ITHACA, N.Y. -- Today, about 780 million people in developing countries still do not have access to enough food to meet their basic daily needs for nutritional well-being.
To review the nature of hunger and malnutrition in the world today, describe the causes and ways to deal with hunger and malnutrition and discuss international food and nutrition issues, Michael Latham, M.D., professor of international nutritional sciences at Cornell University, has authored a new text, Human Nutrition in the Developing World (Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO]of the United Nations, 1997, $52).
"Good nutrition is a basic human right for all of humankind; that one-fifth of the developing world does not have adequate food is unacceptable and of the deepest concern," says Latham, a physician, expert in international nutrition and tropical public health and former director of Cornell's Program in International Nutrition for 25 years.
Intended for students of international nutrition and as a reference book for workers in agriculture, health, education and other fields who are concerned with nutritional problems in developing countries, the 508-page, 41-chapter text takes an applied and multidisciplinary approach to science-based information on food, nutrients, causes of malnutrition, nutritional disorders and their prevention, and nutrition policies and programs. This book strongly emphasizes that ensuring adequate food, care and public health are essential approaches for sustainable improvement of nutritional status.
The new book, which will be available in French and Spanish in 1998, includes photographs, index and bibliography and five appendices.
"This book provides detailed information in a simple and practical manner," said John R. Lupien, director of the FAO Food and Nutrition Division. "We at FAO are extremely grateful to Professor Latham for sharing his vast knowledge of nutrition."
Latham is also the author of Human Nutrition in Tropical Africa (1965, 1979), Nutrition: A Scope Manual (1980) and more than 350 journal articles. He frequently serves as a consultant in Africa, Asia and Latin America for the World Health Organization (WHO), FAO, UNICEF, the World Bank and the White House.
In 1994, he consulted with Fidel Castro on how to curb Cuba's neuropathy epidemic, and in 1965, at age 37, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth for "distinguished service in Tanzania."