Preventive nutrition is a branch of nutrition science with the goal of preventing or delaying or reducing the impacts of disease and disease-related complications. It is concerned with a high level of personal well-being, disease prevention, and diagnosis of recurring health problems or symptoms of discomfort which are often precursors to health issues. Preventive nutrition may assist in prolonging the onset of non-communicable diseases (such as Type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease) and may allow adults to experience more "healthy living years" later in life. The need for preventive nutrition continues to grow as the overweight and obese population numbers steadily rise within the childhood to adult populous, as the numbers have increased over the last 40 years. To educate the public about preventive nutrition, each social structure has its own way to communicate what preventive nutrition is within its own society, this is done through either a public health forum, government programs and policies or nutritional education. In the United States, preventive nutrition is taught to the public through the use of the food pyramid or MyPlate initiatives.
History
The idea of using preventive nutrition as a medical treatment is not a new idea, as philosopher Hippocrates (460-377 BC) states that the best way to diminish diseases or ailments was to "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food". Since the understanding for preventive nutrition was needed, the Mediterranean Diet model was the standard reference guide. As the Mediterranean diet was initially recognized to fight against the onset of heart disease.
Since the early 1980s food trends have gradually begun to change, with the introduction and fast popularization of processed prepackaged convenience foods. With this popularization these type of foods also increased the digestions of high amounts of sugar, sodium and high fatty foods which have a lower nutrient-density value that can have great adverse effects on health.
Benefits of Preventive Nutrition
There are endless benefits to eating healthy, and everybody knows this. According to a survey done in China on the hypertensive population, obesity was a leading cause of hypertension. According to the article, "Hypertension is a major public health challenge in China. The prevalence of hypertension awareness, treatment, and control are still low despite existing public health policies and programs to reduce the burden of hypertension," [3]. Of the 3579 participants with hypertension, those with obesity were less likely to have their hypertension under control [3]. Preventive nutrition exists for this exact purpose. It is necessary to prevent people from becoming overweight or out of shape before they fall victim to the side effects of obesity, injury, or other things associated with bad diets including anxiety and depression. For example, a heavily Mediterranean diet for one year has been proven to provide senior citizens with better health than their previous diets [4]. The group of seniors was put on the Mediterranean diet for one year, and it was shown that the bacteria in the gut was far more diverse after the year on the diet. In addition to this, the elders showed decreased signs of frailty, including hand strength, walking speed, and cognitive function. This is because "The more diverse microbiota in the intervention group produced more short-chain fatty acids that have been associated with better health," [4]. The benefits of preventive nutrition, and nutrition overall extend far beyond just this, as nutrition can impact every individual and/or group in much different ways.