Nutrition and Health. The International Context During the Inter-war Crisis

Nutrition became a common element of culture, economy and health when the state emerged as a social regulator during the second half of the nineteenth century. A new international landscape was shaped during the inter-war period. Expert knowledge and the science of nutrition became essential as a co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social history of medicine : the journal of the Society for the Social History of Medicine 2008-04, Vol.21 (1), p.87-105
Main Author: Barona, Josep L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology
Diet
dietary standards
History of science and technology
Hygiene
hospitals
inter-war Europe
International Conflict
League of Nations
Life sciences
Malnutrition
Medicine
surgery
pharmacy
Nutrition
optimum diet
Public Health
rural health
Twentieth Century
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Summary:Nutrition became a common element of culture, economy and health when the state emerged as a social regulator during the second half of the nineteenth century. A new international landscape was shaped during the inter-war period. Expert knowledge and the science of nutrition became essential as a consequence of the crisis caused by the First World War, international conflicts, and the 1929 stock market crash. The present paper analyses the historical circumstances that made nutrition into a relevant factor for public health policies contributing to its transformation into an experimental science. In this article, the role played by international agencies (the League of Nations, the International Labour Office and the International Institute of Agriculture) and expert committees are considered, as well as the emergence of new scientific and instrumental concepts derived from physiological research, such as optimum diet and dietary standards. Specific cases are considered: rural dietaries in Europe, studies on malnutrition and the critical situation of the population during the Spanish Civil War and on the eve of the Second World War.
ISSN:0951-631X
1477-4666
DOI:10.1093/shm/hkm114