Current Approaches to Nutritional Health in Medical Anthropology

ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the impact of COVID-19 on food systems, nutrition, and health. It deals with a synthesis of the themes, and our perspective concerning which directions anthropological scholarship should take to assess and address food insecurity and other related inequalities. Globalization processes and mechanisms, as the authors argue, can be approached from different theoretical lenses, including examinations of "nutrition transitions” and related dietary acculturation. With increased global turmoil due to a myriad of geopolitical and economic factors, refugee resettlement is also important to discuss in the context of food and nutrition. Anthropological scholarship concerning gender and nutrition has taken many forms over the long years of academic engagement with this subject. Food insecurity arises out of social inequities and inequalities and is directly tied to biological processes involved with growth and development, infectious diseases, and diet-related chronic diseases. Food production systems are also affected by regulations put in place to control the pandemic. © 2022 John Wiley and Sons Ltd.