Health and Nutrition
During the past decade, rapid expansion in a number of relevant scientific fields and, in particular, in the amount of population-based epidemiological evidence has helped to clarify the role of diet in chronic disease prevention. Some of the specific dietary components that increase the probability of occurrence of these diseases in individuals, and interventions to modify their impact, have also been identified.
Furthermore, rapid changes in diets and lifestyles that have occurred with industrialisation, urbanisation, economic development and market globalisation, have accelerated over the past decade.
This is having a significant impact on the health and nutritional status of our populations. While standards of living have improved, food availability has expanded and become more diversified, and access to services has increased, there have also been significant negative consequences in terms of inappropriate dietary patterns, decreased physical activities and increased tobacco use, and a corresponding increase in diet-related chronic diseases.
