Preface to Food Nutrition and Health

Bread is the pillar of life. No matter what major you study or what occupation you are engaged in, food, nutrition and health are important issues that concern everyone. However, as we all know, under the planned economy system before the reform and opening up, we have not solved this problem well for a long time, and the quantitative supply of grain and non-staple food is far from meeting people's psychological requirements, even physiological requirements. The theoretical knowledge of food nutrition is only literal. In the 30 years of reform and opening up, people's living standards have gradually improved, from food and clothing to improvement, the overall trend of Engel coefficient has been declining, and some have even become well-off. At present, in most big cities or rich areas, chronic diseases related to overnutrition or imbalance are increasing. Except for some economically backward areas, there is still a problem of nutritional deficiency. Since 2007, CPI (Consumer Price Index) has risen due to the rise of world food prices, which has affected the lives of low-income groups in a certain period of time. The survey results of China Nutrition Society show that the chronic diseases related to nutrition in China are increasing rapidly year by year, and the onset age is gradually decreasing. Therefore, it is of great significance to popularize the basic knowledge of food nutrition, understand the relationship between food and disease, and reasonable diet and health.

As far as the research trend of nutrition is concerned, it keeps pace with the times like economic development. Nutrition has changed from determining the requirements of certain nutrients, understanding their role in preventing related deficiencies, and preventing chronic diseases through a balanced diet. , to the in-depth study of various chemical components in diet and the prevention of diseases, especially some chronic diseases, to understand the functions of some nutrients from the genetic level, and to use modern biotechnology to find new nutrition-related genes, to strengthen the research on the functions of nutrition-related genes and the genetic diagnosis of nutrition-related diseases, and to develop new resource foods and health foods.

On the other hand, the popularization of public nutrition foundation in China is still lagging behind. Therefore, let everyone know the basic nutrition knowledge, eat reasonably, and develop good eating habits from now on, so as to achieve the goal of lifelong benefit. At the same time, as a messenger of nutrition knowledge, it benefits families and people around them. In particular, it is emphasized that the prices of foods with the same, similar or similar functions will vary greatly due to different sources and different scarcity levels, but the prices of foods are not directly proportional to the nutrients they contain. Therefore, for people who are not rich at present, the choice of food should be based on meeting their own nutritional needs.