Nutrition, growth, and development

What is known about relationships between nutrition, growth, and development is well summarized in three recent reports of meetings held to discuss these problems: the Proceedings of the International Conference held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1967 and edited by Scrimshaw and Gordon (1968); the little publicized Pan American Health Organization Seminar held at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, in 1972; and the 1973 Swedish Symposium on early malnutrition and mental development edited by Cravioto, Hambraeus, and Vahlquist, and the papers given at the ensuing W.H.O. Workshop on methodological problems in studies of early malnutrition and mental development-both published by the Swedish Nutrition Foundation (1974). It cannot be said that very much is firmly established concerning specific effects of poor nutrition on human performance: malnutrition is part of the 'cycle of poverty' and its effects in humans cannot be separated from other aspects of this 'cycle'. Much of our knowledge, therefore, comes from animal studies the applicability of whose findings to man is often questionable.