Forgetting how we ate: personalised nutrition and the strategic uses of history.

Personalised nutrition (PN) has emerged over the past twenty years as a promising area of research in the postgenomic era and has been popularized as the new big thing out of molecular biology. Advocates of PN claim that previous approaches to nutrition sought general and universal guidance that applied to all people. In contrast, they contend that PN operates with the principle that "one size does not fit all" when it comes to dietary guidance. While the molecular mechanisms studied within PN are new, the notion of a personal dietary regime guided by medical advice has a much longer history that can be traced back to Galen's "On Food and Diet" or Ibn Sina's (westernized as Avicenna) "Canon of Medicine". Yet this history is either wholly ignored or misleadingly appropriated by PN proponents. This (mis)use of history, we argue helps to sustain the hype of the novelty of the proposed field and potential commodification of molecular advice that undermines longer histories of food management in premodern and non-Western cultures. Moreover, it elides how the longer history of nutritional advice always happened in a heavily moralized, gendered, and racialized context deeply entwined with collective technologies of power, not just individual advice. This article aims at offering a wider appreciation of this longer history to nuance the hype and exceptionalism surrounding contemporary claims.

History of nutrition policy in Japan.

Why has Japan become the longest-lived country in the world? The longevity is often attributed to Japan's economic growth, but Japan experienced an extended life expectancy prior to achieving such economic growth. During and after the Second World War when the General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers was occupying Japan, the welfare administration system was drastically reformed, resulting in dramatic improvements in the hygiene status, which led to an increase in the average life expectancy in Japan. Here, this background is reviewed, along with an explanation of how Japan has become the world's longest-lived country.

Da circum-navegação da Vital de Oliveira às novas tabelas de rações: alimentação e saúde a bordo dos navios da Marinha Imperial Brasileira, 1879-1886 / From the circumnavigation of the Vital de Oliveira to the new ration tables: nutrition and health on Brazilian Imperial Navy vessels, 1879-1886

Resumo Entre 1879 e 1881 a corveta Vital de Oliveira realizou a primeira viagem de circum-navegação da Marinha Brasileira. Um dos itens que ocuparam as preocupações do comandante do navio, Júlio de Noronha, em seu relatório da viagem foi a alimentação; preocupação reforçada no relatório médico da expedição redigido pelo primeiro-cirurgião Galdino Magalhães. Essa preocupação ganhou destaque devido ao elevado saldo de enfermos e mortos durante a viagem, para o que teria contribuído a carência de determinados gêneros alimentícios, de acordo com ambos os relatórios. O artigo discute a relação entre a alimentação e a saúde das tripulações. Além disso, trata da relação entre a viagem da Vital e a implementação de uma nova tabela de rações efetivada em 1886.

Abstract The corvette Vital de Oliveira was the first Brazilian Navy vessel to circumnavigate the world, from 1879 to 1881. One of the items that concerned its captain, Júlio de Noronha, in his trip report was the food supply, which was further reinforced in the medical report for the expedition written by the head surgeon, Galdino Magalhães. This concern was notable due to the high numbers of sailors who sickened and died during the trip, which according to both reports may have been caused by shortages of certain foods. This article discusses the relationship between food and health in the crew, as well as the relationship between this journey and the implementation of a new ration table that took effect in 1886.

[Food in contemporary Spain through NO-DO newsreel.] / La alimentación en la España contemporánea a través del No-Do.

The NO-DO, a weekly projection of the Franco regime, created as a diffusion service of obligatory exhibition in Spanish cinemas, constitutes the greatest audiovisual historical background for the contemporary history of Spain in the 20th century. The analysis and study of these newsreels and documentaries illustrate parallel to the political and socioeconomic evolution of that time, how the process of food and nutritional transition took place. The main objective of this work was to analyse and reflect on the image that these newsreels and documentaries offered to the Spanish population on the field of nutrition and the development of the different tendencies in the diet of this period. In order to carry out this study, an extensive list of descriptors specific to the discipline of nutrition and food was drawn up so that it could serve as a tool for searching for references collected both in newsreels and in documentaries, through the web search engine of the NO-DO on-line archive that is included in the Spanish Film Library's collection. Once the search was carried out and the exclusion criteria were applied, according to the subject of the study, there were analysed a total of 169 newsreels and 5 documentaries. The analysis of the results obtained allowed a general review of this era through the process of nutritional transition that the country experienced in these decades (1943-1981).

