It is a great pleasure to be able to congratulate the EJCN in reaching its 30th anniversary of publishing in this field. The EJCN and the International Journal of Obesity (IJO) are sister journals published by Springer Nature (as it is now known), with a good history of collaboration and interaction. One of the situations we found ourselves in 20 years ago concerned duplicate publication in the two journals. The resulting joint Editorial, published in IJO and EJCN, had the title ‘Other men’s (and women’s) flowers’ and was authored by Jean-Pierre Depres, Mike Stock and myself from the IJO, and John Garrow and Jaap Seidell from EJCN. Whilst the topic of the Editorial was rather disappointing, the shared values of the two journals was clearly demonstrated by our actions at the time. The collaborations have continued with common approaches to publishing obesity and weight management related papers, where the two journals now expect such work to show long term efficacy rather than just a short-term benefit.

One of the impressive aspects of the EJCN is its wider vision in the definition of ‘Clinical Nutrition’. 30 years ago Nutrition was not a topic that had great prominence in relation to Medicine in many countries. In many cases the focus was entirely on nutrition support, with the wider application of nutrition to health and disease being somewhat ignored. In the modern era this seems rather short-sighted given the contribution that diet and lifestyle make to many chronic diseases. To establish the EJCN in the late 1980’s to cover the breadth of nutrition as it relates to health and disease in people was forward thinking and ambitious. Clearly, the founding Editor, John Waterlow, and his Editorial Board had those abilities, and I am very pleased that their vision has led to such a successful journal, which is being led very impressively by the current Editors and Editorial Board.

Recent publications have ranged from public health nutrition studies down to epigenome wide association of adiposity with future obesity related disease risk. There are also an impressive number of reviews that will add to the journal’s reputation of contributing important scholarly articles in the field of nutrition. The EJCN makes an important contribution to policy related activities, publishing position statements, and international summaries of dietary recommendations. The journal continues to publish high quality papers related to energy metabolism, ensuring that one of its initial strengths continues to be of major importance to the nutrition community.

Congratulations for the first 30 years and good luck for the next 30.