Harvard School of Public Health - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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L. to r .—Jeanette Forsythe, Carl Seltzer, Michael Latham, Jean Mayer, Clifford Baile, Fredrick Stare, Madge Myers, Sheila Cronin, Stanley Gershoff, Agnes Huber, Mark Hegsted, Robert Geyer. ...Food For Thought... A T i he word nutrition” is deceptive, with many meanings for many people. This field is expand¬ ing so rapidly that no one dares to retard its growth by subjecting it to definition. Consequently, the word will probably remain vague for years to come. Nutrition can be thought of as an endless saga; the excitement of its past only enhances our en¬ thusiasm for its future. As more is learned, more must be comprehended. As the past mechanisms are understood, an infinity of new directions beck¬ ons. Once we spoke of nutritionists as farmers, then as dietitians, then as biochemists. In twenty years, we shall speak of biophysicists, statisticians, and psychologists. Now we talk of the Krebs cycle. Then our computer will talk of pi mesons and elec¬ tron spin. In twenty years our psychologists will be able to tell us why Americans eat too much. Perhaps we will universally conclude that atherosclerosis is a nutritional disease after all. Maybe the hungry bil¬ lions will be fed then; they could be fed even now. mankind. We need the help of other disciplines to put them to work. Nutrition does not exist for itself; it exists in order to enrich human life. This is its greatest challenge. This is its highest hope. Shall we start with fluorides? Richard Brown Richard Brown makes a point. My desire for our field is that it be put to use. The laboratories and surveys can produce the knowledge and techniques for the betterment of 29

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Fredrick J. Stare, S.B., S.M., Ph.D., M.D., A.M. (hon.), S.D. (hon.) Nutrition... 1984 r T 1 wenty or so years from now it would please me ■ - as a Professor of Nutrition, Emeritus for ten years, to see that nutrition finally has been accepted as an important part of public health, preventive medicine, and medicine. There are few schools of public health today, and fewer than half have any instruction in nutri¬ tion. Yet our government’s foreign assistance pro¬ gram AID has, during the past year, announced that nutrition is to be given primary emphasis in our foreign health programs. In our own country the American Heart Association for the past year, and currently, is emphasizing changes in the American diet as the most effective way for the public to lessen the chances of developing coronary artery disease. Food and nutrition are an important part of our biggest social problem, the expanding popu¬ lation. Who is to train health personnel in modern nutrition? Even at Harvard where we have a very active and large department of nutrition, our teach¬ ing opportunities are quite limited in both the School of Public Health and the School of Medi¬ cine. Nutrition is an important part of modern public health. The foods we eat or do not eat are impor¬ tant to the health of the public and to you. I hope that at least by 1984 this will be understood by those responsible for guiding education in public health and appropriate action instituted. I hope that long before I have been Emeritus for ten years our School of Public Health will have be¬ come .active in operating a series of short courses and summer courses for refresher training of pro¬ fessional and para-health personnel. Such training is essential if we are going to provide sufficient personnel to meet our expanding needs for com¬ munity health services. And in research, I am confident that through im¬ proved diets and foods, better nutrition will have lessened the incidence of, and postponed the onset of, coronary heart disease, strokes,” essential hyper¬ tension, osteoporosis, renal and bladder stones, and a host of the enzymatic-defect diseases frequently referred to as inborn errors of metabolism. By 1984 we may even have fluoridated all com¬ munity waters in Massachusetts! Fredrick J. Stare 28

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?;- •. - tfgsK TA hungry could he fed even now . . . WHO . . . as past mechanisms are understood ... . . . an infinity of new directions beckons . . . 30