Minutus

If Codex is denying the role of nutrition in health, Who is certainly
taking the opposite stand. A paper released by WHO in 2003
(World Health Organization. 2003. Diet, nutrition and the prevention of
chronic diseases. /WHO technical report series Report of a joint WHO/FAO
expert consultation./ Geneva, Switzerland.) . states clearly that diet
and lifestyle has a predominant influence on health:

I have extracted part of the document for you.
Furthermore, rapid changes in diets and lifestyles that have occurred

with industrialization, urbanization, economic development and market

globalization, have accelerated over the past decade. This is having a

significant impact on the health and nutritional status of populations,

particularly in developing countries and in countries in transition. 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, especially

among poor people.

Because of these changes in dietary and lifestyle patterns, chronic NCDs

--- including obesity, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease (CVD),

hypertension and stroke, and some types of cancer --- are becoming

increasingly significant causes of disability and premature death in both

developing and newly developed countries, placing additional burdens

on already overtaxed national health budgets.

Nutrition is coming to the fore as a major modifiable determinant of

chronic disease, with scientific evidence increasingly supporting the view

that alterations in diet have strong effects, both positive and negative, on

health throughout life. Most importantly, dietary adjustments may not

only influence present health, but may determine whether or not an

individual will develop such diseases as cancer, cardiovascular disease

and diabetes much later in life. However, these concepts have not led to a

change in policies or in practice. In many developing countries, food

policies remain focused only on undernutrition and are not addressing

the prevention of chronic disease.
Tanya Marquette schrieb: