Description
Book SynopsisGabrielle Palmer's groundbreaking book "The Politics of Breastfeeding" highlighted the controversies surrounding the aggressive promotion of breast milk substitutes. She now turns her attention to complementary feeding - the first foods that a child eats besides milk. For most of human existence, children went without industrially processed foods and branded food products. Can we applaud the progress of the way children are fed today? In our unequal world one billion people risk their health through overconsumption while two billion people are hungry. The health problems of both groups start in early childhood. The power and influence of the food industry has increased dramatically in recent decades. Seductive and often unethical modern marketing methods have led to the promotion of unsuitable, unnecessary and sometimes harmful baby foods. Yet not all industrially processed foods are bad and not all 'natural' foods are good. Both poor and rich children may be inappropriately fed. What lessons can we learn from history? How do cultural and religious beliefs influence the choice of food? Can government initiatives have any effect? How can we provide good nutrition for all infants?
This brief, compassionate and thought-provoking new book will be of interest to anyone who is curious about the world, its children and their nutrition, and will stimulate discussion and debate as part of the campaign to create a world where health for all is a true goal.
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Part One: The Big Picture
1 Entitlement to food
2 Entitlement to water
3 Medicalising undernutrition and poverty
4 Fair distribution
5 What is complementary feeding?
6 Politics
7 Nutrition
Part Two: A Closer Look
8 Food and nutrition: an historical perspective
9 Evolution and food systems
10 Salty, sweet and fat: the human drives for taste
11 Human plumpness
12 The timing of complementary feeding
13 What did prehistoric young children eat?
14 Are cereals appropriate foods for babies?
15 A word about animal milk
16 Why don't we give our babies molluscs and insects?
17 Cultural and religious beliefs
Part Three: Processes for Change
18 The language of food
19 Is a 'local' diet possible and good enough for infants and young children?
20 A lesson from history: the example of wartime UK
21 A contemporary lesson: the US Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
22 The majority world
Afterword: health for all?
Appendices
I Insects and other invertebrates as food
II A nutrient example: iron
III Additional information on the British 'Food for Victory' campaign
IV Additional information on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
References
Index
