The human diet has shifted worldwide. It now includes more processed foods that are lower in nutrients than their traditional, locally grown counterparts. We know that this shift has contributed to an array of negative health consequences including the emergence and rise of chronic diseases. But despite the fact that approximately 75 percent of the United States' healthcare budget is spent trying to combat chronic diseases and their associated health risks, these diseases remain the leading causes of death and disability in this country. Developing countries are now fighting chronic disease, as well, sometimes spending United States foreign aid funds to do so. It turns out that knowing the dietary causes of chronic disease is not enough to counter the trend. Dietary practices appear to be embedded in a socio-cultural complex that quickly establishes deep roots. Understanding how this complex develops and how it is perpetuated may be the key to finding a solution. This requires looking more closely at cultural practices and understandings at the local level.
In this research project, anthropologist Michelle Grocke, a University of Montana doctoral student supervised by Dr. Kimber McKay, will travel to the other side of the world to take advantage of a unique opportunity to study this dietary shift as it is in the process of occurring. The research will be conducted in Humla District, a remote, resource poor area nestled on the border of China in the High Himalaya of Nepal's far northwest corner. For centuries, Humlis have had very limited access to the outside world. They have subsisted solely on their own agricultural yields of nutrient rich crops along with salt and whole grains obtained through trade. All of this is changing. The first road ever to be built into mountainous Humla District is nearly complete. Already, the road has increased villager access to a Chinese market where processed foods are plentiful and cheap. Humlis have begun to change their diet and food preferences even though the changes diminish diet quality and predictability. To investigate the multiple causes and wide-ranging consequences of these developments, Grocke will carry out a year long, case-control study in two villages that differ in their access to the new market. Her mixed-methods data collection will include focus groups and surveys; information on food frequency and food security; and anthropomorphic measures to compare with information collected by other researchers before the road was built. Cumulatively, these data will allow Grocke to assess the nutritional, food security, subsistence, cultural, and psychological changes that are taking place. The result will be in-depth understanding of the dietary sea change that is leaving its mark on the quality of life across the globe.
