title: [Consequences of malnutrition in prosperous countries (author's transl)].
abstract: In times of need the classical disease gout becomes extinct, in times of prosperity it becomes frequent although its incidence remains virtually restricted to families with a history of gout. This means that genetic factors and nutrition must combine in order that the disease may become manifest. This situation probably parallels that of nutritional anomalies of fat metabolism, which have not been investigated to the same degree, although this cannot be said with certainty. Consequently the changing habits of nutrition during the last 30 years have led to the frequent incidence of metabolic disorders seldom found earlier. It is not forseeable whether further changes in our diet will give rise to further metabolic disorders. The physician, no matter whether he works as a clinician, hygienist or epidemiologist, who has to take care not only of the entire population but also of the individual, is faced with the problem of how to control this problem. Another question is whether the nutrition of the population may permissibly be changed to improve national health by political decisions which would affect not only those endangered but the rest of the population, too. Such changes will become indispensable in the future because the financial loss caused by alimentary diseases already amounts to several per cent of the gross national product. However, there remains the basic question as to why the increasing industrialization and the changed life style associated with it have so drastically altered our nutrition. Some of these changes are certainly unavoidable consequences of the technical development, above all in those sectors where technology has helped to produce better foodstuffs. One wonders, however, why massive public education has largely failed to prompt the German citizens to accept the repeated and often well-motivated advice. This is probably due to the fact that the human diet has been established over the decades both by tradition and by necessity. The hard times are over and the traditions are no longer alive, quite apart from the fact that today it would no longer be possible to eat as tradition demands. In such situations men ought to draw benefit from our store of well-founded knowledge; this, however, means that nutrition must become part of public education and as such it ought to be given as much weight as the majority of subjects presently taught at school.
mesh_terms: D004032:Diet; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D009748:Nutrition Disorders; D011634:Public Health
vernacular_title: Folgen der Fehlernährung in Wohlstandsländern