Demography and Nutrition (eBook)

Susan Scott is a Social Historian specialising in demography. She has written 30 published papers and three books. Professor Christopher Duncan is Emeritus Professor of Zoology at Liverpool University. He has written over 200 published papers and seven books.

Contents 7
Preface 13
Chapter 1 Introduction 15
1.1 The history of human diet 16
1.2 The diet of the hunter-gatherers 17
1.3 Demographic change linked to the beginnings of agriculture 18
1.4 To which diet is modern man adapted? 19
1.5 Consequences of an agricultural life-style 20
1.6 Domestication of animals 22
1.7 Interactions between demographic pressures and diet 23
1.8 Height and nutrition 24
1.9 The working class diet in pre-industrial England 24
Chapter 2 Mortality Oscillations in 404 English Parishes - a Metapopulation Study 30
2.1 Use of time-series analysis techniques 30
2.2 Exogenous oscillations in 404 parishes 33
2.3 The role of wheat prices in driving exogenous population oscillations 34
2.4 Short wavelength oscillation in baptisms in 404 parishes 35
2.5 Conclusions 36
Chapter 3 The Staple Food Supply: Fluctuating Wheat Prices and Malnutrition 39
3.1 Hypotheses to account for fluctuating grain prices 39
3.2 Sources for the data series 41
3.3 Cycles in the wheat price index 41
3.4 Oats and barley price indices 42
3.5 Correspondence between the grain price indices in England 44
3.6 The effect of seasonal temperatures on wheat prices 48
3.7 The effect of rainfall on wheat prices 52
3.8 Wheat prices and short wavelength temperature cycles 52
3.9 Use of a predicted wheat prices series 53
3.10 What drove the different cycles in wheat prices? 54
3.11 Rust and other parasitic infestations of grain crops 55
3.12 Conclusions 57
Chapter 4 Famine 59
4.1 Major famines in world history 59
4.2 The demographic impact of famine 60
4.3 Changes in fertility 61
4.4 The Bangladesh famine of 1974-5: a case study 63
4.5 The Dutch famine of 1944-5: a case study 65
4.6 The siege of Leningrad, 1941-4 69
4.7 Why do women survive famine better than men? 70
4.8 Famines in pre-industrial England 71
4.9 Famine at Penrith, Cumbria, 1623: a case study 77
4.10 Interacting economic factors causing famines in northwest England 80
4.11 The mortality crisis of 1623 in northwestern England 84
4.12 Conclusions 89
Chapter 5 Long-term Demographic Effects of even a Small Famine 90
5.1 Endogenous oscillations in the population at Penrith, Cumbria, England 90
5.2 Modelling the population dynamics 93
5.3 Incorporation of density-dependent constraints into the matrix model 97
5.4 Conclusions: endogenous population oscillations 102
Chapter 6 Fertility 106
6.1 The importance of body fat 106
6.2 Adipose tissue 107
6.3 The role of leptin in the control of fertility 107
6.4 Menarche 109
6.5 Is leptin needed for the initiation of puberty? 110
6.6 Nutrition and fertility in the twentieth century 111
6.7 Hutterite women: the upper limit of fertility? 112
6.8 Fertility in the bushmen of the Kalahari Desert 113
6.9 Effects of chronic malnutrition on fertility: a case study 114
6.10 Procreative power 122
6.11 Fertility in pre-industrial England 124
6.12 Breast-feeding, fertility and population growth in the twentieth century 126
6.13 The menopause 129
6.14 Does malnutrition really affect fecundity? 130
6.15 Overview of the fertility levels in England during a 400-year period 131
Chapter 7 Nutrition and Pregnancy 133
7.1 Clues from the geographical distribution of infant mortality rates 134
7.2 The data series 135
7.3 The placenta 136
7.4 Programming 137
7.5 Proportionate small size at birth 138
7.6 The mechanisms that underlie programming of the embryo 139
7.7 Maternal-foetal conflict 140
7.8 Foetal adaptations to malnutrition 140
7.9 Overview of the effects of maternal undernutrition on the three stages of gestation 142
7.10 The effects of maternal nutrition on foetal growth and development 142
7.11 Fingerprints 143
7.12 Relationship between foetal growth and adult lung function 144
7.13 Maternal diet and the immune function of the offspring 145
7.14 Micronutrients and foetal growth 146
7.15 Supplementation of the maternal diet during pregnancy 148
7.16 Protein nutrition in the perinatal period 149
7.17 Stress hormones and pregnancy 151
7.18 Intergenerational effects on foetal development 152
7.19 Recommended nutrient intake in pregnant women today 153
7.20 Conclusions 155
Chapter 8 Infancy 157
8.1 Lactation 157
8.2 Nutritional requirements in infancy today 158
8.3 Nutritional value of breast milk 161
