Ensuring adequate nutrition throughout the l
ife
-
course
is a major challenge and
requires a
multidisciplinary and intersectoral approach. Food and nutrition are
often trivialized and reduced to the basic human need to eat in order to survive.
F
ood and proper nutrition are not only responsible for our proper growth and
development in childhood and
adolescence and the absence of disease
throughout the l
ife
-
course. T
hey are also responsible for the success and
prosperity of a society, influence the overall potential of society, have a direct and
indirect impact on the environment. They are used in a
social context as an
indicator of the success of society and represent one of the social determinants of
health, such as inequality and injustice in access to safe food and sufficient
quantities of food.
The food environment, along with nutrition education
and
training from an early age, has a strong influence on the formation of habits and
practices in later life.
Breastfeeding is the first step in the l
ife
-
course
nutrition
cycle and one of the most important links.
A food environment that encourages
breas
tfeeding, equality and fairness in breastfeeding and access to nutritionally
valuable foods, and limits advertising and access to energy
-
dense and nutritionally
poor foods represents a strong potential for a society.
The United Nations Decade
of Nutrition
has identified five key areas for action to prevent all forms of
malnutrition in childhood, school
-
age children, adolescents and women of
reproductive age, and represents a broader approach to addressing the problem
and ensuring the participation of a wide
r range of stakeholders in addressing all
forms of malnutrition and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals that are
directly or indirectly related to nutrition by 2030.
