Nutrition Sciencet.Po/icy
March 7992: 88-89
Nutritional Requirements and Dietary Guidelines: The Globe Shrinks The international concern with nutritional requirements received its earliest transnational expression in the 1930s under the League of Nations.' Since then, other international bodies (the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Protein Advisory Group, the International Union of Nutrition Scientists), as well as individual countries around the world, have expended enormous effort promulgating dietary allowances based on evolving nutrition science. The 1970s and '80s saw the evolution of a parallel set of dietary recommendations that took increasing account of the evidence relating dietary practices to degenerative diseases and health maintenance. The dilemma of how to deal with recommended dietary allowances in view of claims that lowering the risk of specific diseases might require different intakes of certain nutrients than the maintenance of general good health, was one of the key factors that resulted in a four-year delay in the release of the 1989 Recommended Dietary Allowances by the United States' National Academy of Sciences. WHO released its version of dietary guidelines in 1990;2the new British recommendations, summarized below, were released in the second half of 1991. The conceptual approach to these recent releases may be even more important than the specific numbers. The concept of the use of ranges as opposed to individual numbers deserves wide attention. A member of the British committee, Dr. Michael Gibney, now a corresponding editor of Nutrition Reviews, makes some introductory comments as we present the British COMA recommendations to our readers. The national recommendations of the countries in the European community were compared in 1990.3The European community is nearing finalization of its own common dietary recommendations, and these too will be summarized in this journal when they are released. In many sectors of the world, there is increasing concern with the nutritional needs of the rapidly growing population of the elderly; these values have not been adequately represented in previous versions of recommended dietary allowances. In December 1991, the results were published of an 11-
88
nation survey in Europe on nutritional status of the elderly? and a summary of that landmark study, which will certainly add to the data base for approaching nutrient requirements for the European elderly, will be carried in this journal. Also in December, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Medicine, and the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University sponsored a planning conference on approaches to setting nutrient requirements for the elderly. That process will also receive increasing attention at both the national and international levels in the months to come. These public pronouncements on dietary guidelines and nutrient requirements are the most visible official statements of nutrition and health policy. At their best they embody the growing knowledge in nutrition science. Still they are always political documents as well, and the growing recognition that nutritional science transcends national boundaries and national interests will have an increasing impact on the collaborative nature of these recommendations. We hope to provide a forum for discussion of these national and international questions in Nutrition Reviews. 1. Mixed Committee of the League of Nations. Final report of Mixed Committee of the League of Nations on the relation of nutrition to health, agriculture and economic policy. Geneva: League of Nations official publication A13 HA, 1937 2. World Health Organization Study Group on Diet, Nutrition and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases. Diet, nutrition, and the prevention of chronic diseases. Nutr Rev 1991;49:291-301 3. Recommended dietary intakes in the EEC: Scientific evidence and public health considerations-A workshop. Trichopoulou A, ed. European J Clin Nutr 1990;44:Suppl 2, 1-125 4. Euronut-Seneca. Nutrition and the elderly in Europe. de Groot LCPGM, van Staveren WA, Hautvast JGAJ, eds. European J Clin Nutr 1991;45:Suppl 3, 1-196
Irwin H. Rosenberg, M.D. Editor
Nutrition Reviews, Vol. 50, No. 3
March 7992: 88-89
Nutritional Requirements and Dietary Guidelines: The Globe Shrinks The international concern with nutritional requirements received its earliest transnational expression in the 1930s under the League of Nations.' Since then, other international bodies (the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Protein Advisory Group, the International Union of Nutrition Scientists), as well as individual countries around the world, have expended enormous effort promulgating dietary allowances based on evolving nutrition science. The 1970s and '80s saw the evolution of a parallel set of dietary recommendations that took increasing account of the evidence relating dietary practices to degenerative diseases and health maintenance. The dilemma of how to deal with recommended dietary allowances in view of claims that lowering the risk of specific diseases might require different intakes of certain nutrients than the maintenance of general good health, was one of the key factors that resulted in a four-year delay in the release of the 1989 Recommended Dietary Allowances by the United States' National Academy of Sciences. WHO released its version of dietary guidelines in 1990;2the new British recommendations, summarized below, were released in the second half of 1991. The conceptual approach to these recent releases may be even more important than the specific numbers. The concept of the use of ranges as opposed to individual numbers deserves wide attention. A member of the British committee, Dr. Michael Gibney, now a corresponding editor of Nutrition Reviews, makes some introductory comments as we present the British COMA recommendations to our readers. The national recommendations of the countries in the European community were compared in 1990.3The European community is nearing finalization of its own common dietary recommendations, and these too will be summarized in this journal when they are released. In many sectors of the world, there is increasing concern with the nutritional needs of the rapidly growing population of the elderly; these values have not been adequately represented in previous versions of recommended dietary allowances. In December 1991, the results were published of an 11-
88
nation survey in Europe on nutritional status of the elderly? and a summary of that landmark study, which will certainly add to the data base for approaching nutrient requirements for the European elderly, will be carried in this journal. Also in December, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Medicine, and the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University sponsored a planning conference on approaches to setting nutrient requirements for the elderly. That process will also receive increasing attention at both the national and international levels in the months to come. These public pronouncements on dietary guidelines and nutrient requirements are the most visible official statements of nutrition and health policy. At their best they embody the growing knowledge in nutrition science. Still they are always political documents as well, and the growing recognition that nutritional science transcends national boundaries and national interests will have an increasing impact on the collaborative nature of these recommendations. We hope to provide a forum for discussion of these national and international questions in Nutrition Reviews. 1. Mixed Committee of the League of Nations. Final report of Mixed Committee of the League of Nations on the relation of nutrition to health, agriculture and economic policy. Geneva: League of Nations official publication A13 HA, 1937 2. World Health Organization Study Group on Diet, Nutrition and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases. Diet, nutrition, and the prevention of chronic diseases. Nutr Rev 1991;49:291-301 3. Recommended dietary intakes in the EEC: Scientific evidence and public health considerations-A workshop. Trichopoulou A, ed. European J Clin Nutr 1990;44:Suppl 2, 1-125 4. Euronut-Seneca. Nutrition and the elderly in Europe. de Groot LCPGM, van Staveren WA, Hautvast JGAJ, eds. European J Clin Nutr 1991;45:Suppl 3, 1-196
Irwin H. Rosenberg, M.D. Editor
Nutrition Reviews, Vol. 50, No. 3
