Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Am J Phys Anthropol. 2012;149 Suppl 55:72-94. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.22161. Epub 2012 Oct 25.
Food security occurs when all members of a household have reliable access to food in sufficient quantity and quality to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle. Given the important biological and social value of food for humans, food and food sufficiency have been traditional topics of study among biological anthropologists. The focus on food insecurity, however, has emerged within the past two decades and recent global events, including the food crisis of 2007/2008, have led to renewed interests in the topic of food insecurity and wellbeing. Here, we review current and novel threats to food security, current thinking on measurement and definitions, and then outline a model that links food insecurity to coping strategies and then to health outcomes. We suggest that coping strategies are typically context-specific and can be food and nonfood based. We further suggest that coping strategies may impact health quite broadly, not just through nutritional pathways. We then review available data on the relationship between food insecurity and nutritional status, chronic diseases, infectious diseases, and mental health. Our review highlights the far reaching consequences of food insecurity for human wellbeing but also the considerable variability in its effect and our limited empirical knowledge of the pathways through which food insecurity impacts health. We conclude by offering thoughts on how biological anthropologists might contribute to growing our understanding of food insecurity and human health and wellbeing.
当一个家庭中的所有成员都能够可靠地获得足够数量和质量的食物，以维持积极健康的生活方式时，就实现了食品安全。鉴于食物对人类具有重要的生物和社会价值，食物和食物充足一直是生物人类学家传统的研究课题。然而，对食品安全问题的关注是在过去二十年中出现的，最近的全球事件，包括 2007/2008 年的粮食危机，导致人们重新关注食品安全和福祉问题。在这里，我们回顾了当前和新出现的食品安全威胁、当前的衡量和定义方法，然后概述了一个将食品安全问题与应对策略联系起来，进而与健康结果联系起来的模型。我们认为，应对策略通常是特定于情境的，可以是基于食物的，也可以是非食物的。我们进一步提出，应对策略可能会广泛地影响健康，而不仅仅是通过营养途径。然后，我们回顾了关于食品安全与营养状况、慢性疾病、传染病和心理健康之间关系的现有数据。我们的综述强调了食品安全问题对人类福祉的深远影响，但也强调了其影响的巨大差异和我们对食品安全影响健康的途径的有限经验性认识。最后，我们提出了生物人类学家如何为增进我们对食品安全和人类健康与福祉的理解做出贡献的想法。
