Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics

Nutrition and Dietetics

The foods we eat always have significant effect on our health. Changes in diet can improve health as well as help prevent or control diseases i.e. Obesity, Diabetes, Cardiovascular diseases. Dietetics is the science of how food and nutrition affects human health. Along with physical activity, diet can help reach and maintain a healthy weight, reduce risk of chronic diseases (like heart disease and cancer), and improve overall health. Unhealthy eating habits have contributed to the obesity epidemic in the United States: about one-third of U.S. adults (33.8%) are obese and approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese.1 Even for people at a healthy weight, a poor diet is associated with major health risks that can cause illness and even death. The link between good nutrition and healthy weight, reduced chronic disease risk, and overall health is too important to ignore. As with physical activity, making small changes in diet, one can go a long way.