Research Information System
SENDROM, vol.23, no.4-6, pp.51-55, 2011 (Scopus)
Human metabolism is affected by day light in a daily cycle. Therefore, seasonal changes have an impact on the psychological, emotional, physiological, neurochemical and hormonal mechanisms of the people. Seasonality has a potential impact on the nutrition and health status of the society. The major components that are affected by seasonal differences are food preferences, quantity and diversity. The impact of seasonal changes is more perceptible in developing societies. Seasonal climate variations have different effects on people, but it is not easy to determine exactly these effects on nutritional status of individuals. Food availability is the basis of food security. In spite of the facilitator impact of globalization and open market on food availability in the world, approximately one billion people suffer from undernutrition due to lack of food in developing countries. Seasonal variations affect availability of food both physically and economically. Influence degree of the seasonality on energy, food and nutrient intake changes depending on economic status and differences in climate between seasons and countries. Because of limitations of economic and difficulties of food consumption surveys seasons are not taken into account. This situation causes potential errors on food intake according to season. Therefore, it is important to determine the degree of impact of seasonal changes on physiological and biological parameters while conducting a study. The determination of seasonal changes in dietary habits is essential on the assessment of nutritional status. In this article, the impact of seasonality and global factors on food consumption, diversity and nutrition behavior of individuals is examined.