The Evolving Concept of Nutrition Through the Ages
A few years ago, nutritionists and diet experts did not exist. It was the doctors who gave a bit of nutrition advice to their patients as a part of their routine consultations. In recent years, the concept of nutrition and nutrition experts have evolved and grown substantially. As the world is experiencing a shift to a westernized way of life, lifestyle disorders like obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, cancer and others are becoming increasingly common. In all these lifestyle disorders, nutrition has an important and indispensable role to play.
Let us walk through the timeline of nutrition and how it has evolved through the ages.
Evolution of Nutrition Over the Years
The year 1920 was called the Era of Vitamin discovery, wherein vitamins like Vitamin A, C, D, E, K were isolated and studied for vitamin deficiencies. This was followed by a transition to development of Recommended Daily Allowances for some nutrients like protein, calcium and a few vitamins in the developed countries like the United States of America.
In developing countries like ours, in the year 1990, action on hunger, micronutrient supplementation (capsules, pills and powders) and fortification took place to tackle the health problems due to micronutrient deficiencies and starvation. The year 2010 witnessed something called the double burden of malnutrition. This was the time when there was a rise in non-communicable lifestyle diseases, along with the presence of undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. And this has been the state ever since.
After this came the era of fad diets and crash diets, wherein people would go to any length to lose weight and look slim. Fad diets like ketogenic diet for weight loss, cabbage soup diet, paleo diet, and many others became increasingly popular as they provided quick fixes due to their restrictive nature.
Apart from all of this, nutrition knowledge has advanced at an enormous pace in recent years. A lot of research is now taking place in various areas of nutrition like – nutrigenomics, gut microbiome, functional foods, immunity boosting foods and others. The relationship between food and brain is extensively studied and its findings have many implications on health.
Nutrition and Technology
Since a lot of things in our day-to-day life revolve around technology, nutrition is no exception. There are numerous mobile applications that act as reminders for consuming water, eating fruits and exercising, while some help to keep a track of daily calorie count and few take the role of diet coaches and experts! This is how much nutrition and health has evolved over the years.
As we all are walking towards westernisation and a ‘modern’ lifestyle, vitamin and mineral deficiencies are frequent. Due to the gap between the requirement and consumption of these vitamins through diet, nutrition supplements have emerged in a big way. Natural and whole foods have taken the form of capsules.
Of course, there are benefits of technology, especially in designing organic and plant based, clean multivitamin supplements. Some of the innovations in this area include effervescent tablets (yes, just like any fizzy drink but way healthier!) and oral thin strips.
These are created using the most recent technology which includes a relatively new form of nutrient delivery, making it 100% bioavailable for nutrient absorption in the body. As these effervescent tablets dissolve completely in water and form a homogenous solution, they are gentle on the digestive tract and do not cause any kind of discomfort, unlike the conventional supplements. They also taste delicious and are a great choice when it comes to your overall nutrition.
On the other hand, oral thin strips are the future of medicine and pharma technology. These are a great alternative to traditional pills and capsules, particularly for people who have difficulty swallowing them and run the danger of getting choked. All you need to do is place the thin strips on the tongue, and watch them dissolve. The sublingual delivery method that these strips embody, will ensure a complete and quick absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream, making it a clean, more bioavailable and an easy way to consume supplements/medicines. To understand its advantages and benefits better, you can read our blog on Melts in Your Mouth.
If you are wondering where you could find these cool nutrition supplements, don’t worry as we have you covered. Wellbeing Nutrition has a whole range of different effervescent tablets and oral thin strips that can be used for various functions. Check out our best selling products – Daily Greens, Grandma’s Kadha, Probiotics + Prebiotics, and Skin Fuel in the effervescent tab category and Multivitamins, Nano Iron, Throat Relief, Eye Care, Healthy Hair, Vegan Vitamin B12, Restful Sleep and many more as Oral thin strips!
Wrapping Up
To sum it all up, nutrition has evolved and emerged through the ages and still has a huge scope to improve and develop over the coming years. It is an era of superfoods and micronutrients that play an important role in promoting health and preventing lifestyle diseases, rather than curing them. After all, like they say, prevention is better than cure! So make way for smart nutrition and choose Wellbeing Nutrition for all your nutritional needs!
References :
- Mozaffarian D, Rosenberg I, Uauy R. History of modern nutrition science—implications for current research, dietary guidelines, and food policy BMJ 2018; 361 :k2392 doi:10.1136/bmj.k2392. (https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2392)
- Kenneth J. Carpenter, A Short History of Nutritional Science: Part 4 (1945–1985), The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 133, Issue 11, November 2003, Pages 3331–3342, https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/133.11.3331. (https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2392)
- Aslani A, Fattahi F. Formulation, characterization and physicochemical evaluation of potassium citrate effervescent tablets. Adv Pharm Bull. 2013;3(1):217-225. doi:10.5681/apb.2013.036. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3846033/)
- Bala R, Pawar P, Khanna S, Arora S. Orally dissolving strips: A new approach to oral drug delivery system. Int J Pharm Investig. 2013;3(2):67-76. doi:10.4103/2230-973X.114897. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3757902/)
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