Good nutrition and hydration is vital

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Nutrition and Hydration Weekis a national campaign aiming to bring the promotion of the importance of food, hydration and nutrition in both healthcare settings and social organizations. Its overall aim is to improve access to safe and nutritious food and drink on a global scale.

In order to mark the occasion, theISRCTNregistry, together with营养杂志和International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity,have been looking at some of the research being done in the general field of nutrition and hydration.

每当我想到饥饿时，我都会想到swollen abdomensin developing countries. And I’m just about old enough to remember the original outing ofBand Aid。

看起来令人震惊，在英国，这甚至是一个问题。例如，有人建议one in five elderly people in nursing homesdo not drink enough fluid and there have been claims that some hospitals arefailing to provide good nutritionto their elderly patients.

One in five elderly people in nursing homes are said to not drink enough fluid.

这recent downturn in the economy has also meant that more people are now struggling to provide food for their families.

A recent report onschool holiday hungerstated that more than six out of ten parents with household incomes of less than £25K a year are not always able to buy food outside of term time; this rises to almost 80% for families with incomes of less than £15K per annum.

As part of this year’s campaign, there is a Worldwide Afternoon Tea which they hope will get into the Guinness Book of Records. So, why not use that as an excuse now to grab yourself a cuppa and join us in exploring some of the work focusing on promoting a healthy diet, the role that diet can play in health conditions, and how to ensure that people get enough food and drink at all.

良好的营养从母亲的子宫

‘Eating for two’ is not just an idiom, as a healthy diet is vitalduring pregnancyto help the baby develop and grow normally. However, it is not simply a matter of quantity, and there are a number of studies in the ISRCTN registry looking at how to improve the diet of pregnant women, including investigating whethertailored dietary advice, provided on a website, results in healthier babies at birth。

健康饮食在怀孕期间至关重要，以帮助婴儿正常发育和成长。

If the mother is overweight or obese, or gains a lot of weight during her pregnancy, the baby is more likely to develop a condition known as macrosomia.

Macrosomic (larger-than-average) babies are more at risk of being overweight, and therefore more likely to havehealth problemsin later life. TheROLO study看看怀孕期间的超重或肥胖妇女在出生时会如何影响婴儿的大小。

这results of the study,recently publishedin the营养杂志showed that a low glycaemic index diet reduced the risk of macrosomia, highlighting the important role of a healthy diet in pregnancy.

Carrying on the good work

Childhood obesity is a growing problem;one in ten children are already obese before they go to primary school. By the time they leave, its one in five.

孩子的饮食，尤其是很小的时候，由父母控制；因此，阿格德大学的一组研究人员正在研究是否是否giving parents access to a website提供有关良好父母喂养实践，饮食以及如何制作健康自制婴儿食品的信息，从而改善了儿童饮食和父母喂养实践，并有助于预防将来的肥胖症。

It is often claimed that a healthy diet is more expensive than junk food, with theformer costing up to three times more。这Supermarket Healthy Eating for Lifestudy aimed to circumnavigate this problem and promote healthy eating in Australia though, for example, providing a number of resources and materials, help with skills such as budgeting and meal planning and setting goals (such as increasing the amount of vegetables a family eats).

结果是recently publishedin theInternational Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity和showed that one third of participants taking part in the study did change how they bought and cooked their food.

It is often claimed that a healthy diet is more expensive than junk food, with the former costing up to three times more.

But canwhenyou eat be as important aswhatyou eat? People who work in shifts are known to be of an increased risk ofheart disease and other health conditions, something that is thought to be linked to phosphorus.Phosphorus is essential for health, but too much of it may cause cardiovascular disease. Researchers in Japan have been looking atwhether eating at nightcan affect phosphorus metabolism.

Diet and disease management

Diet may even be important in managing health problems, with a number of scientists theorising that it could help in the management of diseases.

这“Dietary interventions in inflammatory bowel disease” study, for example, is investigating how a controlled diet might help people to manage Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, whileanother trialis looking at whether increasing the amount of vitamin D in the diet may help dialysis patients to live longer.

Drinking is good for you

While sadly not an excuse to reach for that bottle of wine (the陪审团仍在whether red wine is all that good for you), making sure that the body remains adequately hydrated isessential for life。Severe dehydration can lead to drowsiness, seizures and even death.

但是，虽然众所周知，有些饮料比其他饮料更能保湿 - 这意味着饮料中含有更多的液体是由人体保留的 - 这仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。

This studyrecently looked at the hydrating potential of a number of common drinks. The researchers hope to use the results to develop a hydration index.

As a person ages, they may want to drink less for avariety of reasons。Elderly people can also beparticularly vulnerable要脱水，因此必须确保它们能够喝足够的水至关重要。

With this in mind, the University of East Anglia will shortly be recruiting care-home residents for a study creating a “亲饮的环境” to encourage them to keep hydrated.

这problem of not enough food

尽管我们可能认为这是理所当然的，但在世界各地的许多地方，人们并不能保证不断提供营养和安全的食物。这种粮食不安全可能会对儿童的成长和发展，一般健康和教育程度产生破坏性影响。

A studypublished in营养杂志例如,描述了如何insec食物urity among adolescents led to more absences from school and poorer academic performance.

Happily, there is some help on offer.Cash transfer programsare a well-established way to help people in developing countries to provide food for their families. There are a number of studies in the ISRCTN registry on cash transfer programmes in aiming to tackle child malnutrition in a number of countries, includingSomalia,巴基斯坦和尼日尔。

A million children in the UK are said to go to school hungry every day.

Hunger can be found even in the UK. Poorer parents often find it difficult to provide for their children and over half a million children are said to go to school hungry every day.Magic Breakfastis a scheme taking place in England that gives free breakfasts to primary school children. They are investigating whether children provided with the magic breakfasts do better at school and are better behaved.

In conclusion

Good nutrition and hydration is vital in all stages of life. What we eat and drink can have a significant impact on our general health, quality of life and how well children do at school. Diet can also help with the management of a number of health problems – high cholesterol, diabetes and irritable bowel diseases just to name a few.

这scandal, of course, is that no-one in the world needs to go without at all. While the UK throws away more foodthan any other country in the EU,almost 800 million people in the worlddo not have enough food to eat at all.

While the UK throws away more food than any other country in the EU, almost 800 million people in the world do not have enough food to eat at all.

这good news is that it is a very active area of research and it is hoped that this, along with movements such as Nutrition and Hydration Week, will one day ensure that everyone gets enough nutrition and hydration for all their needs.