Abstract
Over the last century, nutrition research and public health in New Zealand have been inspired by Dr Muriel Bell, the first and only state nutritionist. Some of her nutritional concerns remain pertinent today. However, the nutritional landscape is transforming with extraordinary changes in the production and consumption of food, increasing demand for sustainable and healthy food to meet the requirements of the growing global population and unprecedented increases in the prevalence of both malnutrition and noncommunicable diseases. New Zealand’s economy is heavily dependent on agrifoods, but there is a need to integrate interactions between nutrition and food-related disciplines to promote national food and nutrition security and to enhance health and well-being. The lack of integration between food product development and health is evident in the lack of investigation into possible pathological effects of food additives. A national coherent food strategy would ensure all components of the food system are optimised and that strategies to address the global syndemic of malnutrition and climate change are prioritised. A state nutritionist or independent national nutrition advocacy organisation would provide the channel to communicate nutrition science and compete with social media, lead education priorities and policy development, engage with the food industry, facilitate collaboration between the extraordinary range of disciplines associated with food production and optimal health and lead development of a national food strategy.
Highlights
Most years, a New Zealander, who has made a contribution to nutrition or related sciences inNew Zealand, is invited to deliver the Muriel Bell memorial lecture [1] at the annual scientific meeting of the Nutrition Society of New Zealand, on a topic of their choice
Almost always, easy to link the lecturer’s background, research interests and lecture content with Muriel Bell’s own interests and history, comprehensively described in a recent biography [2]. This might suggest that Muriel Bell worked in an extraordinary breadth of areas related to nutrition or that the same nutritional problems exist today—or both. This commentary aims to summarise the role of Muriel Bell in the history of nutrition in New Zealand, to consider how the nutrition landscape has changed since her era and to provide an overview of the nutritional challenges ahead and to consider how Muriel Bell might have responded
Understanding of nutrition transition, how diets change as income increases, indicates that there will be an increase in noncommunicable diseases that results from the changes classically described by Engel’s Law and Bennett’s Law [28]
Summary
A New Zealander, who has made a contribution to nutrition or related sciences in. The public lecture commemorates the life and work of Muriel Bell, 1898–1974 It is, almost always, easy to link the lecturer’s background, research interests and lecture content with Muriel Bell’s own interests and history, comprehensively described in a recent biography [2]. Almost always, easy to link the lecturer’s background, research interests and lecture content with Muriel Bell’s own interests and history, comprehensively described in a recent biography [2] This might suggest that Muriel Bell worked in an extraordinary breadth of areas related to nutrition or that the same nutritional problems exist today—or both. This commentary aims to summarise the role of Muriel Bell in the history of nutrition in New Zealand, to consider how the nutrition landscape has changed since her era and to provide an overview of the nutritional challenges ahead and to consider how Muriel Bell might have responded
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
