K. Schneider

Production and processing of foods as core aspects of nutrition-sensitive agriculture and sustainable diets

Some forms of malnutrition are partly due to agriculture not having nutrient outputs as an explicit goal. A better understanding of what is required from agricultural production and food processing for healthy and sustainable diets is needed. Besides nutritional quality or nutrient output, important factors are: water, soil, health hazards, agrobiodiversity and seasonality. Therefore, possible interactions among constituents of the food chain – human health, the environment, knowledge and education – should be considered from a systemic perspective. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture needs to consider and understand the role of biodiversity in improving dietary quality and dietary diversity as well as seasonality in food supply. Apart from improving agricultural systems in order to close the nutrition gap, efficient storage and food processing technologies to prolong shelf-life are required. If processing is poor, high food losses can cause food insecurity or increase the risk of producing unsafe and unhealthy food. Food storage and processing technologies, particularly at household level, are challenging and often not applicable to traditional crops. In order to achieve the aims of nutrition-sensitive agriculture, it is necessary to comprehend its complexity and the factors that influence it. This will require a trans-disciplinary approach, which will include the three sectors agriculture, nutrition and health at research, extension and political levels. Ensuring that farmers are knowledgeable about production systems, which sustainably provide adequate amounts of nutritious food while conserving the environment is an essential part of nutrition-sensitive agriculture. At the same time, for the benefits of nutrition-sensitive agriculture to be realized, educated consumers are required who understand what constitutes a healthy and sustainable diet.

Nutrition Ecology—A Concept for Systemic Nutrition Research and Integrative Problem Solving

Many nutrition-related problems (e.g., obesity) are complex and thus characterized by a multitude of components, interrelatedness, associated feedbacks, and dynamics. Nutrition ecology is an innovative concept to deal with complexity and multidimensionality in nutrition science and practice. Along the food supply chain the dimensions health, environment, society, and economy are taken into account simultaneously and coequally. By combining special disciplinary knowledge with methods and principles of research on complexity and knowledge integration, nutrition ecology offers a concept to develop approaches to solving complex nutrition-related problems. Accordingly, the conceptual background and methodological elements of nutrition ecology are presented and discussed.

Potentials of qualitative modeling of complex health issues.

OBJECTIVE To demonstrate the potentials of nutrition-ecological modeling (NutriMod) for integrative problem solving concerning complex health issues. METHODS Causes and effects of the example overweight/obesity were depicted in their interrelatedness in a qualitative model within and across the dimensions health, environment, economy, and society. RESULTS NutriMod facilitates problem analysis by visualizing the multitude of interrelated factors and promoting awareness to dynamics, multicausality, and multidimensionality. It allows considering key factors, underlying causes, and feedback loops. It supports discipline-transcending problem solving and predicting impacts of measurements. CONCLUSIONS Modeling helps to understand complex health issues and to deal with their complexity and knowledge fragmentation.

Ernährungsökologie: ein integrativer Ansatz für Ernährungsforschung und -praxis

Manchmal weist die Herausforderung, ein bestimmtes Problem zu losen, Ahnlichkeiten auf mit der Aufgabe, eine Losung fur den aus den 1980er Jahren bekannten Zauberwurfel zu finden. Die Schwierigkeit liegt darin, dass nie nur ein Teil allein bewegt werden kann. Sobald ein Teil gedreht wird, bewegen sich andere Elemente des Wurfels mit. Es ist also unmoglich nur eine Sache zu tun, ohne dabei gleichzeitig andere Dinge zu verandern.