NEWS FROM THE DIRECTOR
Our 2009 Semester 1 seminar series, “Being Human” began on March 11 with a typically thought-provoking seminar on food and nutrition. Our Centre is concerned with the big issues facing humanity, and the fact that one billion people don’t have enough to eat, while one billion are obese shows we have much to learn about how to deal with the problems of feeding people this century. The World Universities Forum in Mumbai in January was a richly rewarding experience. There was huge interest in our Integrated Human Studies units – UWA definitely leads the world in this new field. We are investigating ways to spread the word further and deliver a new kind of foundation education to tertiary students beyond Australia.There’s still time to enrol in our short course “Human Wellbeing in the 21st Century” through University Extension’s autumn school. Steve and I will be presenting the course. It’s a chance to really get your teeth into discussions with us and with each other about some of the big questions of our time. Contact University Extension on 6488 2433 or visit their web site http://www.extension.uwa.edu.au/ for more information. Every year, UWA hosts the Sun Fair to showcase sustainable living concepts, technologies and lifestyles. This year we’ll be there talking about how tertiary education can contribute to creating citizens and leaders who recognise the need for equitable action on global futures. The Sun Fair is on April 5 at the Oak Lawn, UWA.Professor Neville Bruce
Director, Centre for Integrated Human Studies
“YOUTH’S A STUFF WILL NOT ENDURE” March 25
Our next seminar in the “Being Human” series is on youth issues and rites of passage. Law student Zarah Burgess has been invited to speak her mind about what concerns young people; actor and comedian Kerry O’Sullivan will share some stories of teenage angst; and Rev Canon Richard Pengelley will consider the concept of rites of passage. (The previously advertised speaker, John Robertson, cannot after all appear.) Graduate student Kate O’Toole will chair. All our seminars are free and open to members of the public as well as students and staff of UWA. They’re held at 5.30 pm in Seminar Room 1.81 on the first floor of the School of Anatomy and Human Biology. NOTES FROM THE LAST SEMINAR, FOOD AND NUTRITION
Neville Bruce pointed out that humans’ relationship with food is complex. Of all species, we are the only one that cooks its food. Neville took a global look at humans’ food needs. Of the more than six billion people on the planet, one billion don’t have enough to eat, while a different billion eat too much. Neville used provocative images of the Twin Towers to graphically represent the number of people (some 20,000) who die each day from under- or malnutrition, and then gave a historical overview of the development of human nutrition that has brought us to this point. Agriculture enabled population growth and civilisation. Food is not now simply a thing we consume to maintain physiological function, but a marketable commodity and a cultural artefact, to the extent that we now live in an obesogenic environment, that is, one that promotes obesity. Our scientific understanding of food is enough for good health to be achieved through nutrition, and the next development has been the promotion of super health: improved physical wellbeing and mental acuity through consumption of certain substances (e.g. fish oils). In the future we may need to consume un-natural foods to maintain the world’s population. Finally Neville drew an analogy with chooks, which, like humans, began as free range animals, but now often are housed in high density accommodation and fed scientifically formulated foods. He invited us to reflect on whether we personally resemble battery chooks or free-range poultry that graze on a variety of natural foods.
Emma Dove, in sharing her research about dieting behaviour, was careful to point out that people can be healthy over a range of body sizes. The energy balance that determines body size is influenced by both genetic and behavioural factors, and behavioural factors are also determined by genes and physiology as well as our socioeconomic status and the obesogenic environment that promotes energy consumption and energy saving. Here Emma showed a slide of an escalator at the entry to a gymnasium. Dieting may begin due to weight dissatisfaction and poor body image or self-esteem, but subsequent psychological and behavioural changes are a normal and predictable response to dieting and weight loss. Emma showed an example of a food diary to illustrate binge eating, a disorder that is associated with dieting, and spoke about the Minnesota Starvation Study. This study, conducted in the 1940s, found that restricting caloric intake produced physiological and psychological stress in the young male subjects, and led to behaviours now associated with eating disorders.Weight management is not straightforward, and dieting behaviours must be addressed before many individuals can achieve weight stability.
Professor Kadambot Siddique said that from the beginning of agriculture in the triangle of Iran, Iraq and Syria 10,000 years ago, successive developments have enabled the population of the world to reach its current size, but the coming food crisis will be huge. Already food is at a historically high price. He identified five trends:
