Public health nutrition covers a diversity of challenges with a truly international focus. This is reflected in the mix of articles in the present issue, ranging from the importance of breakfast to issues of undernutrition, including food povertyReference Molcho, Nic Gabhainn, Kelly, Friel and Kelleher1, chronic childhood undernutrition in GhanaReference Hong2, non-dietary causes of stunting in South AfricaReference Theron, Amissah, Kleynhans, Albertse and MacIntyre3 and hunger in immigrant Mexican families in the USAReference Kersey, Geppert and Cutts4. Each of these papers introduces issues and challenges that continue to reflect the complexity of undernutrition and health inequality around the world. In the era of ‘affluenza’ and obesogenic environments (characterised by an over-abundance of energy-dense food) that tends to dominate public discourse worldwide, there is a great risk that we take our focus off the unacceptable and ethically repugnant nature of human undernutrition.
Agreeing what's what
Dietary guidance at individual and population levels relies heavily on the categorisation of foods to help distinguish the ‘good’ from the ‘bad’. This often simplistic categorisation is open to criticism, particularly from sections of the food industry that argue that there is no such thing as an unhealthy food and that it's a healthy overall diet that matters. To prevent this distraction from public debate about healthy food choices, food categorisation needs to be logical, transparent and systematic so that it makes sense to consumers and enables appropriate assessment of dietary exposures and related outcomes by researchers.
In this issue three papers address the issue of nutrient profiling, which make a valuable contribution to this endeavour. Nutrient profiling is the science of categorising food according to nutrient composition. Scarborough and colleaguesReference Scarborough, Rayner and Stockley5–Reference Scarborough, Boxer, Rayner and Stockley7 describe a systematic approach to developing nutrient profile models and then progress to report on comparison of a number of models against health professional's views and perceptions of food healthiness. This work is certain to lead to ongoing debate, application and further investigation, with significant applications to public health nutrition practice.
The new food insecurity
With the relatively recent push towards globalisation, and as a common response to regional conflict, there is an increasing tendency towards the mobility of people and mixing of cultures reflected in immigration and refugee movements. This geographical, psychological, social and cultural dislocation has important effects on nutrition and health status. In this issue, papers by Hadley et al. Reference Hadley, Zodhiates and Sellen8 and Dubowitz et al. Reference Dubowitz, Acevedo-Garcia, Salkeld, Lindsay, Subramanian and Peterson9 present data on food- and nutrition-related acculturation amongst immigrants and refugees, making an important contribution to the literature on what will continue to challenge public health nutrition responses in the years to come.
Anyone for breakfast?
Two papers in this issue provide evidence that supports the popular perception and cultural wisdom of the importance of eating breakfast. Matthys et al. Reference Matthys, De Henauw, Bellemans, De Maeyer and De Backer10 report evidence showing the importance of a quality breakfast on overall dietary quality. Lien's paperReference Lien11 that follows examines the relationship between eating breakfast and mental distress and academic performance amongst a large sample of Norwegian students. Both of these papers add weight to the age-old adage of the importance of eating a breakfast meal with an appropriate nutrient profile.
