nutrients Communication Need and Importance of Nutrition Informatics in India: A Perspective Ashish Joshi 1, *, Ann Gaba 2 , Shyamli Thakur 3 and Ashoo Grover 4   Citation: Joshi, A.; Gaba, A.; Thakur, S.; Grover, A. Need and Importance of Nutrition Informatics in India: A Perspective. Nutrients 2021, 13, 1836. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13061836 Academic Editor: Santiago Navas-Carretero Received: 12 April 2021 Accepted: 24 May 2021 Published: 27 May 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Population Health Informatics, City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, New York, NY 10027, USA 2 Department of Environmental, Occupational and Geospatial Health Sciences, City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, New York, NY 10027, USA; ann.gaba@sph.cuny.edu 3 Foundations of Healthcare Technologies Society, New Delhi 110066, India; shyamli108@gmail.com 4 Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi 110029, India; ashoogrover@gmail.com * Correspondence: ashish.joshi@sph.cuny.edu Abstract: Nutrition informatics (NI) is the effective retrieval, organization, storage, and optimum use of information, data and knowledge for food-and-nutrition-related problem-solving and decision- making. There is a growing opportunity to facilitate technology-enabled behavioral change inter- ventions to support NI research and practice. This paper highlights the changing landscape of food and nutrition practices in India to prepare a NI workforce that could provide some valuable tools to address the double burden of nutrition. Management and interpretation of data could help clarify the relationships and interrelationships of diet and disease in India on both national and regional levels. Individuals with expertise in food and nutrition may receive training in informatics to de- velop national informatics systems. NI professionals develop tools and techniques, manage various projects and conduct informatics research. These professionals should be well prepared to work in technological settings and communicate data and information effectively. Opportunities for training in NI are very limited in developing countries. Given the current progress in developing platforms and informatics infrastructure, India could serve as an example to other countries to promote NI to support achieving SDGs and other public health initiatives. Keywords: nutrition informatics; digital health; workforce; food and nutrition 1. Introduction 1.1. Brief History of Nutrition Informatics At the beginning of the world wide web (WWW), some of the most popular web- sites were about food and nutrition information. These were operated by government agencies, educational institutions and professional societies, or the food industry and related commercial interests. These two types of websites pointed out the potential for sharing information via the WWW and called upon the newly coined practice of “nutri- tion informatics” (NI) to help the public parse this new deluge of information [1]. Other authors echoed this sentiment and called upon health professionals to apply informatics to managing nutrition information available on the world wide web [2]. It was indicated that studying informatics will become as fundamental to the practice of medicine and other related disciplines as anatomy has been to the last century [2]. The American Dietetic Association (now the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics) initiated their work on NI shortly thereafter. The first discussion of NI applications was published in 2006 [3]. They defined NI as a specialty in the field of human nutrition and dietetics that integrates science, evidence-based practice, research, computer knowledge, and expertise in electronic infor- mation systems for the purpose of supporting optimal nutritional status and health. The definition of NI expanded as an effective retrieval, organization, storage, and optimum use of information, data, and knowledge for food and nutrition-related problem-solving and Nutrients 2021, 13, 1836. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13061836 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients