Connecting food,well-being and environmental sustainability: towards an integrative public health nutrition

Modern society has no shortage of human nutrition science, nor interventions designed to improve the way we eat. Yet nutrition science, and the models, approaches and interventions derived from this, is apparently delivering diminishing returns in terms of population weight gain, unhealthy eating patterns and the obesity ‘epidemic’. We draw on a range of literature(s) to argue that public health nutritionists in affluent societies face an ingenuity gap – a series of complex and inter-connected challenges which are neither fully recognised nor easily amenable to resolution through conventional thinking and practice. Four such challenges are: nutritionism; economism; consumerism and individualism. We use an integrative framework to explain their significance for public health nutrition, where they exert a combined and compounding influence. In addition to these problems, insights from other disciplines show that ‘modern’ society and some of its key characteristics are linked to increasing environmental threats. The latter undermine food security and the sustainability of society itself, and possess global impact. For public health nutrition to be situated in and responsive to this broader context, the discipline will need a better understanding of the relationship between modern society, food choice and environmental sustainability. As ‘healthy eating’ may not be an achievable goal within the present social, economic and cultural system, public health nutrition has a unique and vital role to play in shaping change for the future.     

Heart Rate Variability Assessment of the Effect of Physical Training on Autonomic Cardiac Control

Background: The effect of exercise interventions on autonomic nervous system (ANS) control of the heart by heart rate variability (HRV) is often investigated in just one position. It was hypothesized that results of exercise‐induced changes on ANS are dependent on body position and that it is possible to distinguish between exercise induced changes in vagal and sympathetic influence by taking measurements in different body positions. Methods: One hundred eighty‐three (male = 100, female = 83) healthy volunteers, between 18 and 22 years, participated in a prospective twelve week medium to high intensity exercise intervention study with a self‐control design. The influence of the exercise intervention was investigated on supine, rising, and standing as well as on the orthostatic response. Time domain, frequency domain and nonlinear (Poincaré) HRV analysis were performed. Results: The exercise intervention lead to a significant increase (P < 0.05) in vagal influence during supine, rising, and standing. Sympathetic control in the supine position was decreased and increased during rising and standing. In the initial orthostatic response to rising from the supine position, the exercise intervention lead to increased (P < 0.05) vagal withdrawal as well as increased sympathetic control. The orthostatic response measured as the difference between standing and supine indicated only an exercise induced increase in sympathetic control. Conclusions: Exercise‐induced changes in sympathetic and parasympathetic ANS control differ, depending on posture and period of measurement. Exercise induced changes in parasympathetic and sympathetic outflow, respectively, can be extracted from measurements from supine, through the orthostatic response, to standing, thereby detecting changes in ANS that are otherwise obscured.     

Am Ende der Grandiosität beginnt Begegnung

Group therapy can help children in coping with developmental tasks and assist their ability to establish relationships and manage conflict. A psychodrama group creates a symbolic environment, an agreed fantasy world. Thus formed, the surplus reality, with its collective symbolic realities, leads to positive modification and expansion of each role. Since all participants and the leader are male, conclusions can be drawn from the collective symbolic ideologies of masculinity formed by the group interaction.