Editorial

Citation

Blades, M. (2010), "Editorial", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 40 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/nfs.2010.01740baa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Nutrition & Food Science, Volume 40, Issue 2.

The journal Nutrition & Food Science represents a dynamic and fast moving group of sciences which includes nutrition, diet, health, food studies, catering, psychological matters and marketing to include but a few!

This makes it difficult for any organisations and indeed individuals from consumers to students of the subject to keep pace with the latest science. Nutrition & Food Science also tries to provide innovative papers on related subjects.

For those organisations needing specialist and detailed assistance, there are a number of groups that can provide expertise on all aspects of nutrition and food. While many people have opinions on the subject they may not always have the scientific understanding of biochemistry and general biological sciences to validate these. Groups such as SENSE (a group for Self Employed Nutritionists to provide Support and Enlightenment) can provide such support to both the food and nutrition industry as well as to each other within the group. Members of SENSE are all highly qualified and also belong to such other associations as the British Dietetic Association, Nutrition Society and Institute of Food Science and Technology so for those wanting assistance or support contacting this group via their website can be invaluable.

SENSE has two regular meetings each year as well as the ability for members to easily contact each other to ask for help and guidance on various topics. Meetings are on topical issues such as the one held recently on “Nutrition and Health Claims” plus often they are held in collaboration with other professional groups such as the “Nutritionists in Industry”.

There is an increasing interest in nutrition and health throughout the world with the increasing challenges of obesity, coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes – to mention but a few disorders where diet has a major contribution.

Research on nutrition brings forward new products such as probiotics and prebiotics as well as a range of supplements not considered in the past. Requirements regarding nutrition and health claims as well as legislation on nutrition and school food may well all require the expertise of suitably qualified nutritionists which is where such organisations as SENSE come into provide help.

This Nutrition & Food Science demonstrates the range of topics, which are being discussed, with an even bigger section on Food Facts plus a medley of papers covering items of interest to numerous scientists. These include papers from all over the world with:

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  Production and utilisation gastric rafts made from flavoured alginate, pectin and polysaccharides had an effect on food intake, which may be helpful in controlling obesity.

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  Biocontrol of spoilage yeast and moulds which can be a real problem in the production of yoghurt, using a special type of yeast as a biocontrol may be helpful to this industry.

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  Body dissatisfaction and dieting among adolescent females is well known with many young women particularly in the UK trying to achieve the size zero of celebrities. This paper confirms that a worrying 80 per cent of girls in Ireland were dissatisfied with their shape and it is perhaps something that the media would find of interest.

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  Physicochemical properties of Roselle oil is an interesting paper as there are more and more considerations of different types of oil for cooking or as supplements.

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  Extraction and purification of omega 3 fatty acids from a fish oil shows a useful method of extraction of an oil that is known to have substantial health benefits.

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  Television viewing accounts for significant amounts of time especially during the winter months, it is also very easy to eat a meal as one views TV especially of the easily eaten “fast food” variety. This paper looks at time and fast food intake of Japanese and American students and found some interesting results between the two groups.

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  Microbiological assessment of probioticated ginger-based beverages suggests a novel way of providing a probiotic product with an unusual flavour.

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  Individualised dietary intervention and hospitalised patients in Tehran show the importance of carefully assessing and individualising patients diets.

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  Type 1 diabetes requires careful management and some sufferers tend to exhibit nocturnal hypoglycaemia and this paper on the use of slow release starch from physically modified maize demonstrated that this could limit this condition.

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  This case study of a patient on a low fat diet provides a powerful paper on the value of such a diet with increased levels of fruit and vegetables in reducing the cardiovascular risk over a period of time.

Mabel Blades