Nutritional Patterns and Transitions

Globally most people are changing their diets to ones that are rather high in fat and processed food and low in fiber fresh fruits and vegetables and carbohydrates. Nutritionalists and medical personnel in most developed countries are working to change this diet to one low in fat and high in fiber fresh fruits and vegetables and carbohydrates. They hope that people in developing countries avoid the high fat diet. Research should strive to identify means to help both developed and developing countries achieve these goals. Public health nutritionists and other specialists must learn what the nutritional requirements are for populations with a pattern of degenerative disease as well as those of populations of the pattern of receding famine and of those who are advancing toward a pattern of dietary behavioral change. Understanding these patterns is essential for sound interventions. The attempt to familiarize oneself with these patterns is complicated by the fact that subpopulations within a country exhibit various dietary patterns. Patterns of nutritional excess and considerable degenerative disease exist side by side with patterns of hunger and malnutrition in China and Brazil. Understanding the spatial economic and other factors facilitates the process of determining appropriate interventions. Governments must intercede systematically to provide catalysts to stop the shift to a diet high in fat and processed food. They should use education and selective regulatory and economic instruments (e.g. subsidies and taxes) as catalysts. They also need to consider health in regulating food industries means to influence consumer preference. In the US hunger prevention programs have not yet addressed the fact that the diet they offer or promote is high in fat sodium and cholesterol and low in fiber (e.g. National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs).