Forging just dietary futures: bringing mainstream and critical nutrition into conversation

Abstract

Despite decades of action to reduce global malnutrition, rates of undernutrition remain stubbornly high and rates of overweight, obesity and chronic disease are simultaneously on the rise. Moreover, while volumes of robust research on causes and solutions to malnutrition have been published, and calls for interdisciplinarity are on the rise, researchers taking different epistemological and methodological choices have largely remained disciplinarily siloed. This paper works to open a scholarly conversation between “mainstream” public health nutrition and “critical” nutrition studies. While critical nutrition scholars collectively question aspects of mainstream nutrition approaches, they also chart a different way to approach malnutrition research by focusing on politics, structural conditions, and the diverse ways people make sense of food and malnutrition. In this paper, we highlight the key research agendas and insights within both mainstream and critical nutrition in order to suggest spaces for their potential conversation. We ultimately argue that global public health nutrition interventions might achieve greater success in more equitable ways if they are informed by critical nutrition research. We aim for this intervention to facilitate more substantial crossing of disciplinary boundaries, critical to forging more socially and environmentally just dietary futures in the global South and beyond.

From insight to foresight : using data to improve food and nutrition outcomes in protracted food crises in the Horn of Africa

“…The list of possible actions is long and context-specific; the selection of actions to address FNS should always be tailored to local needs and consider constraints such as cultural sensitivity (Nichols, et al, 2021). Box 3 below lists some possible preventive actions to address FNS.…”

“…Box 3 Examples of actions to address FNS (Nichols, et al, 2021) Examples of preventive actions to address food and nutrition insecurity To conclude; reactive interventions address the acute consequences of food and nutrition insecurity, (hunger, malnutrition, and starvation), while preventive actions contextually address root causes and drivers of FNS, therefore aiming at prevention of these consequences.…”

Women Tackling Malnutrition Through Alternative Farming: A Case of "Tule Vyema" Community-Based Organization in Kiserian

“…Peri-urban farming is also practical as an income-generating activity (Ndunge, G., et al, 2018). Studies of urban farming in sub-Saharan Africa indicate that one out of three households practices some form of urban agriculture and that two out of three farmers are women (Nichols, C., H. Kampman, and M. van den Bold, 2021).…”

Applying the ‘Candidacy’ Model to understand access to key nutrition, food & health services in LMIC contexts: a qualitative study in Odisha, India

“…Efforts to improve global food security and nutrition were reinvigorated by the Sustainable Development Goals with a commitment to achieve Zero Hunger and Universal Health Coverage by 2030. Malnutrition is recognised as a social and political problem, with solutions that should be framed accordingly (Gillespie et al, 2013;Guthman, 2014;Nichols et al, 2022). A number of frameworks that focus on barriers and enablers to accessing health and nutrition services have been developed to guide research and policy, but a criticism has emerged that these frameworks focus on formal points of access and utilisation without full attention to the actual experience of service seekers (Kelner & Wellman, 1997;Dixon-Woods et al, 2005).…”