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Origin
and nature of the Nestlé Nutrition Fund (NNF): twelve years
promoting nutrition
Introduction
In
1989 the Mexican Healthcare Foundation (Spanish acronym FUNSALUD)
selected various priority healthcare issues, to delimit its field
of action; nutrition of the Mexican population was not among them.
With the aim of promoting development in this new field, the institution
implemented two activities related to the issue, which later gave
rise to the Nestlé Nutrition Fund (NNF):
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The first activity was implemented in 1989, and consisted
of analyzing the state of the art of nutritional research
in Mexico, to identify the principal work groups and studies
published by Mexican researchers between 1989 and 1992. The
results of this investigation culminated in the formation
of a Collaborative Research Group to support multidisciplinary
research in nutrition.
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The second activity was to discuss the importance of supporting
teaching of nutrition in Mexican medical schools and faculties.
In 1990 Nestlé, Switzerland’s Advisory Board
for Adult Nutrition (ABAN) made a point of emphasizing the
deficiency of doctors’ preparation in the area of nutrition.
From this meeting emerged the initiative of Mr. Jose Represas,
an ABAN member, to propose to FUNSALUD plan of action designed
to change this situation. In 1990, FUNSALUD received a donation
from The Pew Charitable Trusts of Philadelphia to implement
the first actions in this plan, which consisted of diagnosing
nutritional education in medical schools and faculties affiliated
with the Mexican Association of Medical Schools and Faculties
(Spanish acronym AMFEM); designing a curriculum for teaching
the subject; and preparing the first edition of the textbook
Nutriología Médica. The continuity of these
activities was made possible with the support of the Nestlé
Company of Switzerland, which gave FUNSALUD a grant to found
the NNF in November 1992. Since then the NNF has been involved
in various activities to improve nutrition in Mexico. Since
1997 Nestlé Mexico, S.A. de C.V., fully funds the NNF.
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