Ecological Model
The model focuses on the sections of social and physical surroundings of human beings and their effects on food and nutrition. It explores the reason for the scarcity of food in developing countries and food excessiveness in industrialized countries (Himmelgreen and Crooks 170).
Adaptation Model
This model involves social and physical environments, which limit the availability and accessibility of nutrients. Nutrition causes responses to biological, cultural, and behavioral needs of human beings (Himmelgreen and Crooks 174).
Political Economy of Health Model
The model shows the relationship between class and health. The model studies food availability, access, and consumption in relation to social and structural factors (Himmelgreen and Crooks 178).
The contrast between the Three Models
The ecological model studies the effects of the environment in which individuals and populations live on food and nutrition. The adaptation model is based on how the environment limits or affects the access and availability of food and nutrients, while the Political Economy of Health Model studies the relationship between people who belong to the working class and the effect of the social and physical environment on them.
Comparisons between the Three Models
All three models are based on the impact of the environment, both social and physical, on individuals and populations in relation to their health, food, and nutrition.
They also contribute to the understanding of the nutritional status of people in various cultural contexts. The three models give an analysis of food and nutrition in relation to people’s environment: social and physical. Thus, they indicate the impacts of the environment on food, nutrition, and people’s health in various cultural settings.
The ecological model helps understand the disparity in the distribution of food between industrialized and non-industrialized countries. It also helps understand the biological functions of nutrition. For example, the nutritional needs of people suffering from obesity (Himmelgreen and Crooks 170). On the other hand, the adaptation model helps understand the plasticity of the human body.
Precisely, human bodies change depending on certain needs. For example, the lack of calcium causes weak bones. Lastly, the Political Economy of Health Model illustrates the impact of class on the availability of significant nutrients. For example, it explains why people in the low-class suffer from illnesses that result from the deficiency of important nutrients compared to those from the high-class (Himmelgreen and Crooks 170).
Works Cited
Himmelgreen, David and Deborah Crooks. “Nutritional Anthropology and Its Application to Nutritional Issues and Problems.” Applied Anthropology. Ed. Satish Kedia and John Van Willigen. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Publishing Group. 2005. 149-170. Print.