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How?

Food, health, and care are three determinants (reference: A14) of nutritional status. These complement each other. Food intake is also influenced by the emotional changes of individual and diurnal variations. So, there may be an opportunity for balancing personal and professional relationships that may affect the level of care received, diversified food intake, and balanced diet. Thus, it may affect the nutritional status of individuals and groups at national and international levels.

Personal and professional relationships may be new focusing points to improve the nutritional status of individuals as well as groups in different settings. Some of the key aspects are discussed below.

At household levels:

In the case of households, household food, and nutrition security are easily manageable compared to groups, community, national, and international levels. Here, the allocation of time in different family activities may help family members to eat food together and share caring. It helps them to consume more homemade and family foods. Thus, developing healthy eating habits that influence test buds as well. As a result, short- and long-term development is promoted.

In addition, the psychological and moods of each member may be changed a lot due to the reduction of stress levels of individuals while staying and sharing thoughts and meals together. This helps them to overcome communication gaps among themselves as well as concentrate on individual needs and the importance of the family. This would help not only household food and food and nutrition security but also the nutritional security of individuals who are nutritionally vulnerable such as children and the elderly. These also reduce the need for old or childcare homes in modern days.

At working places:

In the case of working places, employees get exposed to different foods at different events. As a result, food and care are exchanged. While arranging events, people get ownership and are involved in physical activities instead of sedentary activities. It also creates opportunities or available time to share or observe or monitor the health conditions of colleagues. In addition, different traditional food practices in normal or ill conditions may be shared or practiced. Homemade and family foods may be shared in professional settings as well. Thus, overall health and nutritional status may be promoted which would be more effective and sustainable.

At community levels:

At the community level, you may have many options to get together such as personal, religious, cultural, and national ceremonies observed or celebrated locally. As a result, one may get the opportunity to enjoy meals of diversified foods such as homemade, locally available, and produced foods, that are easily available and usually cheap, with others. Thus, diversified food consumption may be promoted and increased at community levels if healthy relationships prevail among community members. As a result, individual, as well as community nutrition, will be improved.

At national and international levels:

The country-to-country bilateral relationship also may help to improve the quality and standard of life of different countries. It may create or facilitate opportunities to exchange products among countries. As a result, imported food items may be available in other parts of the world where those products are not available or do not grow.

So, personal, and professional relationships may be an influencing factor for ensuring the supply or availability and accessibility of foods for individuals, groups, and national and international levels. It also creates opportunities for community engagement, community participation, and ownership. These would support both the effectiveness and sustainability of global food and nutrition security programs and policies of the world directly or indirectly.

*Featured image credit goes to https://www.pexels.com

*Codes are used to publish a separate list of references.

By Md. Khurshidul Zahid, Ph.D.

Md. Khurshidul Zahid Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Nutrition and Food Science (INFS) of The University of Dhaka (DU) of Bangladesh. He has completed his Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences from the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Texas Tech University (TTU), USA. He was a finalist in the Emerging Leaders in Nutrition Science Competition organized by the American Society of Nutrition (ASN), Experimental Biology (EB) meeting held in Boston in 2015. He was also awarded a gold medal by “Professor Dr. Quazi Salamatullah trust foundation” of INFS, DU in 2005.

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