As countries develop and populations become more urbanized, dietary patterns are dramatically changing. These shifts parallel an increase in the prevalence of chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and numerous other diet-related conditions. Many assume there is a relationship between chronic diseases and industrialization, although it is only lately that researchers started to look beyond such factors as economic development, income growth, urbanization, and increased energy intakes to examine more closely changes in diets. The rapid increase in chronic diseases in a few decades following a sharp transition in diets is quite unique in history, bearing in mind that most nutritional chronic diseases were once known only to aristocratic and educated classes. In itself, the escalating increase in the prevalence of nutrition-related chronic diseases should be enough of a reason to understand the sources of the problem and to seek remedies. It is hoped that the results presented in this publication may contribute to the exploration of new approaches to the study of food systems and nutrition to be taken into account when policies and programs are designed at household, national, and international levels. The group of researchers brought together to work on traditional diets has included specialists in human nutrition, endocrinology, pediatrics, public health nutrition, social statistics, agriculture, anthropology, applied economics, and international economics. Their training and expertise come from many different countries and various locations within countries. However, all have had some previous or direct involvement with investigations of traditional food systems and diets, and for the most part, with the introduction of external influences, in particular, the usual approach to framing the questions of undernutrition and of chronic diseases has been challenged. The realization that a large number of both traditionally underprivileged and affluent populations are at risk for undernutrition interacting with chronic diseases has raised new research and policy challenges. The selection of research results emphasized in some specific areas of inquiry should not detract from the contributions of all participants. Their combined expertise lies behind the questions asked and the methods used in the appraisal of the relationships explored. The advisory committee as a whole also deserves to be acknowledged and thanked for both their participation in the exercise that took place over a 2-year period and their comments on the results as they emerged. Their advice was crucial in shaping investigations before they began, in stimulating further analysis when they were completed, and finally, in designing the presentation of results to potential users on this publication."This essay is written with the help of AI. You are free to use it for your purposes or create your own."Let's write
There are a multitude of traditional diets from around the world such as the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Latin-American, Japanese, or Indian diets. However, traditional diets can also refer to a specific cultural diet such as the Cretes, the French, or the Chinese. Lastly, traditional diets encompass not only the food but also the traditional modes of food preparation and preservation of a specific culture. There is no one best traditional diet, but a diet that represents the whole of a culture’s foods and food patterns. For most of these diets to be truly beneficial, they were or are typically a diet of local foods from a native culture raised through traditional farming methods. Now, with modern methods of food production, someone can be considered to be eating an “Okinawa” diet simply because one is eating purple sweet potatoes, as our production system can now include food from nearly any culture into our current food supply. If traditionally prepared, other good examples of traditional foods to consider adding to the diet are cod liver oil, coconut, palm fruit, butter fat, and lard. Intake of lean meat such as grass-fed beef, wild game, pasture-raised poultry, eggs, and fish are still beneficial for the human diet, as well as minimal grain electuary-kept or grain-fed young animal products as tolerable. If locally prepared, organ meats, blood, and bone marrow are also considered beneficial to good health. Other foods derived from wild and pasture-raised animals may also possess some truly beneficial nutritional benefits if traditionally prepared, such as herbivores’ milk and insects. Dairy or dairy substitute, eggs, and insects are suitable for consumption depending on personal biochemical individuality. The only traditional nutrients that need to be consumed in the diet for good health and cannot be derived from
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