Editorial

Citation

Blades, M. (2005), "Editorial", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 35 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/nfs.2005.01735aaa.001

Editorial

At the beginning of September a Nutrition and Health show was held at Olympia in London.

This was the first time that the event had been held and it consisted of a number of exhibition stands from food companies, support groups and charities such as Coeliac UK and the Family Heart Association as well as a number of other groups.

Additionally there were a series of seminars with speakers covering various topics on nutrition and health as well as a concurrent series of cookery demonstrations.

The British Dietetic Association supported the event by asking a team of dietitians to provide dietary and nutritional advice to individuals requiring it.

I volunteered, along with a number of other dietitians to provide this dietary advice.

The number of requests for advice was amazing with long queues of people waiting to book appointments with a dietitian. Even more amazing was the fact that people had travelled from long distances to visit the show and see a dietitian. I saw people who had travelled from Herefordshire, Newcastle, the West Country and Welsh borders. Also various age groups were represented from teenagers to the retired.

Many of the disorders for which advice was requested were long term chronic ones such as multiple sclerosis, coeliac disease and food intolerances as well as on irritable bowel syndrome which is the disorder that I originally offered specialised advice on when volunteering for the event.

In an appointment of a few minutes it was hardly possible to scratch the surface of providing advice and the main aspect was to suggest how they could contact a qualified dietitian locally as well as advising on self help groups and literature where they could obtain further information.

Apart from being really busy and virtually hoarse from speaking to so many people the event demonstrated to me the great demand there is for balanced dietary advice.

Today so many disorders are recognised to be linked with diet and also people may be intolerant of various foods. There are numerous TV and radio programmes, which discuss the importance of diet. Magazines and newspapers regularly carry articles on food and nutrition especially slimming diets. Also there are regularly books on diet and nutrition in the bestseller lists.

This has all increased the demand for individuals to have a qualified dietitian help them to improve their diet and de-mystify the subject of nutrition, as was demonstrated by the demand for such advice at the Food and Health show.

Mabel Blades