• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Saturday, September 6, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Malnutrition among a hunter-gatherer group

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
September 9, 2020
in Biology
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Why are key nutrients missing from their food environment?

IMAGE

Credit: Matongo Tamie

The diets of hunter-gatherers are changing at a fast pace, as in the contemporary world, they are increasingly being deprived of their access to land and natural resources and urged to adapt to sedentary lifestyle. An interdisciplinary study from the University of Helsinki brings forth the underlying causes of food and nutrition insecurity among a San group in Namibia.

The Khwe San tribe living in North-East Namibia, are still among the few so-called “bushman” groups, who reside on their ancestral land. However, their contemporary diet includes surprisingly little food from their surrounding environment, but mostly consists of maize meal transported from far away.

Why do the Khwe San, a former hunter-gatherer group living in woodland savannah surrounded by an abundance of wildlife and flora wait for the government to feed them maize? And why does food insecurity persist in these communities in the 21st century?

The doctoral research of Anita Heim, from the University of Helsinki sheds light in these questions and further by taking an interdisciplinary approach in exploring how the Khwe San navigate in their heavily transformed food environment, what do they eat and how they make their food choices.

Banned from hunting and restricted in gathering

The transitioning food system of a former hunter-gatherer group posed an interesting challenge for Heim to conceptualize and analyse food environment and food choices among the Khwe, as such studies in rural settings of low- and middle-income countries are extremely rare. The Khwe reside in a national park, where trophy hunting by foreigners are a common practice but the Khwe, who lived in the area for centuries, are banned of hunting and restricted in gathering. These conditions have contributed to a dietary transition, diverging from their traditional diets based on wild berries, tubers, mushrooms, insects and game meat. Yet, the transition did not follow the common pattern of a foraging society shifting into agricultural society.

– While prevailing developmental policies and practices have focused on agriculture as a pathway to achieve an increased food security, I discovered that the shift has hardly been successful, or meaningful in the fight against hunger. Therefore, the centralised food and financial assistance by the state has been indispensable for the Khwe communities, says Heim.

When hunger is a daily challenge

Today, the Khwe are trapped in a vicious cycle of malnutrition due to a dysfunctional local food system, in which they have no agency over food sources and are deprived of accessing their natural food resources on their traditional lands. These living conditions raise concerns regarding the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the human right to food.

In the situation, where hunger is a daily challenge, according to Heim a wide range of context- and culture-specific solutions are necessary, including the elimination of movement restrictions, effective local food policies, nutritious food-aid and climate friendly agroecological production. Most importantly, in order to supplement the diets with key nutritional food groups, such as fruits, vegetables and meat, the support for traditional foodways is the most fundamental solution for a tribe with a strong hunter-gatherer mindset.

– Shockingly, this is a hugely untapped resource base for improving food security, as the regional stakeholders and decision makers show very little appreciation for foraged wild foods, says Heim.

Declining desire for traditional foods

The monetary income received from the government or earned as wages is spent in the informal markets, supplementing the diets with packaged foods, sugary sodas and alcohol.

The modern foods that provide convenience, enhanced taste and larger bulk have suppressed the appetite for traditional foods, at least among the younger generation. Yet Heim’s interviews with elderly revealed that the shift in preference away from traditional foods has been strongly influenced by historical events between the 1970-90s, when the easy reach for modern foods and the contested access to the surrounding natural resources made knowledge transfer about traditional food obsolete. Today, there is a serious risk of long-evolved Khwe knowledge around traditional foods disappearing as the Khwe elders pass away without having transmitted their knowledge and skills to the younger generations.

###

Media Contact
Anita Heim
[email protected]

Original Source

https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/sustainability-news/malnutrition-among-a-hunter-gatherer-group-why-are-key-nutrients-missing-from-their-food-environment

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.104709

Tags: Food/Food ScienceMinoritiesNutrition/NutrientsSocial/Behavioral Science
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Revolutionary ODE-VAE Enhances Single-Cell Data Clustering

September 6, 2025
Fuzzy Logic Enhances Species Distribution Model Comparison

Fuzzy Logic Enhances Species Distribution Model Comparison

September 6, 2025

Unveiling EZH2-Related lncRNAs in Gastric Cancer Insights

September 6, 2025

Silver Grunt Growth and Spawning in Okinawa Waters

September 6, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Breakthrough in Computer Hardware Advances Solves Complex Optimization Challenges

    150 shares
    Share 60 Tweet 38
  • Molecules in Focus: Capturing the Timeless Dance of Particles

    142 shares
    Share 57 Tweet 36
  • New Drug Formulation Transforms Intravenous Treatments into Rapid Injections

    116 shares
    Share 46 Tweet 29
  • First Confirmed Human Mpox Clade Ib Case China

    54 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Exploring Nurses’ Insights on Employee Assistance Programs

Phase II Study Finds Iza-Bren Plus Osimertinib Achieves 100% Response Rate in EGFR-Mutated NSCLC

Novel Antibody-Drug Conjugate Demonstrates Promising Efficacy in EGFR-Mutated NSCLC Patients

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.