Hunger: The Biology and Politics of Starvation

[3] The Basics of Nutrition

[3] The Basics of Nutrition Famine: Historical Background In the preceding chapters we learned about some important statistics regarding the avoidable suffering and millions of preventable deaths associated with chronic malnutrition. Sister Brigid Corrigan, medical director of Pastoral Activities and Services for people with aids, Dar es Salaam Archdiocese (pasada), has said that statistics are people with the tears washed away. One of the goals of this book is to continuously connect the politics, historical record, and current situation of chronic malnutrition and food insecurity directly back to the human conditions to which they relate. To do this one of the requirements is a basic understanding of ourselves as biological organisms, inextricably linked to our need for access to adequate nutrition to fuel our energy needs and provide the building blocks for our own bodies. In this chapter we review the basics of the source of the elements and energy of life and the basic biochemical principles of life. This will be the foundation we will need on which to build our understanding of the mechanisms of nutrition and the consequences of inadequate nutrition. The history of humans has been marked by the constant pursuit for and attainment of reliable, adequate sources of nutrition. The prehistoric record shows ample evidence of the struggle for food, whether it is evidence in the fossil record of chronic inadequate nutrition,1 competition between man and animals for the same food sources,2 or indications of cannibalism.3 The failure to find food also has its historic record: the first documentable written record we have of famine is found as a hieroglyphic inscription, perhaps from the Ptolemaic Dynasty (300–30 bce) but felt to describe events at the time of the pharaoh Djoser circa 2600 bce. This inscription was found on a black granite boulder—named the Stele of Famine—on the island of Sehel, north of the First Cataract of the Nile (and now just north of the Aswan Dam). It is remarkable not only in that it documents the presence of famine in our earliest history but also in the notable precision with which it describes the general picture and the very kind of human suffering we see with famine to this day. I am mourning on my high throne for the vast misfortune, because the Nile flood in my time has not come for seven years! Light is the grain; there is 56 [] the crisis of nutrition a lack of crops and all kinds of food. Each man has become a thief to his neighbor. They desire to hasten and cannot walk. The child cries, the youth creeps along, and the old man despairs; their souls are lowered down, their legs are bent together and drag along the ground, and their hands rest in their bosoms. The council of the great ones in the court is but emptiness. Torn open are the chests of provision, but instead of contents there is air. Everything is exhausted. The Bible is replete with references to famine including chapters of Genesis, Exodus, Ruth, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Nehemiah , Job, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Amos, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Romans, and the Book of Revelation.4 Ansel Keys, in his classic text, The Biology of Human Starvation,5 lists 500 early famines but limits those to the British Isles, Northwestern Europe, and the Mediterranean Basin, as well as India—the famines of Africa and Asia are notably absent. There is no lack of evidence for frequent episodes of famine, either in the prehistoric archeological record or the record of recorded history, and the centrality of the pursuit (and control) of adequate and reliable sources of nutrition in human commerce is as true today as it ever was. In fact, we shall make the case in this book that this pursuit is first and foremost the driving force of human behavior—both for individuals as well as for political groups. Famine: Scientific Study Although we have the historical records of human famine, there is remarkably little scientific study of the biological processes involved in the progressive, relentless wasting away of the human body during prolonged chronic malnutrition and starvation. This is partially because most famines are observed externally and at a distance and partially because controlled experiments—that is, the purposeful starvation of one or more experimental subjects—would be considered unethical for obvious reasons. Much of the data we have available to us comes from observational studies conducted...