Nutrition Science studies nutrition. It studies the biochemical composition of food, rules for eating, the interaction of food components, the effect of food on the human body. The goal of the science of nutrition is to study the effect of food on human health in modern conditions, to find more rational ways of creating and processing food, for the most complete replenishment of the body with nutrients, for its easy assimilation and excretion from the body.
Nutritionology, in contrast to dietetics, pursues a broader aspect of studying nutrition issues for both healthy and sick people, up to the mechanisms of intracellular nutrition. Dietetics, on the other hand, defines organized food systems – diets for certain groups of people and is aimed at ensuring food safety.
Tutelyan Viktor Aleksandrovich, Director of the Research Institute of Nutrition, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The article uses materials from the forum “For a Healthy Life”, which took place on September 5-6, 2014. in Barnaul.
- A. Tutelyan’s report “On the implementation of the state policy in the field of healthy nutrition of the population of the Russian Federation”
The science of nutrition is based on the laws of nature:
1 Nutrition Act. The law of correspondence between the energy value of the diet and energy costs.
Violation of this law is loss of health! There are both malnutrition (about 15 million people suffer from wasting) and obesity in the world. Risk factors for obesity are all cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, disorders of the musculoskeletal system.
This law requires a person to have both a healthy diet and physical activity. It is necessary to regulate food with energy needs.
2 Nutrition Act. The law of the correspondence of the chemical composition of the diet to our needs for nutrients and biologically active substances.
Our body stores only fat, there are no other stores of substances!
Nutrition Formula: Macro + Micronutrients.
Macronutrients: proteins, fats, carbohydrates.
Micronutrients: vitamins, minerals, polyunsaturated fatty acids and 20 more classes of various compounds.
Since physical activity has now decreased, nutrition is needed in terms of calories:
For women 1800 – 2000 kcal
For men 2300 kcal.
Such a diet cannot provide us with all the nutrients, since we are designed by nature for a diet of 3000 – 3500 kcal. Our lifestyle has changed, but the need for the amount of biologically active substances has not changed. In addition, the composition of food has not become richer in nutrients, but vice versa.
There are 4 ways to solve these problems:
- Increase physical activity.
- Strengthen scientific researchto enrich the composition of food products. Unfortunately, we are ten years behind in the implementation of advanced technologies.
- Remove everything bad from products. Products must be of a given biochemical composition.
- Apply biologically active additives (dietary supplements), which are developed using special technologies, in addition to food. They are created from natural ingredients of plant and animal origin and help to replenish nutritional deficiencies in the body, while not disrupting the energy balance.
Thus, nutritional science faces a very serious task of rationalizing nutrition, increasing the role of nutrition both in the prevention and treatment of various diseases.