Community Nutrition: Creating a Healthy Ecosystem for Humans, Society and Nature through Empowerment

The concept of and method for community nutrition have been addressed following development of the theory and practice of health promotion. The new concept of public nutrition is introduced in this article.Recent development of the theory and method for health promotion has been focused on empowerment and ecology as the key concepts. The creation of a healthy ecosystem for humans, society and nature is being achieved through empowerment of the individual and community.The Indaba Declaration of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development emphasizes the nature and quality of food systems, and therefore diet and nutrition are the fundamental determinants of human health and welfare, and of the whole living and natural world.The goal of community nutrition is to improve the health and nutritional status of people in the community by the government health sector and the community. However, this scope is not enough to achieve a healthy ecosystem for humans, society and nature through empowerment. A new principle is therefore necessary for developing public nutrition that incorporates community nutrition with focus on the policy and decision-making process involving the various stakeholders, sectors and communities, each of which should have different objectives and values.