8.4 Low birthweight infants 163
8.5 The malnourished infant 165
8.6 Weaning 167
8.7 The age of weaning 170
8.8 Catch-up growth 172
Chapter 9 Infant Mortality 174
9.1 Bourgeois-Pichat plots 175
9.2 Infant mortality in pre-industrial England 180
9.3 Infant mortality at Penrith, Cumbria, England: a case study 181
9.4 The three social classes in the population at Penrith 189
9.5 Diets in the different social classes of a marginal community 189
9.6 The maternal diet in pre-industrial Cumbria 192
9.7 Birth intervals following deaths in infancy at Penrith 194
9.8 Infant mortality in the three social classes at Penrith 195
9.9 Breast-feeding and wet-nursing at Penrith 197
9.10 Indicators of nutritional deficiency in pre-industrial Penrith 201
9.11 Overview of the effects of malnutrition and nursing practices in the different social classes at Penrith 203
9.12 Contribution of malnutrition and differential nursing practices to steady-state dynamics at Penrith 206
Chapter 10 Exogenous Cycles: A Case Study 209
10.1 Interactions of exogenous cycles 209
10.2 The short wavelength cycle in child burials 211
10.3 Adult mortality cycles 213
10.4 Infant mortality at Penrith 214
10.5 Short wavelength oscillation in baptisms at Penrith 218
10.6 Medium wavelength oscillation in adult burials at Penrith 220
10.7 Oscillations in migration at Penrith 220
10.8 Interactions between the different oscillations: a demographic overview 221
10.9 Variation in the interaction of exogenous cycles at Penrith in different cohorts 225
Chapter 11 The Amelioration of Infant Mortality in Rural England 233
11.1 Infant mortality in rural Shropshire, 1561-1810 233
11.2 Infant mortality in England, 1550-1849 238
11.3 The 26 rural parishes studied by Wrigley et al. 243
11.4 Infant mortality rates in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 246
11.5 The population boom after 1750 248
11.6 Effects of nutrition on steady-state population dynamics 252
11.7 Infant mortality in nineteenth and twentieth century England 252
Chapter 12 Iodine Deficiency and Endogenous Mortality 256
12.1 Seasonal changes in iodine metabolism 257
12.2 Effects of iodine deficiency 257
12.3 Endemic goitre in England 260
12.4 Case study of Chesterfield, Derbyshire 262
12.5 Endogenous mortality and iodine deficiency in England and Wales in the twentieth century 263
Chapter 13 Seasonality 266
13.1 Astrology 267
13.2 Seasonality of births 268
13.3 Seasonality of infant deaths in developing countries 271
13.4 Seasonality of baptisms in England, 1613-30 272
13.5 Seasonality of baptisms at Penrith, Cumbria, 1600-1800 273
13.6 Seasonality of baptisms in England, 1600-1800 274
13.7 Seasonality of neonatal mortality in pre-industrial England 276
13.8 Seasonality of abortions and stillbirths 279
Chapter 14 Sex Ratios 283
14.1 Why are there more live male births? 284
14.2 The importance of sample size 285
14.3 The preference for sons 285
14.4 Does maternal nutrition affect the primary or secondary sex ratios? 287
Chapter 15 Childhood Mortality and Infectious Diseases 289
15.1 The biology of infectious diseases 289
15.2 Epidemiology and modelling of infectious diseases 290
15.3 Interaction of nutrition and infection 292
15.4 The impact of malnutrition on resistance to infection 293
15.5 The effect of malnutrition on the mortality from infectious diseases 296
15.6 Diarrhoeal diseases 298
15.7 Conclusions: nutrition and infectious diseases 302
15.8 Smallpox in rural towns 302
15.9 Smallpox in London 304
15.10 Measles epidemics in London, 1630-1837 307
15.11 Whooping cough epidemics in London, 1701-1812 311
15.12 Direct effects of malnutrition on child mortality 314
Chapter 16 Population Dynamics, Disease and Malnutrition in the Nineteenth Century in England 317
16.1 Smallpox in England and Wales, 1847-93 317
16.2 Scarlet fever in England and Wales, 1847-93 319
16.3 Diphtheria in England and Wales, 1855-93 321
16.4 Scarlet fever in Liverpool, 1848-80 323
16.5 Measles in Liverpool, 1863-1900 325
16.6 Whooping cough in Liverpool, 1863-1900 326
Chapter 17 Ageing 330
17.1 Human survival curves 331
17.2 Life expectancy 334
17.3 How does a restricted diet decrease the rate of ageing? 336
17.4 Human longevity and diet 338
17.5 Dietary fats and ageing 341
17.6 Are the rates of ageing determined in utero? 341
Chapter 18 Conclusions 343
18.1 To which diet are we adapted? 344
18.2 Nutrition in pregnancy 345
18.3 Overview of the interaction of human demography and nutrition 348
18.4 Malthusian demographic theory 349
Appendix 351
References 354
Index 377