Differences Between Traditional and New Priorities in Nutrition: Priorities in Nutrition, Old and New

Times change and people do too, along with their nutritional needs and preferences, as well as their understanding between traditional and new priorities in nutrition.

In the early western world, traditional nutritional priorities in nutrition focused on what was available in brand new, developing countries and available as produce gleaned from the land or obtainable from the rivers, lakes or ocean. Survival often meant learning how to meet basic nutritional needs. Gradually, the process grew to encompass larger numbers of people, plus their growing needs and desires, as well as increasing refinement of produce.

Today, new priorities in nutrition focus more on nutritional enhancement in an attempt to meet obvious deficiencies. Science and technology in the health field are revealing the lack of basic, nutritional needs related to aging, illness and disease processes in conjunction with modern day growth, harvesting and processing methodology linked to the manufacturing, marketing of produce and sales, in other words, e-commerce.

Nutrition, according to biology-online.org is “the study of food and nourishment, examining the nutritional content of different foods, the amount of nutrients required for healthy growth and function and how this varies for different people”.

The transition from basic survival to the focus on the nutritional content of food, in relation to the amount needed for health, is a major shift in emphasis over the years. At the same time, around the globe there are still third world countries struggling for food production related to basic survival. The health aspect of nutrition plays a secondary role, but it is still important.

With global economic decline, increasing unemployment, as well as improved Internet access globally, concern about nutrition is growing, particularly where it pertains to basic survival and the awareness of the role of nutrition with respect to health. Increasing refinement often results in the reduction of basic nutritional products to supplements, which become replacements for the original products.   

Global nutritional guidelines mean other concerns like how those guidelines can be met in poverty stricken, disease ravaged and disaster-related problematic regions of the world. At best, nutrition guidelines are an ideal. With the increase of knowledge and the obvious need for health concerns, compassion and other humanitarian issues arise.

Traditionally, because of the struggle for base survival and the ongoing focus on the development of nutritional products in many areas, there has been limited awareness and scope of humanitarian nutrition resolution. At the same time, science and technology are both contributing to major developments in the field of nutrition in relation to health.

Today, the scope of priorities for nutritional practices has expanded far beyond the traditional approach to nutrition, particularly when it concerns Internet communication and education about nutrition. Awareness exceeds the scope of previous traditional understanding and practices with respect to nutrition in almost every country of the world, as nutritionists and others compare scientific development and technology in the realm of nutrition on a global platform.

Another development with unlimited scope focuses on what was traditionally nutritionally beneficial in the past. It has global outreach potential. In other words, there is a sharing of nutritional priorities between countries of the world. Old practices, in different countries are examined and scientifically revealing nutritional benefits of certain products. There is a new global market for these products. A healthy balance of the old and new is important all around the world for the rich and poor.

Nowadays, concerns related to chemical alteration of potential food crops is of growing concern to people everywhere as it becomes suspect in terms of human health.

In many ways, the realization of the differences and similarities between traditional and new priorities in nutrition reveal not only the merits in both, but also the potential concerns that may prove to be resolvable in time. Ideally, ongoing research will lead to improved nutrition and health.