Nutrition and food

History, academic studies, what is healthy cooking, sustainable nutrition, health and nutrition trends

what is nutrition?

Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It includes ingestion, absorption, assimilation, biosynthesis, catabolism and excretion. The science that studies the physiological process of nutrition is called nutritional science.

nutritional history

Before nutritional science emerged as an independent study of disciplines, mainly chemists worked in this area. The chemical composition of food was examined. Macronutrients, especially protein, fat and carbohydrates, have been the focus components of the study of (human) nutrition since the 19th century. Until the discovery of vitamins and vital substances, the quality of nutrition was measured exclusively by the intake of nutritional energy.

The early years of the 20th century were summarized by Kenneth John Carpenter in his Short History of Nutritional Science as "the vitamin era". The first vitamin was isolated and chemically defined in 1926 (thiamine). The isolation of vitamin C followed in 1932 and its effects on health, the protection against scurvy, was scientifically documented for the first time.

academic studies

Nutritional science as a subject is taught at universities around the world. At the beginning of the programs, the basic subjects of biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics are part of the curriculum. Later, a focus is on inorganic chemistry, functional biology, biochemistry and genetics. At most universities, students can specialize in certain areas, this involves subjects such as special food chemistry, nutritional physiology, food law and nutritional medicine. Students who are more interested in the economic aspect usually specialize in the field of food economics. Laboratory exercises are also on the curriculum at most universities.

What is healthy cooking?

Healthy cooking methods include: Steam, bake, grill, braise, boil or microwave your foods. Modify or eliminate recipes that include butter or ask you to deep fry or sauté in animal fat. Avoid added oils and butter; use non-stick cookware instead.

Suggestions for healthy eating include:

Spend a little time on presentation. You are more likely to enjoy a meal if it’s visually appealing as well as tasty.
Make every meal an occasion. Set the table. Eat with your family. Give yourself the opportunity to enjoy your food without distractions like television.
Long-term deprivation, such as crash dieting, doesn't work. Allow yourself the occasional guilt-free treat.
You are less likely to overeat if you eat slowly and savour every mouthful.
Eat more fresh vegetables and legumes.
Eat more fish, which is high in protein, low in fats and loaded with essential omega-3 fatty acids.

"We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are." ----Adelle Davis

Adelle Davis (25 February 1904 – 31 May 1974) was an American writer and nutritionist, considered "the most famous nutritionist in the early to mid-20th century." She was an advocate for improved health through better nutrition. She wrote an early textbook on nutrition in 1942, followed by four best-selling books for consumers which praised the value of natural foods and criticized the diet of the average American. Her books sold over 10 million copies and helped shape America's eating habits.

Despite her popularity, she was heavily criticized by her peers for many recommendations she made that were not supported by the scientific literature, some of which were considered dangerous.

sustainable nutrition

what is sustainable nutrition?

Sustainable nutrition means ensuring wholesome, nutrient-dense foods are accessible, affordable and culturally relevant while also preserving environmental resources and supporting local communities.

impacts driven by food

While animal-sourced food production is being scrutinized as to its role in climate change, restricting these sources of high quality protein is likely to have an unintended, negative impact on human health, and worsen inequalities and undernutrition, including child undernutrition, which can have life-long consequences. Removing dairy cows that are a part of regenerative agricultural systems, for example, would have minimal impact on greenhouse gas emissions as compared to the significant carbon emissions produced by fossil fuel transportation, while greatly reducing the availability of several important dietary nutrients, including calcium and vitamin D, which are already long-standing under consumed nutrients in the American diet.

Additionally, dairy foods like milk provide many essential nutrients needed for health, including high-quality protein, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin A, riboflavin, niacin, zinc, selenium, iodine, potassium, vitamins B5 and B12.

