The document outlines key concepts in nutrition and dietetics, defining roles and differences between nutritionists and dietitians, with nutritionists promoting healthy populations and dietitians providing clinical nutrition advice. It discusses malnutrition, food security, and sustainability, emphasizing the importance of a sustainable food system that ensures long-term food security and health. It concludes with the definition of a healthy diet based on balanced macronutrients and adequate micronutrients.

1. Key concepts and terminologies used in Nutrition
and Dietetics

2. Human nutrition
• Human nutrition is an intrinsically complex topic, ranging from
agriculture and zootechnics, to food technology, from nutrition in
different physiological states (growth, pregnancy, breast-feeding, aging),
to the nutritional approach to acute and chronic diseases, from birth to
the end of life.

3. Who is a nutritionist?
• A career in nutrition can cover everything from how we grow the food all
the way up to what people are eating and how to change behaviours.
• Nutritionists are "nutrition scientists" who either generate the science
themselves or use the established evidence to implement programs or
advocate for changes within the food system.

4. Who is a nutritionist…..continued
• Nutritionists work in roles where they use nutrition and food
knowledge to promote healthy populations.
• They work mainly at the community, organisation and
population level to provide information and advice about foods
to promote health.

5. Where can a nutritionist work?
• Many different types of organisations, both corporate and not-for-profit,
employ nutritionists. ‘
• A nutritionist may also work in nutrition-related organisations such as
UNICEF, WHO, etc
• A nutritionist may also work in the food industry providing advice on the
formulation of healthy products, food analysis or the application of food
regulations and safety standards.

6. Dietetics
• This is the application of the science of nutrition to the human being in
health and disease. .

7. Who is a Dietitian?
• The term ‘dietitian,’ is used to describe a practitioner of dietetics.
• The difference between dietitians and nutritionists is to think of dietetics as
a specialisation on top of your nutrition studies.
• Dietitians have the added qualifications to work one-on-one with patients
in a clinical context.

8. Where can a Dietitian work?
• Dietitians can work in any of the areas that nutritionists work.
• Additionally, they can provide nutrition advice for the treatment of a broad
range of diseases and health conditions.
• They can work clinically with individuals who have conditions such as
diabetes, food allergies, gastrointestinal disorders and they provide
nutritional advice to help them manage their conditions.

9. Malnutrition
• Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or
nutrients.
• Malnutrition falls under two groups:
a) Undernutrition — this is the insufficient intake of energy and nutrients to meet an individual's
needs to maintain good health. This includes stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight
for height), underweight (low weight for age) and micronutrient deficiencies or insufficiencies (a
lack of important vitamins and minerals).
b) Overnutrition — a form of malnutrition (imbalanced nutrition) arising from excessive intake of
nutrients, leading to accumulation of body fat that impairs health. This includes overweight,
obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke etc.

10. Food security
• Food security, as defined by the United Nations’ Committee on World
Food Security, means that all people, at all times, have physical, social,
and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets
their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life.

11. Food insecurity
• Food insecurity is the lack of regular access to enough safe and
nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active
and healthy life.

12. Food system
• This encompass the entire range of actors and their interlinked
value-adding activities involved in the production, aggregation,
processing, distribution, consumption and disposal of food
products that originate from agriculture, forestry or fisheries, and
parts of the broader economic, societal and natural environments
in which they are embedded.

13. Food sustainability
• Sustainability refers to the ability to maintain or support a process
continuously over time.
• Food sustainability means producing food in a way that protects the
environment, makes efficient use of natural resources, and enhances the
quality of life in communities and globally.
• This idea is the driving force behind a movement to address the fact that
significantly more resources go into our global food system than come out of
it.

14. Food sustainability
• Food sustainability means looking at how to ensure a healthy
food supply that is distributed equitably across our population
(and the world).
• The focus is on reducing waste, impacting global warming and
supporting the health of our farming systems and environment.

15. Sustainable food system
• It is a food system that delivers food security and nutrition for all, in such
a way that the economic, social and environmental bases to generate
food security and nutrition for future generations are not compromised.
• It may also be defined as a food system that provides healthy food to
meet current food needs, while maintaining healthy ecosystems that can
also provide food for generations to come with minimal negative impact
to the environment.

16. Diet
• A diet may be defined as a pattern of food intake that meets certain
demands that are relevant to weight or health.
• A healthy diet is one in which macronutrients are consumed in
appropriate proportions to support energetic and physiologic needs
without excess intake while also providing sufficient micronutrients and
hydration to meet the physiologic needs of the body.

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