There are obviously many other basic principles of human nutrition
that must be applied to any sound model designed to interpret human
dietary choice, aswell as the consequences of those choices onmortality
and fertility rates through time. Yet building models of human dietary
choices in the past and their subsequent consequences based on the
simple empirical facts noted above, developed in the human nutritional
sciences, sets a more solid foundation for our interpretations. The papers
presented in this Special Issue are steps forward in developing
those necessary alternatives to understanding past human societies
and the dietary choices they made.