[Eat well and stay healthy. Changing perspectives on good nutrition].

Nutrition as a discipline evolved out of medical and bio-chemical thinking on the relation between food and health. Until the 1950s nutrient deficiencies dominated the nutritional way of thinking. From this moment attention was directed to nutritional consequences of the welfare state. During the last years a gradual shift in emphasis has taken place from cardiovascular diseases to nutrition and cancer, and to nutrition of the elderly. New is the attention on novel and functional foods as a means to promote nutritional health, besides the ongoing efforts to change food habits.