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The future of human malnutrition: rebalancing agency for better nutritional health

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dc.contributor.author Wells, J.C.K.
dc.contributor.author Marphatia, A.A.
dc.contributor.author Amable, G.
dc.contributor.author Siervo, M.
dc.contributor.author Friis, H.
dc.contributor.author Miranda, J. Jaime
dc.contributor.author Haisma, H.H.
dc.contributor.author Raubenheimer, D.
dc.date.accessioned 2021-12-12T20:24:56Z
dc.date.available 2021-12-12T20:24:56Z
dc.date.issued 2021
dc.identifier.uri https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12866/10245
dc.description.abstract The major threat to human societies posed by undernutrition has been recognised for millennia. Despite substantial economic development and scientific innovation, however, progress in addressing this global challenge has been inadequate. Paradoxically, the last half-century also saw the rapid emergence of obesity, first in high-income countries but now also in low- and middle-income countries. Traditionally, these problems were approached separately, but there is increasing recognition that they have common drivers and need integrated responses. The new nutrition reality comprises a global ‘double burden’ of malnutrition, where the challenges of food insecurity, nutritional deficiencies and undernutrition coexist and interact with obesity, sedentary behaviour, unhealthy diets and environments that foster unhealthy behaviour. Beyond immediate efforts to prevent and treat malnutrition, what must change in order to reduce the future burden? Here, we present a conceptual framework that focuses on the deeper structural drivers of malnutrition embedded in society, and their interaction with biological mechanisms of appetite regulation and physiological homeostasis. Building on a review of malnutrition in past societies, our framework brings to the fore the power dynamics that characterise contemporary human food systems at many levels. We focus on the concept of agency, the ability of individuals or organisations to pursue their goals. In globalized food systems, the agency of individuals is directly confronted by the agency of several other types of actor, including corporations, governments and supranational institutions. The intakes of energy and nutrients by individuals are powerfully shaped by this ‘competition of agency’, and we therefore argue that the greatest opportunities to reduce malnutrition lie in rebalancing agency across the competing actors. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems and individuals illustrates our conceptual framework. Efforts to improve agency must both drive and respond to complementary efforts to promote and maintain equitable societies and planetary health en_US
dc.language.iso eng
dc.publisher BioMed Central
dc.relation.ispartofseries Globalization and Health
dc.rights info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess
dc.rights.uri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.es
dc.subject Agency en_US
dc.subject dietary intake en_US
dc.subject Dual burden of malnutrition en_US
dc.subject Food systems en_US
dc.subject forecasting en_US
dc.subject Forecasting en_US
dc.subject future prospect en_US
dc.subject global health en_US
dc.subject Global Health en_US
dc.subject homeostasis en_US
dc.subject human en_US
dc.subject Humans en_US
dc.subject malnutrition en_US
dc.subject Malnutrition en_US
dc.subject obesity en_US
dc.subject Obesity en_US
dc.subject physiological response en_US
dc.subject Social inequality en_US
dc.subject Stunting en_US
dc.subject Undernutrition en_US
dc.title The future of human malnutrition: rebalancing agency for better nutritional health en_US
dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.identifier.doi https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-021-00767-4
dc.relation.issn 1744-8603


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