Nutrition and health in societies in transition

Abstract

One often hears the expression that a country or society is "in transition," but there is not a clear definition of such, nor is there an effort to quantitate or characterize the level of transition undergone by a given nation. The present discussion is not intended to result in an adequate description of the process of classifying developing nations into functional levels according to their degree of transition. Rather. the paper represents an attempt to review. often in a comparative manner, overt evolutionary changes in nutrition and health experienced by societies in their process toward urban life. industrialization and development of scientific. technological, and economic potentials.

Great difficulties arise in determining the characteristics of a transitional society, since most of humankind has always been involved in cultural and economic evolutionary processes. Thus, it is difficult to establish demarcations that meaningfully identify, in an historical context, relevant changes from the nutrition and health points of view, and it is diflicult to explain how and when these changes were effected in the various regions and countries.