[Diet and Nutrition in the Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD)]

Today, more than 50 % of adults in Germany are overweight, 20 million people are obese and 10 to 30 % suffer from non-communicable diseases (NCD). Unhealthy dietary patterns contribute to NCD, thus, NCD are at least partly avoidable. During the last decades nutrition research has changed from nutrients to foods identifying healthy food patterns characterizing healthy diets, e. g., Mediterranean diet, DASH diet and/or the New Nordic Diet. Scientifically, these diets have been shown to be effective strategies of primary and secondary prevention of NCD. Based on this evidence prevention of NCD is now urgently needed at the population level. However, effective public health strategies of prevention and health promotion go beyond daily medical practice and require re-thinking of our food system within a greater context of our environment and climate. To become sustainable, strategies and measures of behavior prevention addressing individuals have to be extended to measures against the obesogenic environment and its systemic drivers within our food system. Thus, social and political changes are needed for a better future health of the nation. Physicians may take the leadership to be prepared to add to a whole of society approach of prevention and health promotion.