El NO-DO, programa semanal creado como un servicio de difusión de obligatoria exhibición en los cines españoles durante la dictadura franquista, constituye el mayor fondo histórico audiovisual para la historia contemporánea de España durante el siglo XX. El análisis y el estudio de estos noticiarios y documentales ilustran, de forma paralela a la evolución política y socioeconómica de aquel momento, cómo tuvo lugar el proceso de transición alimentaria y nutricional. El presente trabajo tuvo como objetivo principal analizar y reflexionar acerca de la imagen que el NO-DO ofrecía a la población española sobre el ámbito de la nutrición y el desarrollo de las distintas tendencias en la alimentación de esta época. Para la elaboración de este estudio, se elaboró una amplia lista de descriptores propios de la disciplina de la nutrición y la alimentación de modo que sirviera como herramienta para la búsqueda de referencias recogidas tanto en los noticiarios como en los documentales, a través del buscador de la web del archivo online del NO-DO que se incluye en los fondos de la Filmoteca Española. Realizada la búsqueda y aplicados los criterios de exclusión, atendiendo a la temática de estudio, se analizaron un total de 169 noticiarios y 5 documentales. El análisis de los resultados obtenidos permitió una revisión general de esta época a través del proceso de transición nutricional que vivió el país en estas décadas (1943-1981).

Interweaving Ideas and Patchwork Programmes: Nutrition Projects in Colonial Fiji, 1945-60.

The influence of a range of actors is discernible in nutrition projects during the period after the Second World War in the South Pacific. Influences include: international trends in nutritional science, changing ideas within the British establishment about state responsibility for the welfare of its citizens and the responsibility of the British Empire for its subjects; the mixture of outside scrutiny and support for projects from post-war international and multi-governmental organisations, such as the South Pacific Commission. Nutrition research and projects conducted in Fiji for the colonial South Pacific Health Service and the colonial government also sought to address territory-specific socio-political issues, especially Fiji's complex ethnic poli,tics. This study examines the subtle ways in which nutrition studies and policies reflected and reinforced these wider socio-political trends. It suggests that historians should approach health research and policy as a patchwork of territorial, international, and regional ideas and priorities, rather than looking for a single causality.

The chemistry of famine: nutritional controversies and the Irish Famine, c.1845-7.

The activities of Irish medical practitioners in relieving the impact of the Irish Famine (c.1845-52) have been well documented. However, analysis of the function of contemporary medico-scientific ideas relating to food has remained mostly absent from Famine historiography. This is surprising, given the burgeoning influence of Liebigian chemistry and the rising social prominence of nutritional science in the 1840s. Within this article, I argue that the Famine opened up avenues for advocates of the social value of nutritional science to engage with politico-economic discussion regarding Irish dietary, social and economic transformation. Nutritional science was prominent within the activities of the Scientific Commission, the Central Board of Health and in debates regarding soup kitchen schemes. However, the practical inefficacy of many scientific suggestions resulted in public associations being forged between nutritional science and the inefficiencies of state relief policy, whilst emergent tensions between the state, science and the public encouraged scientists in Ireland to gradually distance themselves from state-sponsored relief practices.

História do campo da Alimentação e Nutrição em Saúde Coletiva no Brasil / History of the scientific field of Food and Nutrition in Public Health in Brazil

O objetivo do artigo é traçar a história do campo da Alimentação e Nutrição em Saúde Coletiva (ANSC) no Brasil, procurando descrever os contextos que possibilitaram sua construção, consolidação e ressignificação; identificar os cientistas brasileiros que contribuíram com este processo e abordar os paradigmas que nortearam a atuação destes cientistas. Como critérios metodológicos de análise foram estabelecidos três cortes transversais, correspondentes a contextos da história deste campo: o primeiro referente ao período 1930 a 1963; o segundo entre 1964 a 1984 e o terceiro considera o período 1985 a 2010. Depreende-se que o campo da ANSC assumiu a atual configuração a partir de meados de 1970, no interior do chamado movimento sanitário brasileiro, cujo ideário principal foi a realização da reforma sanitária e a construção do Sistema Único de Saúde. Reafirma-se a importância do caráter multidisciplinar bem como a premissa do relevante papel do campo da ANSC na garantia do direito humano à alimentação saudável, um componente do conjunto de condições necessárias à promoção da saúde, prevenção de doenças, vigilância e recuperação da saúde e melhoria da qualidade de vida de todos os brasileiros.

This paper aims to trace the history of the scientific field of Food and Nutrition in Public Health in Brazil (FNPH), trying to describe the contexts that allowed the construction, consolidation and redefinition of the field, to identify the Brazilian scientists who contributed to this process and address the scientific concepts or paradigms that guided the actions of these scientists. As methodological criteria of analysis three cross sections corresponding to contexts of history in this field were established: the first one covers the period from 1930 to 1963, the second one between 1964 and 1984 and the third one considers the period from 1985 to 2010. We conclude that the field of FNPH assumed the current configuration from the mid-1970's, within the so-called Brazilian health movement, whose main ideas were the achievement of health reform and the construction of the Unified Health System. We reaffirm the importance of multidisciplinary character and the premise of the important role of the field of FNPH in ensuring the human right to healthy food, a component of the set of conditions necessary for health promotion, disease prevention, surveillance and health recovery and improvement of quality of life for all Brazilians.