance on moral and social individualism, the common good broadens our moral compass and expands our moral imagination by challenging us to focus on social relationships and policies that determine accessibility to healthy food. Thus, we focus on social practices and appeal to forms of partnerships that can alter the dominant mindsets and practices that create inequity in access.

The more we use the language of the common good to understand the unequal access to healthy food and the related public health consequences, the more we can expand our agenda to other social issues, our circle of interlocutors and our moral discourse. The common good has a community emphasis that connects well to the public health emphasis on population. Public health identifies and measures threats related to the health of communities rather than individuals, develops policies in response to those concerns and is more focused on preventive interventions. Public health seeks to minimize threats to population health that can be lessened only through collective actions. Both the public health perspective and the common good ethics give pre-eminence to communal goals over individual goals without neglecting the latter. As a public health threat, healthy food inaccessibility cannot be solved by individuals’ efforts or by implementing libertarian policies. Effective changes incorporating this common good approach entails more than exhortations to care for each other. Fundamentally, it entails the radical modification of the socioeconomic and political environment that shapes both food distribution and access to food across the USA population. We need to involve many constituencies and to uphold a population-based approach to justice because the common good is a bridge-building device.

Although the importance of diet to reduce the chronic disease burden is well-established, social and economic barriers often preclude healthy food consumption, particularly in socially or geographically marginalized populations. The common good argument requires that policy decision, including food policy, be made on the basis of people’s well-being. The lack of quality food seems to be primarily a matter of social justice and human rights because this phenomenon is essentially rooted in social structures. Efforts to increase healthy food consumption solely through health education efforts and food distribution may have been shown not to suffice. Research into the development and implementation of policies that focus on ameliorating societal inequities, food environment, consumer choice, and retail competition is warranted. Importantly, advocacy and partnership among a variety of agents including health professionals is required to address this important public health issue.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors’ contributions

JA and TJ originated the article, did the research and wrote a first rough draft of the manuscript together. TJ did the research on the health consequences of poor eating and JA carried out the research on ethical and policy aspects. JA and TJ all read the first version and contributed editorial and critical suggestions. After the first peer-review, JA made revisions to the earlier draft and worked toward the final draft. They have both read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Authors’ information

Jacquineau Azétsop lectures health policy, medical deontology and bioethics at Faculté des Sciences Médicales de l’Université de N’djamena in Chad. He also teaches public health and population-level bioethics in the Master of Public Health and HIV/AIDS management at the Catholic University of Mozambique in Beira. Jacquineau has published several articles in the fields of public health ethics, bioethics and public health.

Dr. Tisha Joy is an assistant professor at the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine of Western Ontario University. Her clinical and research interests are in cholesterol disorders, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. She has published several articles in the fields of metabolic syndrome, body fat distribution, and cholesterol disorders.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their challenging comments. They have contributed to the strength of this paper.

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