25 4.1: How Racism Manifests In Nutrition and Dietetics

1. Limited access to prerequisites for health
2. Accumulation of experiences of stress caused by discriminatory attitudes and policies that:
   • Adversely impact health
   • Influence health behaviours (smoking, physical activity)
   • Impair health care access
   • Affect other mechanisms related to health

In research by Braveman et al. (2022) and the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health (NCCDH, 2018), both Indigenous and Black populations were found to experience the greatest health inequities. Asian and Latinx populations, on the other hand, face disparities at rates comparable to White populations, further emphasizing the urgent need to address anti-Black racism. The following health conditions were found to disproportionately affect Black Canadians. Frequent discrimination is associated with more risk factors for:

• Physiological changes due to stress and a greater likelihood of having chronic diseases (Siddiqui et al., 2017; NCCDH, 2018)
• Hypertension (Siddiqui et al., 2017)
• Psychosocial trauma (NCCDH, 2018)
• Health complications as a result of environmental toxin exposure (NCCDH, 2018)

All of this is to say that we cannot talk about public health disparities that affect racialized populations without understanding how the system, institutions, and culture create these conditions that lead to the development of chronic disease.

The following series of case studies and video interviews offer some insight into a variety of examples of how anti-Black racism impacts Black individuals and communities, patients and practitioners, and students and educators.