The difference between dietary nutrition and nutrition

"Nutrition" is a broad concept covering all living organisms' acquisition and use of substances to maintain life activities. It is a comprehensive set that includes all nutritional support methods and all applicable scenarios; and "dietary nutrition" is one of the core branches under the nutrition category, specifically referring to the part that meets the needs of the human body through daily dietary intake and metabolism of nutrients. It is the subset most closely tied to the daily life of the general public.

To be honest, it is normal for most people to confuse these two concepts - after all, the nutrition science we read every day, the nutrition lectures in the community, and even the recipes given by fitness instructors all talk about diet and nutrition. If you listen too much, you will inevitably think that "nutrition is not just about eating well."

When I was doing nutritional screening for the elderly in the community with a nutrition teacher from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention two years ago, I met an aunt who dragged us and asked: "I take protein powder and multivitamins every day, am I getting enough nutrition? Why did the physical examination say I am calcium deficient and dietary fiber deficient?" After careful questioning, I found out that she drank white porridge with pickles for three meals. She felt that she had supplements to cover her, and it didn't matter what she ate. In fact, she confused the two concepts: supplements and three meals a day are indeed ways of nutrient intake. But if we are talking about dietary nutrition, the core is to rely on a combination of natural foods to cover most of the nutritional needs. Supplements are meant to fill gaps. Putting the cart before the horse will naturally lead to problems.

If you really break down the difference in scope, it's actually much bigger than you think. Take the clinical nutrition department in a hospital as an example. The enteral nutrition solution given by a gastric tube to patients who are temporarily unable to swallow after surgery, and the intravenous nutrition (also known as parenteral nutrition) given to patients in the intensive care unit who cannot digest food at all. These all belong to the category of "nutrition", but they are not related to what we call "eating", and naturally they do not belong to dietary nutrition. When I was reviewing for the registered dietitian exam, I confused the two concepts at first and always made mistakes when answering questions related to "nutritional support." It wasn't until I went to the clinical nutrition department for a week and watched the doctor calculate the ratio of sugar, protein, and fat in the nutritional solution based on a patient's checklist after gastrointestinal surgery that I suddenly realized: It turns out that the world of nutrition is really not just about the dining table.

To use an inappropriate analogy, "nutrition" is like the transportation system of the entire city. From inter-provincial high-speed rail and freight trucks to shared bicycles in the community, even when you walk downstairs to buy a bottle of water, they are all part of this system; and "diet and nutrition" are what we The buses and subways that we take most every day are the most cost-effective means of transportation that ordinary people use every day. You cannot say that buses and subways are the entire transportation system, but for most people, if they understand public transportation, it can basically cover more than 90% of their travel needs.

Practitioners in different fields now actually have different views on the boundaries of these two concepts. Many popular science bloggers in the fitness circle and public nutrition field tend to equate "diet and nutrition" with "nutrition", which is actually correct - after all, for healthy people who have no underlying diseases and do not need special nutritional support, 99% of the nutrition-related content you will come into contact with in your life is in the category of diet and nutrition. There is no need to make the concept so complicated, but it will increase the threshold of understanding. However, clinical nutrition doctors tend to emphasize the difference between the two. I was chatting with the director of the nutrition department of a tertiary hospital before, and he said that many family members come to ask "what should patients eat to supplement nutrition", but the patients can't even eat, so it is meaningless to talk about dietary nutrition. At this time, the priority is parenteral nutritional support, and saving lives first will be discussed later. There is nothing wrong with either statement, it’s just that the scene of the station is different.

In fact, for us ordinary people, we really don’t have to worry about the definitions of these two concepts. Just remember one principle: if there is no special disease or medical advice, give priority to a solid nutritional combination of three meals, be omnivorous, diverse, and less deeply processed. It is much more reliable than spending a lot of money to buy various Internet celebrity nutritional supplements. If you encounter special circumstances and need other nutritional support, just leave it to professional doctors and nutritionists. If we ordinary people understand the things at the dinner table, we will already beat 90% of the people.