The Nutrition Transition


Book Description

This book deals with the dramatic changes in diet and lifestyle that are occurring in the developing world as a result of globalization, and their impact on human healt. The Editors have assembled a leading group of scientists in teh fields of economics, population sciences, international health, medicine, nutrition and food sciences, to address each of the key issues related to the changes in demographic trends, food production and marketing, and disease patterns in the developing world. The Nutrition Transition provides essential information to understand the far-reaching effects that global economic, social and cultural trends are having on diet-related disease patersin in countries of transition. Contains numerous illustrative figures and tables Two case studies included-on China and Brazil Foreword written by Nevin Scrimshaw, recipient of the World Food Prize




Evolving Human Nutrition


Book Description

Exploration of changing human nutrition from evolutionary and social perspectives and its influence on health and disease, past and present.




Eating, Drinking: Surviving


Book Description

This publication addresses the global challenges of food and water security in a rapidly changing and complex world. The essays highlight the links between bio-physical and socio-cultural processes, making connections between local and global scales, and focusing on the everyday practices of eating and drinking, essential for human survival. Written by international experts, each contribution is research-based but accessible to the general public.




Transforming Food Systems for a Rising India


Book Description

This open access book examines the interactions between India’s economic development, agricultural production, and nutrition through the lens of a “Food Systems Approach (FSA).” The Indian growth story is a paradoxical one. Despite economic progress over the past two decades, regional inequality, food insecurity and malnutrition problems persist. Simultaneously, recent trends in obesity along with micro-nutrient deficiency portend to a future public health crisis. This book explores various challenges and opportunities to achieve a nutrition-secure future through diversified production systems, improved health and hygiene environment and greater individual capability to access a balanced diet contributing to an increase in overall productivity. The authors bring together the latest data and scientific evidence from the country to map out the current state of food systems and nutrition outcomes. They place India within the context of other developing country experiences and highlight India’s status as an outlier in terms of the persistence of high levels of stunting while following global trends in obesity. This book discusses the policy and institutional interventions needed for promoting a nutrition-sensitive food system and the multi-sectoral strategies needed for simultaneously addressing the triple burden of malnutrition in India.




Japan's Dietary Transition and Its Impacts


Book Description

An examination of the transformation of the Japanese diet from subsistence to abundance and an assessment of the consequences for health, longevity, and the environment. In a little more than a century, the Japanese diet has undergone a dramatic transformation. In 1900, a plant-based, near-subsistence diet was prevalent, with virtually no consumption of animal protein. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, Japan's consumption of meat, fish, and dairy had increased markedly (although it remained below that of high-income Western countries). This dietary transition was a key aspect of the modernization that made Japan the world's second largest economic power by the end of the twentieth century, and it has helped Japan achieve an enviable demographic primacy, with the world's highest life expectancy and a population that is generally healthier (and thinner) than that of other modern affluent countries. In this book, Vaclav Smil and Kazuhiko Kobayashi examine Japan's gradual but profound dietary change and investigate its consequences for health, longevity, and the environment. Smil and Kobayashi point out that the gains in the quality of Japan's diet have exacted a price in terms of land use changes, water requirements, and marine resource depletion; and because Japan imports so much of its food, this price is paid globally as well as domestically. The book's systematic analysis of these diverse consequences offers the most detailed account of Japan's dietary transition available in English.




The World is Fat


Book Description

Discusses the history of human obesity worldwide, and examines how trends in technology, globalization, government policies, and the food industry affect all physical aspects of human life.




Nutrition and Health in Developing Countries


Book Description

This updated and expanded book was written with the underlying conviction that global health and nutrition problems can only be solved through a firm understanding of the different levels of causality and the interactions between the various determinants. This volume provides policy makers, nutritionists, students, scientists, and professionals with the most recent and up-to-date knowledge regarding major health and nutritional problems in developing countries.




Community Nutrition for Developing Countries


Book Description

Nutrition textbooks used by universities and colleges in developing countries have very often been written by scholars who live and work in North America or the United Kingdom. And while the research and information they present is sound, the nutrition-related health challenges with which developing countries must grapple differ considerably from those found in highly industrialized Western nations. The primary aim of Community Nutrition for Developing Countries is to provide a book that meets the needs of nutritionists and other health professionals living and working in developing countries. Written by both scholars and practitioners, the volume draws on their wealth of knowledge, experience, and understanding of nutrition in developing countries to provide nutrition professionals with all the information they require. Each chapter addresses a specific nutrition challenge currently faced by developing countries such as food security, food safety, disease prevention, maternal health, and effective nutrition policy. In addition, the volume serves as an invaluable resource for those developing and implementing nutrition education programmes. With an emphasis on nutritional education as a means to prevent disease and effectively manage health disorders, it is the hope of the nearly three dozen contributors to this work that it will enhance the health and well-being of low-income populations throughout the world.




Public Health Nutrition


Book Description

A ground breaking text in the developing field of public health nutrition.' from the foreword by Basil S. Hetzel At last! A book that approaches public health nutrition in a scholarly, scientific and evidence based manner that at the same time delivers the practical competencies and skills required by the professional Public Health Nutritionist.' Elizabeth Belton, Senior Lecturer, School of Life Sciences, The Robert Gordon University. How can the nutritional health of populations be improved through action at local, national and global levels? The work of public health nutritionists is to bring population-wide perspectives to the relationship between food and health. Systematically drawing on international research, in Public Health Nutrition leading international practitioners present both the theoretical underpinnings and applied nature of the field of public health nutrition. The book is peer reviewed and divided into four sections: * Principles - presents conceptual frameworks, solutions, responsibilities and outcome measures, philosophical and evidential dimensions, standards and dietary guidelines. * Populations - explores groups for whom nutrition is especially relevant, providing analysis of the food and health relationship from physiological, social, cultural, political and economic perspectives. * Priorities - examines key issues including vulnerable populations, obesity, indigenous nutrition, international nutrition, the nutritional transition, food system trends and sustainability. * Practices - covers professional skills for public health practitioners including monitoring the food and nutrition situation of populations, physical activity, research skills, project management, professional practice, health promotion and communication, policy and politics. Public Health Nutrition is an essential resource for public health practitioners, researchers and administrators, as well as students of nutrition, dietetics and public health wishing to obtain advanced and specialised competencies.




Vegetarian and Plant-Based Diets in Health and Disease Prevention


Book Description

Vegetarian and Plant-Based Diets in Health and Disease Prevention examines the science of vegetarian and plant-based diets and their nutritional impact on human health. This book assembles the science related to vegetarian and plant-based diets in a comprehensive, balanced, single reference that discusses both the overall benefits of plant-based diets on health and the risk of disease and issues concerning the status in certain nutrients of the individuals, while providing overall consideration to the entire spectrum of vegetarian diets. Broken into five sections, the first provides a general overview of vegetarian / plant-based diets so that readers have a foundational understanding of the topic. Dietary choices and their relation with nutritional transition and sustainability issues are discussed. The second and third sections provide a comprehensive description of the relationship between plant-based diets and health and disease prevention. The fourth section provides a deeper look into how the relationship between plant-based diets and health and disease prevention may differ in populations with different age or physiological status. The fifth and final section of the book details the nutrients and substances whose intakes are related to the proportions of plant or animal products in the diet. Discusses the links between health and certain important characteristics of plant-based diets at the level of food groups Analyzes the relation between plant-based diet and health at the different nutritional levels, i.e. from dietary patterns to specific nutrients and substances Provides a balanced evidence-based approach to analyze the positive and negative aspects of vegetarianism Addresses the different aspects of diets predominantly based on plants, including geographical and cultural variations of vegetarianism