Nutritional Anthropology

Nutritional Anthropology is a Natural Science class taught by Alan Goodman.

Course Description
Are we what we eat? We eat foods for social and cultural reasons, and we eat foods because they contain nutrients that fuel our cells and allow us to function -- grow, think, and live. The quest for food is a major evolutionary theme and continues to profoundly shape ecological, social, and human biological systems. In this course we will consider some of the many ways that food and nutrition are related to the human condition, for example: (1) symbolic meanings of food, (2) the evolution of food systems to genetically modified foods, (3) the deadly synergy of malnutrition and infection, (4) the ecological and political- economic causes of malnutrition, and (5) "nutritional epidemiology" and the role of diet and nutrition in the etiology of diverse diseases. Throughout the course, we will focus on "doing nutritional anthropology," including assessing the dietary and nutritional status of individuals in our community.