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Crystal Ball series

Imagining a habitable planet through food and health

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 75, pages 219–229 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background and objectives

Whether and how it might be possible to imagine a habitable planet through food and health.

Methods

Reflection on childhood happenstances, sociodemographic circumstances, educational opportunities, persons of influence and lifetime experiences insofar as they might have shaped a view of the past, present and future world as the sole rational home of us all. Confirmation of these notions by personal, kindred, and other contemporary records and publications.

Results

The need to live with uncertainty and an appreciation of connectedness with things animate and inanimate; and for this to be belief, identity, reason and professional imprimatur. That these things have unwittingly informed a near lifetime of interest and enthusiasm for how food and health systems are best served by socioecological approaches.

Conclusions

That we are socioecological beings with a destiny dependent on reconciling ourselves, as earthlings, as to how well we keep our place in the cosmos habitable. To that end we must dream and work.

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Fig. 1: Fields of Nutritional Biology.
Fig. 2: Dimensions of Human Nutrition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Mark L. Wahlqvist

  2. National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli County, Taiwan

    Mark L. Wahlqvist

  3. Department of Nutrition, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Mark L. Wahlqvist

  4. School of Public Health, National Defense Medical Center, Taichung, Taiwan

    Mark L. Wahlqvist

  5. Qingdao University, Qingdao, China

    Mark L. Wahlqvist

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Wahlqvist, M.L. Imagining a habitable planet through food and health. Eur J Clin Nutr 75, 219–229 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-020-0672-x

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