ABSTRACT
One of the problems in demonstrating the role of nutrition in disease is that nutritional effects are often very subtle and have very long fuses. It may be a lifetime exposure to something in the diet that ultimately winds up increases the possibility of cancer. Also, foods (and diets) are complex, multinutrient and nonnutrient systems, so assigning causality to a specific factor(s) in naturalistic studies is very difficult. Humans enjoy sensory stimulation. Almost every culture finds something with little nutritional value but which satisfies a sensory need. Nutritional considerations need to be built into farming systems research. In traditional American agricultural extension offices there was a farm advisor and a home economist. The early home economics extension agent was, in some ways, a public health worker. Health care and nutritional services can be delivered together. Good nutrition practices must become habitual because nutritional adequacy depends on what is eaten every day.
