When you hear the word “healthy,” what immediately comes to mind? For many of us, the first thoughts are diet and exercise: eating well, staying active by hitting the gym, or cutting back on sugar. However, health is much more than that.
External factors like policies, community infrastructure, and access to resources, all play a major role in shaping our health. If your neighborhood doesn’t have a nearby grocery store with fresh produce or a way to get to a health clinic, it becomes harder, and sometimes nearly impossible, to live a healthy life.
According to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, “neighborhoods with food deserts have higher rates of diseases linked to unhealthy diets, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. While not the only factor impacting these outcomes, food deserts can be a significant contributor.”
Consider a parent working two jobs who wants to make healthy meals but lives miles from the nearest grocery store. Without access to a car or public transportation, they’re left relying on corner stores that mostly stock packaged and processed foods. In this scenario, the barrier to health is the absence of viable alternatives.
Similarly, if the air in your neighborhood is polluted or unsafe, your health is impacted no matter how well you eat or how much you exercise. The World Health Organization states that “exposure to high levels of particulate matter…can lead to reduced lung function, respiratory infections and aggravated asthma from short-term exposure.” Long-term exposure has even more dire effects, increasing a person’s risk for stroke, heart disease, and cancer.
It’s important to recognize that not everyone has the same opportunities to be healthy. Our systems and surroundings can either support or limit our ability to thrive. Creating healthier communities means addressing economic, environmental, and other unique community factors that impact health
Understanding the bigger picture of health means recognizing the systems that shape our choices. If you’re ready to explore these issues more deeply and learn actionable strategies to address them, our new training Understanding What Makes Us Healthy is designed for you. This training is an interactive workshop that gives participants a clear understanding of what shapes health in their communities.
Be one of the first to participate in this training at Institut de formation de mi-année du CADCA, July 20-24, in Nashville! CADCA’s trainers will unveil this training publicly for the first time in an all-day workshop for youth on Tuesday, July 22, led by Kristina Clark, Yvonne Stroman, and Yurimar Santiago-Torres, and in a separate session for adults on Wednesday, July 23, led by Grenae Dudley and Kristina Clark.
