Nutrition: risk free analysis tool

Healthy diet helps children to grow develop and perform well in school. Healthy food also helps to prevent chronic diseases, such as heart disease, certain cancers, diabetes, stroke and osteoporosis that are leading causes of disability and death. Family, friends and personal beliefs, including cultural and environmental considerations, play a major role in people's food selection. The nutritional assessment process includes two phases: screening and assessment. The definitions of nutrional screening and assessment vary slightly from one setting to another. The major purpose, however, is to screen for nutritional risks and apply specific assessment techniques to determine an action plan (Council on Practice, Quality Management Committee, 1994). Screening identifies patients at nutritional risk or suspected to be at risk due to disease or medical treatment. The goals of screening are to identify individuals who are at nutritional risk and those who need further assessment, as well as to determine who should provide that assessment .Screening can be done in different places. The screening tool can be used in the clinic setting, for the elderly in congregate feeding situations. A short screening can be used in hospitalized patients not suspected of being at risk. Thus various nutritional analysis tools available in literature are discussed for effectively identifying the population under nutritional risk.