Nutritional epidemiology—past, present, future

Extract

Mostly, mothers are concerned about food. Mothers tell you what to eat and what not to eat, how much of it to eat or not eat, when to eat it, and why you should or should not eat it. Mothers seem to know. The question is, who knows more about good nutrition, mothers or nutritional epidemiologists?

Knowledge and common wisdom about the importance of diet have been handed down from generation to generation for millennia. While the formal study of diet and health is only a few decades old, the importance of diet to maintain health was already known to the ancient Greeks. As Hippocrates (460–377 BC), the father of Western medicine, put it: ‘If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.’¹

The first population-based studies collecting information on nutrition were conducted in the 20th century. Data on only a few foods were collected generally and were cross-classified with disease outcomes.^2,3 More detailed dietary assessment instruments were subsequently developed, the most popular of which are the 24-hour recall, a food diary kept for several days, and the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ).⁴