Diabetes: what about patterns, fruits, and vegetables?

approach move centre stage. Currently I am working with an international network of community information-centre initiatives to scale up and multiply success stories of integrated development projects that have an impact on malnutrition and other indicators of poverty. Most of my own work is linked with South Africa. I applaud Mark Wahlqvist’s vision of the potential for information technology at local levels. My thinking and experience have taught me that in general with food and nutrition policies and programmes, reductionist science is poor science. Not all disciplines have to be subjected to the laboratory methodologies of physical science to be valid. As proposed in The Giessen Declaration, nutrition should include social and environmental dimensions. I would go further. National mindset surveys, like those conducted in South Africa, show that religious and other philosophies of life are vital. In Africa over half the total health budget is administered by faith-based organisations: these give credibility at community level and deal with issues such as changes of heart, spiritual health and local accountability. The Giessen Declaration includes the concept of coresponsibility with humanity as a whole, and with the living and physical world, within its overall ethical principles. This is a good start. But I caution against misuse of its emphasis on an evolutionary approach. This could be taken as promotion of the ‘social Darwinism’ that has done much to rationalise racism, fascism and ‘red in tooth and claw’ capitalism. For the International Congress on Nutrition to be held in Bangkok in 2009, I propose a one-day Global Nutrition Planners’ Forum, along the lines of that held at the Rio congress in 1977, which I attended. This should accelerate networking and sharing of insights between delegates from international agencies, governments and nongovernment organisations involved in food and nutrition development at all levels.