Children’s dietary assessment and promotion: The Swiss situation

In October 2019, scientists and practitioners gathered in a
workshop on Children’s Dietary Measurement and Promotion
in Bern, Switzerland. The workshop aimed to
establish partnerships for childhood nutrition promotion,
monitoring, and measurement in Switzerland. Synergies
between research and practice exist, but collaborations are
lacking due to the multi-language makeup of the country
and to reduced funding. Efforts are needed to bring
research, practice, and policy together, to stimulate the
valid and affordable measurement of nutrition and eating
behavior, and to promote healthier eating in Swiss children.
This is timely, given the now century old tradition of
Public Health in Switzerland, and the growing importance
of lifestyle across the life course.
The study of nutrition must move beyond the clinical
context to include understanding of the ways in which
children eat, what they eat, and what determines such
behavior. Combined with clinical data, these measures
should provide public health and medical stakeholders the
information needed to implement programs helping children
and families to obtain and consume a higher-quality
diet. In this position paper, we provide an overview of
nutrition promotion, monitoring, and measurement in
Switzerland, highlighting gaps and opportunities for the
way forward.