Nutritional Geography: History and Trends

Reasons for eating: personal experiences in nutrition and anthropology

“…Among us were Sidney Mintz, a Johns Hopkins anthropologist with a long interest in food, and Richard B. Lee, the University of Toronto anthropologist who studied the !Kung Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert (about whom a film was later made, The Gods Must be Crazy). Also speaking were Louis Grivetti, a geographer-nutritionist from the University of California, Davis; Margaret Bentley, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health; Gretel Pelto, then at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva; William Stini, University of Arizona; and myself (Grivetti, 2000;Pelto, 2000;Stini, 2000). Lou, Peggy, Gretel, Bill and I are also members of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences.…”

Vitamins and Food-Derived Biofactors

“…An appreciation that certain food components can be linked to growth and health has been appreciated for millennia (Carpenter, 1986;Grivetti, 2000;Goldblith and Joslyn, 1964). The Egyptian medical text, the 'Papyrus Ebers' (written approximately CE 1550-70) contains references that described consumption of liver as a potential treatment to improve vision including night blindness.…”

Wild Food, Prices, Diets and Development: Sustainability and Food Security in Urban Cameroon

“…To complement staples such as corn, wheat or rice, Cameroonians that live near forested areas typically collect wild plant roots and leaves, fruits and nuts from trees, and hunt wild animals, fish and insects [1,2]. Foods hunted and gathered from forests contribute to food security through providing people with calories, animal and plant proteins, and essential minerals and micronutrients-especially iron and iodine, and also vitamins A, the Bs, C, D and E. These are essential micronutrients that not only create a more secure and varied diet, but also help to combat the effects of "hidden" hunger or micronutrient deficiencies [3][4][5].…”