Healthy agriculture, healthy nutrition, healthy people

Human health depends to a great extent on our nutritionally balanced food supply consistent with the evolutionary aspects of diet to which genes were originally programmed to respond. The publication at hand contains selected papers from the Inaugural Conference 'Healthy Agriculture, Healthy Nutrition, Healthy People' of the World Council on Genetics, Nutrition and Fitness for Health held at Ancient Olympia, Greece, in October 2010. Topics include the relationship between architecture and agriculture, food production systems and urban agriculture, as well as physical activity, nutrition, genetic variation and other determinants of human health. The papers clearly show that optimal nutrition is consistent with ecologically and economically sustainable agriculture, and that there is a need for scientific and political institutions that can integrate research into urban planning and its regulation, agriculture and health care systems. This will contribute to normal development and health throughout the human life cycle, and prevent or delay chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Scientists working in the fields of medicine, physiology, genetics, nutrition, dietetics, economics, architecture, agriculture as well as scientists and policy makers interested in environmental issues such as agricultural sustainability and climate will find this volume of great interest.