The Nutrition Transition in Tanzania: Examining Changing Food, Diet, and Food Culture Among Pastoralists and Agro-Pastoralists Public
Nagasaka, Hosana Grace (Spring 2021)
Published
Abstract
Background: The Nutrition Transition is a term used to describe shifts in diet and physical activity that occur within a global context of agroecological and sociocultural change. Over the past half century, an increasing number of Tanzanian pastoralist communities have been leaving mobile pastoralism and adopting sedentarization, as well as leaving traditional food customs and adapting Western dietary patterns.
Objective: This thesis seeks to understand how various sociocultural drivers are influencing and accelerating the rate of the Nutrition Transition among Tanzanian pastoralists and agro-pastoralists. This thesis also examines how community members perceive this transition is changing traditional food, diet, and food culture.
Methods: Using data collected during 2016–2017 among pastoralists and agro-pastoralists living in the Morogoro and Tanga regions in Eastern Tanzania, the Grounded Theory approach to qualitative research is used to analyze 34 key informant interviews and 15 focus group discussions conducted among extensive pastoralist, extensive sedentary, and intensive sedentary agro-pastoralist communities.
Results: Diets are changing across pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities. Interethnic exchange acts a critical social driver of these changes, and spurs prioritization of child and adolescent school, livelihood training and nutrition education, and religious discourse. These social drivers are not only changing traditional food practices, norms, and values, but are facilitating the emergence of a new food culture among pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities.
Conclusion: The Nutrition Transition may be in its nascent stage among communities in Eastern Tanzania, but examples from countries further along the transition indicate a troubling trajectory requiring targeted public health interventions. Collaboration and investment in the rural economy and provision of increased outreach, education, and extension services should be prioritized to increase social capital and strengthen, improve, and sustain public health nutrition in these communities.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction - Page 1
Introduction and Rationale - Page 1
Problem Statement - Page 3
Purpose Statement - Page 4
Research Objectives - Page 4
Definition of Terms - Page 5
Chapter 2: Comprehensive Review of the Literature - Page 7
Background - Page 7
Justification for Selected Studies - Page 10
The Socioecological Model - Page 10
The Traditional Diet - Page 11
Food and Community - Page 12
Land Settlement and Livelihood Diversification - Page 13
Nutrition Transition - Page 14
Infants and Children - Page 17
Adolescents - Page 20
Women of Reproductive Age - Page 21
Elderly and Disabled - Page 23
Gaps in Research - Page 24
Chapter 3: Manuscript - Page 25
Introduction - Page 25
Population and Sample - Page 26
Methods - Page 28
Ethical Considerations - Page 30
Chapter 4: Results - Page 30
Introduction - Page 30
Findings - Page 31
Overview of Agroecological Drivers - Page 31
Overview of Sociocultural Drivers - Page 33
Food Availability - Page 33
Food Convenience - Page 36
Food Desirability - Page 37
Interethnic Exchange as a Dominant Social Driver - Page 39
Livelihood and Nutrition Education on Changing Food Practice - Page 40
Child School and Education on Changing Food Values - Page 43
Religion on Changing Food Norms - Page 47
The Case for Cow Blood - Page 47
Summary - Page 51
Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion - Page 52
Discussion and Implication of Findings - Page 51
Strengths and Limitations - Page 57
Recommendations for Policy, Programming, and Research - Page 59
Appendix - Page 62
References - Page 63
About this Master's Thesis
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