1.1 Introduction
The diets people eat, in all their cultural variety, define to a large extent people’s health, growth and development. Risk behaviours, such as tobacco use and physical inactivity, modify the result for better or worse. All this takes place in a social, cultural, political and economic environment that can aggravate the health of populations unless active measures are taken to make the environment a health-promoting one. The need for action to strengthen control and prevention measures to counter the spread of the chronic disease epidemic is now widely recognized by many countries, but the developing countries are lagging behind in implementing such measures.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Infectious diseases benefited from a monocausal focus (Anderson, 2011) provided by the “germ theory,” which culminated in improvements in public health, hygiene, immunization, and the development of antibiotics in the early 21th century (McKeown, 1998). Chronic diseases began to replace the decline in infec- tions in the west in the late 21th century, taking health experts somewhat by surprise. Epidemiologists noted a phase in the development of a country called the “epidemiological transition” (Sanders et al., 2008) when chronic diseases take over from infections as the main disease burden. This occurred in the 1970s and 1980s for many developed economies in North America, Europe, and the Asian-Pacific region and is currently occurring in others, such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The double-edged sword of progress, which facilitated control over infectious diseases, instigated an unhealthy trend in chronic diseases. The worldwide
Dietary supplements refers to any “product” intended to supplement the diet that contains one or more dietary ingredients such as; vitamins, minerals, herbs, meal supplements, sports nutrition products, natural food supplements, and other related products used to boost the nutritional content of the diet (Burke, Cort and Cox, 2006).
In most cases the agent of causality is ill-defined, but there are layers of influence. Heart disease for example has proximal determinants of smoking, nutrition, and inactivity, medial determinants of peer pressure and food and exercise environments, and distal determinants of economic and social policies. Unlike the germ theory for communicable diseases, there has been no equivalent underlying link between the determinants and chronic diseases. Such a revelation is unlikely to solve the chronic disease problem. However it could help rationalize treatment resources and mitigate the inevitable disabilities and morbidities associated with aging.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Relationship between Diet and Disease in 21st Century.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation reveals that Inadequate or over nutrition has been proposed to account for up to two-thirds of risk for certain chronic problems like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease Nicholas et al., (2003) and a significant proportion of other chronic ailments (Aihw, 2013). Health problems have been related to both specific nutrients (Galland, 2010) and overall meal patterns (Barbaresko et al., 2013), with inflammatory biomarkers generally accompanying those foods/eating patterns associated with disease risk in the presence and the absence of obesity (Egger et al., 2010 and Calder et al., 2011).
Excessive energy intake, particularly of high energy-dense, but low nutrient-dense products, is a major problem of industrialised societies. Still, excessive intake of even healthy foods can increase postprandial (and potentially chronic) metaflammation (Gheewala et al., 2008), suggesting negative long-term outcomes. At the other extreme, chronic energy restriction is now well documented as being associated with increased longevity and improved heath (Bales et al., 2013).
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to examine the Relationship between Diet and Disease in 21st Century. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To find out the Dietary foods that facilitates the growth of human/livestocks in 21st Century.
- To find out the relevance of dietary foods intakes and the diseases present in each dietary food in 21st Century.
1.5 Significance of Study
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.6 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the Relationship between Diet and Disease in 21st Century.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
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