Encuentros impensados en la transición nutricional: agroecosistemas andinos en la Sierra central ecuatoriana
Abstract
The nutrition transition model attributes the prevalence of overweight and obesity, linked to higher rates of morbidity and mortality, to a uniform and inexorable process in which rural societies, such as the Andean indigenous communities, abandon traditional diets and agricultural practices. However, an unexpected encounter during a nutritional intervention provides clues to question this model. Through a decade-long qualitative research review in the central highlands of Ecuador and subsequent interviews with community leaders, we found information that suggests that agri-food transformations are heterogeneous, shaped by historical, geographical, and sociocultural circumstances. Several Andean indigenous families blend pre-Columbian, colonial, and contemporary practices with a revalued identity, revitalizing agroecosystems, and traditional diets. This approach reflects resilience, resistance, and circularity in the preservation of indigenous agri-food systems; community mobilization rooted in Andean sociocultural structures and suggests sociocultural transformations that acknowledge the past to walk into the future.
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