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Many of the world's present day nutritional problems have either taken place in the past, or can be found to exist in similar societies in different parts of the world

Coronary heart disease, which is sometimes called ischaemic heart disease, is the major cause of death in the United Kingdom. Much more is known, and even more talked about, the relationship between coronary heart disease (CHD) and diet than any other type of medical disorders except for the deficiency diseases.

Many committees have produced tables of recommended dietary intakes. All are careful to stress that their recommendations are amounts sufficient, or more than sufficient, for the nutritional needs of practically all healthy persons in the population but are not a precise statement of nutrient requirements. The recommendations may ‘serve as guides for government officials and others whose duty it is to plan agricultural production and to control imports and exports of food in order to ensure that the food supply will be sufficient to meet the needs of the people’ and ‘may be used as a guide for caterers and dietitians when planning diets for groups of healthy individuals’

In the broadest sense, the word “drug” has come to mean the same as “medicine”, that is, a substance that is used in medical treatment because it has some action on the functioning of the body or on disease. Food and drugs can interact in several ways and in some instances there is a very hazy borderline between what is a food and what is a drug. Take alcohol for example. When taken in large quantities, it has a marked effect on the higher nerve centres, so alcohol is clearly a drug. Yet being a source of energy, alcohol is also a food. One gram of alcohol supplies 29 kJ and the average adult in the U.K. takes about four per cent of his total energy intake as alcohol. (In France and other wine producing countries, alcohol supplies about 14 per cent of the total adult energy intake.) A variety of effects on nutrition can be caused by alcohol. In social drinkers the commonest is a contribution to obesity. Some wines — not only “tonic wines” — are rich in iron. This is, at first sight, a good thing because iron deficiency is common all over the world. But those who take generous amounts of wine are not necessarily those who are short of iron and a state of iron overload can sometimes occur. Severe alcoholics, whose life becomes so disorganised that they eat very poorly, can have a variety of nutritional deficiencies. The most serious is thiamin deficiency which can occur in those alcoholics who drink heavily and eat very little food over a few weeks. The result is either brain disturbance, Wernicke‐Korsakoff disease, or heart failure. These respond dramatically to large doses of thiamin, provided the condition is recognised quickly. Occasional cases have been reported from British hospitals in recent years.

Many committees have commented on the role of diet and health, but in the last 15 years there has been an upsurge of these publications. One of the first reports in 1974 from the committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy (COMA) made very little reference to fruits and vegetables and did not have any specific recommendations to increase their consumption. Yet the World Health Organisation Expert Committee in 1982 published a report Prevention of CHD that recommended increasing ‘appropriately combined foods of plant origin’. The discussion paper Proposals for Nutritional Guidelines for Health Education in Britain' prepared by a working party of the National Advisory Committee of Nutrition Education (NACNE) stated, ‘… health educators should encourage the consumption of fruits and vegetables as well as cereals …’

The relationship between adherence to a Mediterranean diet and reduced mortality or a lower incidence of major chronic diseases has been widely studied. The purpose of this study was to assess the adherence of a Lebanese adult sample to the Mediterranean diet.

This cross-sectional dietary survey involved a Lebanese population sample aged 19 to 70 years. A total of 615 men and women were asked to fill a diet history questionnaire (144 items), assisted by trained nutrition research assistants. Data were analyzed and compared to the Mediterranean diet recommendations, and the Mediterranean diet score, a ten-point scale based on above and below median levels of consumption, was estimated.

There was no significant difference in terms of adherence between men and women participants below the age of 30 years, while women over 30 years had a poorer score than men within this age group. The surveyed sample was found to have a 4.2 Mediterranean diet score and, thus, has a low adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern. Consumption of fruits, vegetables, dairy products, legumes and nuts of this Lebanese sample met the Mediterranean diet recommendations, while whole grains, poultry and fish consumption was lower than the recommended Mediterranean diet intake, and meat consumption was found to be much higher than what was recommended.

Facing the fast increase in non-communicable disease incidence, and with a more spread Western-type culture, it is central to raise awareness about the role of traditional Mediterranean diet in preventing and protecting against these diseases. This study contributes to the limited literature on the adherence to the Mediterranean diet in Lebanon.

This article aims to examine lay‐persons' views of school food services in Victoria, Australia.

A cross‐sectional postal questionnaire survey of a random sample of electors on the Electoral Roll in Victoria, Australia. Out of 1,000 potential respondents, 377 completed the questionnaire. Main outcome measures included responses to closed questions about foods supplied to children at school using five‐point scales. Data analyses included frequency and cross‐tabulation analyses, and multivariate analyses of principal component scores by demographic and personal values variables.

Many respondents were critical of children's school food services but they were generally supportive of food and health education, whilst holding ambivalent attitudes towards snacks and marketing practices.

This was a cross‐sectional survey with a relatively low response rate.

Understanding of laypersons' views of children's food services is likely to facilitate nutrition communication and promotion of healthy children's foods.

Lay views of children's food provision have rarely been reported, despite their importance for the support of public nutrition policies. The study identifies likely antecedents of lay people's views.

Describes the life history of the British Food Journal, its changing editorial team, ownership and editorial focus. The authors have used much wider source material than the archives of the journal, now in its 100th year. The journal was always closely identified with the safety of food, its adulteration and the government’s duty to safeguard the public. The second section reviews the profession and role of the public analyst, in particular the history and development of the Society of Public Analysts. The next and longest section of the monograph is devoted to an interesting examination of food safety, nutrition and food manufacturing issues over the last 100 years. Many of the points raised are illustrated by excerpts from papers written in BFJ and included as Appendices to the monograph. Food irradiation was first raised as a subject in the journal in 1928! Bread and milk as staples in the British diet are looked at in some detail in terms of their ingredients and health properties. Some appendices have been included just for interest and provide brief snapshots of some of the main food concerns of the time, e.g. The Pure Food Society, the food we eat, food poisoning, a world food policy, the packaging of foods, food hygiene. Plus ça change ...

The paper aims to explore the food shopping and preparation responsibility in a sample of adults, average age 32.5 years.

A sample of 198 adults (81 men and 117 women) who were involved in a longitudinal dietary study self‐completed a questionnaire about their food habits. Chi‐squared analysis explored relationships between variables using SPSS (version 10). Open‐ended responses were analysed in QSR NUD*IST using a content analysis framework.

The majority of respondents were married or co‐habiting (79 per cent), 6 per cent were lone parents, 9 per cent lived alone and the remainder lived with parents and others. Significantly more women than men were responsible for food shopping and preparation (both p<0.001). Within shared households food responsibility was predominately a female dominated area, with a considerably higher proportion of women responsible for food shopping and preparation compared with men. Reasons given for this included aspects of time and work as well as women being more skilled in this task.

The study was a relatively small and homogenous sample, not necessarily representative of the wider UK population.

Identifies the enduring gender divide in food responsibility. Findings will be useful to health educators, policy planners and researchers.

In light of the recent focus on diet and health, this paper describes the reported shopping and food preparation behaviours in a sample of adults in their 30s at the beginning of a new century.