The World Health Organization defines ‘health’ as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
To achieve this, nutrition plays a key role. Nutrition is the study of nutrients in food, how the body uses these nutrients, and the relationship between diet, health and diseases. In simple terms, it examines how the body responds to food. Nutrition also plays a preventive role as it focuses on how health-related conditions and problems can be prevented or lessened with a healthy diet and lifestyle modifications. Nutrition also involves identifying how certain health conditions or problems may be caused by dietary factors, such as poor diet (malnutrition), food allergies, metabolic diseases, and so on.