During the last decade the food and nutrition situation in developing countries has changed dramatically. For better or worse, urbanization and globalization have altered the diet and nutrition in both rural and urban areas. In many developing countries a persistent level of under nutrition exists both in rural areas and in urban slums due to less access to food needed for an active and healthy life. On the other hand, over-nutrition, or eating too much, has emerged among the middle-income groups. It is essential to have a better understanding of how people deal with their food in developing countries, in order to plan and implement food and nutrition programmes. This manual deals with the process of changing food habits and consumption patterns in developing countries. Nutritional implications, together with practical information is discussed in relationship to conducting field surveys. Part one of the manual provides insight into the dynamics of food habits and consumption and its socio-economic and cultural dimensions. Part two gives practical information on small scale surveys to be carried out within the framework of a nutrition issue; including data collecting on food habits and the measurement of food intake. This manual addresses professionals with practical or academic training and those who are involved in various types of food and nutrition programmes or related activities. It can also be used as a handbook in food and nutrition training courses at higher and at academic level.

The term 'Anthropology of Food' has become an accepted abbreviation for the study of anthropological perspectives on food, diet and nutrition, an increasingly important subdivision of anthropology that encompasses a rich variety of perspectives, academic approaches, theories, and methods. Its multi-disciplinary nature adds to its complexity. This is the first publication to offer guidance for researchers working in this diverse and expanding field of anthropology.

Eating Right in America is a powerful critique of dietary reform in the United States from the late nineteenth-century emergence of nutritional science through the contemporary alternative food movement and campaign against obesity. Charlotte Biltekoff analyzes the discourses of dietary reform, including the writings of reformers, as well as the materials they created to bring their messages to the public. She shows that while the primary aim may be to improve health, the process of teaching people to "eat right" in the U.S. inevitably involves shaping certain kinds of subjects and citizens, and shoring up the identity and social boundaries of the ever-threatened American middle class. Without discounting the pleasures of food or the value of wellness, Biltekoff advocates a critical reappraisal of our obsession with diet as a proxy for health. Based on her understanding of the history of dietary reform, she argues that talk about "eating right" in America too often obscures structural and environmental stresses and constraints, while naturalizing the dubious redefinition of health as an individual responsibility and imperative.

The dramatic increase in all things food in popular and academic fields during the last two decades has generated a diverse and dynamic set of approaches for understanding the complex relationships and interactions that determine how people eat and how diet affects culture. These volumes offer a comprehensive reference for students and established scholars interested in food and nutrition research in Nutritional and Biological Anthropology, Archaeology, Socio-Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology, Food Studies and Applied Public Health.

Biocultural and archaeological research on food, past and present, often relies on very specific, precise, methods for data collection and analysis. These are presented here in a broad-based review. Individual chapters provide opportunities to think through the adoption of methods by reviewing the history of their use along with a discussion of research conducted using those methods. A case study from the author's own work is included in each chapter to illustrate why the methods were adopted in that particular case along with abundant additional resources to further develop and explore those methods.