BMC Nutrition, the voice of nutrition within the BMC-series, launches today!

Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food

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Hippocrates, by Tony Fisher Photography, on Flickr, CC
Hippocrates, by Tony Fisher Photography, on Flickr, CC

2500 years ago Hippocrates said ‘Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food’. Starting as an itinerant physician, he travelled from his home on the Greek island of Cos, through Greece and Asia Minor practicing the gentle art of physical observation, using his medical knowledge to show that disease was the product of environment and lifestyle. Hippocrates wrote in The Art of Medicine that highly skilled physicians treat their patients, using not only drugs, but also the right diet and lifestyle, to assist the human body in the healing process. He first proposed the ‘food as medicine’ philosophy.

A growing interest in nutritional science is opening up many therapeutic possibilities and nowadays concern about malnutrition is at the top of political agendas. The importance of food and nutrition in human development is widely recognized in both high-income and middle- to low-income countries.

The BMC series wants to contribute to helping the community better understand the importance of good nutritional care, providing information on the relationship between diet and health, the nutritional needs of the population and of individuals, the importance of ensuring the quality and safety of the food supply, the causes and consequences of nutritional disorders, and the benefits of food labelling and legislation. We are delighted to announce that the newest addition to the BMC series – BMC Nutrition, launches today.

Aim and scope

BMC Nutrition considers articles on all aspects of nutritional sciences, including public health nutrition and global interventions, nutritional epidemiology, the biological underpinnings of nutrition in the body, clinical nutrition, health and nutrition throughout the lifecourse, and dietary supplementation for improvement in health and performance. The journal also welcomes papers on developments in nutritional research tools and novel technologies.

We have called on an international panel of experts to join our Editorial Board  as Section and Associate Editors and share their scientific expertise in order to ensure consistent peer review and further development in light of the rapidly growing field. The journal has five editorial sections and we are delighted to welcome our Section Editors Maria Lorella Gianni’, Truls Raastad, Denis Roy, Ursula Schwab, and Joseph Sharkey.

Sserv27 on Wikimedia, CC
Sserv27 on Wikimedia, CC

The Basic science section will consider studies on all aspects of the underlying biological basis of nutrition including nutrigenomics, proteomics, metabolomics, epigenetics, oxidative stress, nutrient physiology and biochemistry, the microbiome, probiotics, prebiotics, and hormone-nutrient interactions in the cell and the central nervous system. ‘It is our hope’ said Denis Roy, from Laval University, Section Editor of the section, ‘that BMC Nutrition will contribute to progress in nutrition research by the publication of discoveries and applications and promotion of the field of nutrition science through science-based information’.

Nutrition is an important part of therapy in several diseases and conditions such as coronary heart disease, insulin resistance, diabetes and obesity. The Clinical nutrition section, headed by Ursula Schwab, from University of Eastern Finland, welcomes papers aimed at increasing knowledge and optimisation of prevention and treatment of diseases, and taking the individual differences in responses to nutrition therapy into account, if possible. The section also warmly welcomes papers dealing with tackling malnutrition and optimisation of care in patients.

USDA.gov, on Flickr, CC
USDA.gov, on Flickr, CC

During the last decades epidemiological, clinical and experimental research has provided increasing evidence on the crucial interrelation between early nutrition and subsequent health. The Life stage nutrition section in BMC Nutrition aims to create an accessible platform for disseminating new knowledge and high quality studies among researchers, practitioners and policy makers. ‘It is our ambition to contribute in identifying novel strategies for promoting adequate nutrition in childhood, helping children to reach their full potential of growth and to be healthy members of society’ said Section Editor Maria Lorella Giannì, from University of Milan.

hdptcar, on Flickr, CC
hdptcar, on Flickr, CC

Although some progress has been made in reducing nutrition-related health disparities among individuals living under adverse conditions, it is critical to help create healthier communities through community-based participatory approaches. The Nutritional interventions, policies and public health nutrition section, edited by Joseph Sharkey, from Texas A&M School of Public Health, wants to be an international forum for all aspects of nutrition interventions and policy change to influence the health of populations.

Last, but not least, in the Sport nutrition and dietary supplementation section our Section Editor Truls Raastad, from The Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, welcomes high quality papers focusing on performance and health outcomes relevant for elite athletes as well as for the more recreationally active population. The aim of the section is to provide the best of current knowledge on the acute and chronic effects of sports nutrition and supplementation strategies on physical performance, metabolism and health.

The newest research

Several articles have been published today, including the launch editorial, and research by Seifu Hagos Gebreyesus et al., from Addis Ababa University, on the evaluation of a simple tool to measure the access component of food insecurity among both rural and urban households in Ethiopia. If you want to find out the effects of the regular intake of the probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri on respiratory and gastrointestinal infections, take a look at the paper by Carsten Schröder et al., from University of Bremen, Germany. Ayesha Al Dhaheri et al., from United Arab Emirates University, investigated the effect of the nutritional composition on the glycemic index values in commonly-consumed traditional Emirati foods. Please do visit the new journal’s website to take a look.

We are really looking forward to watching BMC Nutrition grow in the next decade and become a reference point for all future research in the nutrition field. We welcome and encourage any sound research with a focus on this broad field, hoping that the element of interest as well as value to the reader will not be overlooked.

To submit your manuscript to BMC Nutrition, please visit our journal website, or contact the Executive Editor Dr Catia Cornacchia for any pre-submission enquiries.

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