CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
In developing countries, millions of young children suffer from nutritional deficiencies and frequent infections. There is now a large and increasing body of evidence to indicate that nutrition and health affect human’s cognitive, motor, and behavioral development, both pre- and postnatal. The impact of a biological insult depends on the stage of a child’s development, as well as the severity and duration of the insult. However, because nutritional deficiencies and infections frequently occur together, the problems resulting from any one insult may be exacerbated by the presence of another, and the effects can be cumulative.
The study of nutrients in food, how the body uses nutrients, and the relationship between diet, health and disease. Major food manufacturers employ nutritionists and food scientists. Nutritionists may also work in journalism, education and research. Many nutritionists work in the field of food science and technology.
There is a lot of overlap between what nutritionists and dietitians do and studied. Some nutritionists work in health care, some dietitians work in the food industry, but a higher percentage of nutritionists work in the food industry and food science and technology, and a higher percentage of dietitians work in health care.
One could very loosely generalize and say that a nutritionist focuses firstly on a food, and then looks at its effects on people, while a dietician looks at the human, and then how that human's health is influenced by food.
If I discovered a new fruit and wanted to find out what it consisted of I would go to a nutritionist. If I found out I had a long-term disease and wanted to know whether I needed to adjust my food intake because of the disease, I would go to a dietician. Please bear in mind that this very loose comparison is both subjective and possibly too geographically bound on my