Establishing a Belgian Nutrition Society (BNS): Filling the Void Editorial by

Nutrition is increasingly recognised as a key determinant of public health. In 2003, the World Health Organization and Food and Agricultural Organization published a report (1) which in-cludes a summary of current scientific knowledge concerning the relationships between nutritional factors and the most common diet-related diseases worldwide, such as cardiovas-cular diseases, cancer, obesity, type 2 diabetes, dental disorders and osteoporosis. Despite the overwhelming evidence pinpointing nutrition as a key determinant of public health, no co-ordinated national scientific organisation in the field of human nutrition existed in Belgium until last December. Although the reasons for this historical structural deficiency in Belgium are complex and multifactorial, three main causal mechanisms can be identified. Firstly, the field of nutrition in Belgium is generally scattered. Nutrition research units are em-bedded in a variety of academic departments and often suffer from poor visibility. At the same time, nutritional education is integrated in different parts of programmes/curricula in universities and academic institutions and at a variety of levels. Although significant progress has been made during the last years and several nutrition courses are taught, a formal de-gree in human nutrition or public health nutrition does not exist. Neither is ‘nutritionist ’