Abstract
This narrative review aims to provide an interdisciplinary perspective on actors that link global aquatic food production systems with fish consumption and nutritional status, with a special focus on adolescent girls in Bangladesh. The writing of this narrative perspective was undertaken within the framework of the Aquatic Food for Health and Nutrition (AQN) project that aimed to develop a metric for assessing the impacts on nutrition and health of agroecosystems producing farmed seafood. Previous studies evaluating links between agricultural ecosystems, aquaculture, food security and human health have systemically ignored the importance of diet and nutrition. Such studies have also ignored the importance of local communities, cultural norms and household composition and behaviours to identify vulnerable groups such as adolescent girls. This narrative review presents our current understanding of the relationships between aquaculture, fish production and consumption patterns, food security, optimal nutrition and health. It also highlights the importance of research into aquaculture food systems, linking aquatic food production systems with nutritional status, health and socioeconomic prosperity, which would help to develop more integrated and relevant food policies.
Highlights
Diet plays a significant role in the maintenance of health worldwide, and improvement of diets could potentially prevent one in every five deaths globally (GBD 2017 Diet Collaborators, 2019)
Many observational and intervention studies have significantly enhanced our understanding of associations between nutrients, diets, nutrition and health outcomes, it has been argued that sustainable strategies to tackle malnutrition and food inequalities should consider the entire food system
The review was conducted by an interdisciplinary group of authors who were involved in the Immanafunded Aquatic Food for Health and Nutrition (AQN) project (December 2017 to December 2019) that aimed to develop an integrated metric for assessing the impacts on nutrition and health of agroecosystems producing farmed seafood in adolescent girls in Bangladesh, based on the best predictors, including social and geographical factors contained within specific farmed seafood-producing agroecosystems, of nutritional status and the omega-3 index
Summary
Diet plays a significant role in the maintenance of health worldwide, and improvement of diets could potentially prevent one in every five deaths globally (GBD 2017 Diet Collaborators, 2019). Maternal and child malnutrition and mortality in low- and middleincome countries (Black et al, 2013; Global Burden of Metabolic Risk Factors for Chronic Diseases Collaboration, 2014). The link between diet and health should be considered in parallel to food production, processing and marketing, purchasing and eating behaviours as well as environmental impact of diets. Increased disposable incomes have already caused a shift towards purchase and consumption of higher value items such as fish, meat, dairy products and fruits (Gerbens-Leenes, Nonhebel, & Krol, 2010; Mottaleb, Rahut, Kruseman, & Erenstein, 2017) and towards highly processed convenience foods favoured by the young (Pries, Filteau, & Ferguson, 2019) in Bangladesh and in a range of other countries
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