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From depression to dietary guidelines: a life’s journey

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 72, pages 1597–1602 (2018)Cite this article

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For much of my time in PNG I was the only doctor running a medium-sized hospital of 120 beds and serving perhaps 50,000 people. It was hard work. The Enga are the largest language group in PNG (160,000 in 1970) living in a very remote part of the Highlands, at an altitude of around 1500–2000 m and with mountain ranges soaring above 3000 m. Communication was by 4wd tracks, walking or small plane. The food culture was based on sweet potato cultivation, with smaller amounts of other vegetables and occasional pig meat; but the latter was usually for ceremonial occasions.

I had found working at a children’s hospital in Australia to be very rewarding; children become ill in a short space of time, but with adequate treatment their recovery was usually rapid. In PNG, I became depressed as many children with infectious diseases did not recover. Distraught crying parents and relatives was hard to deal with. Working by myself in an area with difficult communications (a small plane once per week and a crackling radio) it took some time for to understand that malnutrition was the underlying problem. I measured many children and plotted their growth and found an increased risk in undernourished children of lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) and diarrhoeal disease [1]. It’s hard to remember what life without a computer, without any library and only a typewriter was really like. I eventually was given one of the first electronic calculators, which was a great help. With my clinical work during the day, most of my basic research work was done at night by a single flickering electric globe or a kerosene lantern.

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  1. School of Public Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA, 6845, Australia

    Colin Binns

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Correspondence to Colin Binns.

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Binns, C. From depression to dietary guidelines: a life’s journey. Eur J Clin Nutr 72, 1597–1602 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-018-0147-5

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