Scientific evidence supports the critical role of milk and dairy foods in global nutrition and health, so barriers to accessing nutrient-dense foods like dairy foods could worsen current nutrient gaps and the growing issue of malnutrition. And although dairy provides important nutrition through the life stages, it is particularly important for nourishing children, which is why at least 160 million children around the world currently receive and benefit from dedicated school milk programs.

This contribution is important to all children, but especially those in marginalized and underserved communities who are already struggling to access nutritious foods.

synergistic food sources

Animal and plant-foods should not be thought of as competing entities, but rather as synergistic food sources that provide different though complementary nutritional, social, economic, and environmental benefits. Instead of removing animal-source foods, the focus must shift to prioritizing and supporting sustainable solutions that enable affordability and accessibility of nutritious foods such as milk and dairy, fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains and high quality animal and plant-based proteins. This approach will deliver nutrition equity and foster healthier people, but it is not a simple solution.

How Sustainable Nutrition Impacts our Carbon “Foodprint”

Sustainable nutrition has become an increasingly important part of the conversation when it comes to consumerism. Today, consumers are demanding more from the brands that they love and are purchasing food and other products based on both values and nutritional value. Our food system has continued to gain a lot of attention, and scrutiny, which has sparked incredible innovation in the ways we grow, produce, package and distribute the many different goods we use in our daily lives. However, sustainability has also become a buzzword, marketing ploy, and overall ambiguous term used by food companies to virtue-signal to consumers. So what defines sustainable nutrition anyways? And how do the principles of sustainability intersect with the things that you buy and that you eat?

The Impact of Our Food System

While many consumers are beginning to understand the connection between the things that they buy and consume with the state of our planet, the process of making positive behavioral and lifestyle changes is not always a clear, or easy, one.

Take for example that many people go vegan/plant based for the environment but don't fully understand the ways that their nutrition choices can still have an impact on the environment, even as a vegan! Stepping into a lifestyle completely free of waste and cruelty is complex and challenging and requires lifelong commitment, ongoing education, and an open mind.

Understanding the complexities of our food system is an important step in being able to make conscious choices as a consumer. It’s important to explore how the foods you buy have been sourced, grown, or created from a sustainability point of view. For example, consider that non-organic foods are grown using pesticides and other toxic and damaging chemicals. Or that the pervasive ingredient palm oil, when cultivated, damages jungles in South America and Indonesia - driving precious flora and fauna to near extinction.

Eating off season foods also has a massive environmental impact - consider that eating tropical fruits in very dry locations means these fruits were transported from far away. Because of this, it's likely that the nutritional properties of these foods are not optimal as they were probably collected when they were still green or unripe.

Not to mention, many of the foods we are accustomed to buying and eating are wrapped and transported in plastic, leaching harmful toxins into your food and creating persistent waste upon disposal. The FAO found that in 2019 alone, 12.5 million tons of plastic products were used in plant and animal production, and another 37.3 million tons were used in food packaging. In a recent study that we conducted in partnership with industry experts, animal rights groups, and the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, we found that 1.8 billion plastic supplement bottles are sold each year in the US alone and 76% of supplement packaging is made of plastic.

These are issues that are pertinent to each and every person who buys food, supplements, and the many other staple items that we have learned to rely on. Whether you are a carnivore, omnivore, or herbivore - you must ask yourself questions about how your food and supplements are made. While we are firm believers that being a vegan is one of the most important, impactful things you can choose to do as an environmental advocate, the work can not and does not stop there. Embracing sustainability is a lifelong job and requires all of us to look at the choices we make with a sustainable mindset. We must continue to ask questions about how, where, what and why when it comes to the things we choose to consume and take actionable steps to reduce our footprint wherever we can.

