Diet and Disease
In Traditional and Developing Societies

This volume emphasises the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of diet and disease.

Geoffrey Ainsworth Harrison (Edited by), J. C. Waterlow (Edited by)

9780521104722, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 March 2009

348 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.51 kg

The relationship between diet and those diseases caused by, or related to, poor nutrition is influenced by anthropological and physiological factors. This volume, first published in 1990 and based on a symposium organised in collaboration with the International Commission on the Anthropology of Food, emphasises the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of diet and disease. Distinguished contributors, from nutritionists to anthropologists, examine the ways in which nutrition may affect sociocultural circumstances and how the causation and distribution of disease is linked to anthropological factors. Amongst the topics addressed are the extent to which human beings can adapt to food shortage, how nutritional factors affect people's capacity to work and develop properly mentally, how nutritional status influences susceptibility to infectious disease, who is most at risk in the community and why, the relationship between environment , economy and malnutrition and how people perceive food in relation to health. This research level text will interest both nutritionists and anthropologists.

1. Introduction G. Ainsworth Harrison
2. Mechanisms of adaptation to low energy intakes J. C. Waterlow
3. The impact of chronic undernutrition on physical work capacity and daily energy expenditure G. B. Spurr
4. Morbidity, nutritional deficiencies and child development in developing countries Sally Grantham-McGregor
5. The aetiology of kwashiorkor A. A. Jackson
6. The iodine deficiency disorders Basil S. Hetzel
7. Nutritional status and susceptibility to infectious disease S. J. Ulijaszek
8. Nutrition and illness in the aged H. M. Hodkinson
9. Growth and growth charts in the assessment of pre-school nutritional status Jere D. Haas and Jean-Pierre Habicht
10. Nutritional vulnerability of the child P. S. Nestel
11. Traditional economies and patterns of nutritional disease S. S. Strickland
12. Social adaptation to season and uncertainty in food supply Igor de Garine and Sjors Koppert
13. Food distribution, death and disease in South Asia Barbara Harriss
14. The cultural context of diet, disease and the body Richard Burghart
Index.

Subject Areas: Human biology [PSX], Dietetics & nutrition [MBNH3], Physical anthropology [JHMP]