ABSTRACT
Health outcomes are strongly associated with dietary factors. Poor dietary intake increases health risks and can have adverse affects throughout all stages of live and can be passed onto next generations. Korea faces a double burden of mutritional problems. One one side health problems are related to an inadequate diet including underweight, osteoporosis or anemia etc. On the other side the health problems are related to over consumption, including obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and etc. Improving the national health and nutritional status requires adjustments of nutrition policies that have primarily focused on under nutrition, to accommodate all nutrition concerns within the country. Nutrition research specific to Korean people must be promoted to produce scientific evidences on which to base nutrition policies. The creation of a nutrition-specialized institute is an important starting point.