Sustainable Nutrition Solutions

After exploring the nuances of our food system, we must learn to navigate the complexities of the choices we are faced with making. Here are some tangible action items you can take to minimize your own footprint at the store and at the shelf:

Buy food in bulk so you avoid plastic packaging and use reusable containers and bags when you can.
- Utilize resources like Litterless to find bulk, zero-waste stores near you!
Buy organic and non-GMO where possible.
Look for sustainably-sourced supplements.
- Read more about the animal-based ingredients to avoid when shopping for supplements.
- Avoid all the icky stuff by using our very own Multivitamin for Vegans, filled with nourishing ingredients that are kind to your body and the Earth!
Buy seasonal foods.
- Use the Seasonal Food Guide to figure out what foods are seasonally appropriate in your area!
Shop local.
- Farmer’s markets are a great place to shop locally sourced foods such as produce, dairy, and eggs. Use USDA’s Local Food Portal to search for local food and farmers markets near you!
Learn more about how vegetables and fruits are grown to make the most informed and sustainable decisions.
- Check out this free Sustainable Food Systems: Concept & Framework course offered by FAO elearning Academy.
Avoid plastic packaging as much as possible.
- Check out these zero waste tips & tricks and begin to incorporate more mindful practices within your home.

"If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have the safest way to health." ---Hippocrates

key health and nutrition trends

Sustainable nutrition was our leading trend last year and has become so important for the global food system that it is now a mega-trend. The idea of sustainable nutrition is becoming embedded into all innovation by food producers and decision-making of consumers. It is critical to the future of the planet and an essential part of strategies for companies in the food and beverage industry.

This mega-trend refers to nutrition that is produced and delivered in a way that is mindful for people, the planet, and society. This means an increased focus on sustainable farming and sourcing practices, closed-loop supply chains, finding health and nutrition value in waste streams, as well as development of solutions to feed populations in need. Sustainable nutrition is at the heart of all the top health and nutrition trends for 2023.

the future of nutrition

In a 2013 cross-sectional study of Texas Head Start teachers, researchers found that “nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors” were severely lacking. Despite the fact that the vast majority of the surveyed teachers believed nutrition was important—and despite the fact that health is a major priority of the national Head Start program—not a single one of the study’s participants could answer five elementary questions about nutrition (e.g., which has more calories: protein, carbohydrate, or fat?), and most of them reported that they were confused about nutrition. Moreover (and reflecting trends in the general public), most of the study’s participants were either overweight or obese.

This may only be one example, but it illustrates a much larger problem in our society: we suffer from an undeniable epidemic of nutrition confusion. In fact, this confusion has become a mammoth industry unto itself. The explosive demand for lifestyle books, blogs, magazines, podcasts, and other media indicate an extraordinary demand for guidance, and it’s virtually impossible to avoid the almost constant stream of advertising that preys on our confusion. We are not a healthy, well-informed public.

In The Future of Nutrition, T. Colin Campbell cuts through the noise with an in-depth analysis of our historical relationship to the food we eat, the source of our present information overload, and what our current path means for the future—both for individual health and society as a whole. The Future of Nutrition offers a fascinating deep-dive behind the curtain of the field of nutrition—with implications both for our health and for the practice of science itself.

Nutrition can offer a profound benefit to people suffering from chronic diseases, and it is an empowering alternative to the current disease treatment system. That’s why it is especially important that the best nutrition research is made available to everyone, and not warped by the influence of industry. Likewise, any institution that hinders clarity or limits accessibility to this information—whether they are a nonprofit organization, a professional society, or a university—undermines its own legitimacy and deserves to be questioned.

in conclusion

Everyone can play a role in ensuring people have access to sustainable, healthy diets by advocating for programs that support access to nutrient-dense foods that promote good health. Making sure people are supported and able to access nutritious and culturally appropriate foods regardless of race, education, gender, employment, ability or community is a core component of sustainable nutrition and vital to achieving nutrition equity.

Ensuring access to healthy food is just one piece of the puzzle. Learning about nutrition and how food fuels the body and supports health is also important, as it helps equip children and families with the knowledge and tools needed to establish lifelong healthy eating habits. As educators, health and foodservice professionals, community leaders and influencers, the role each of us plays in supporting nutrition education is key to building healthier communities.

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