Transitions of Nutritional Sciences Nutrition Is a Relatively Young and Evolving Science
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editorial Transitions of nutritional sciences Nutrition is a relatively young and evolving science. Political will to reform food systems can be shown by shepherding nutritional science towards population priorities and preventing its commodifcation. lsie Widdowson and Robert McCance methodology, sources of research funding lead to an additional 83 to 132 million were among the pioneers of modern and conflict of interest, and nutrient versus undernourished adults5. Enutritional sciences. Their work — dietary pattern approaches to nutritional Political will is needed to deal with all daring, meticulous and pragmatic — pushed sciences. Proliferating and diverging visions aspects of this problem but shepherding boundaries in the understanding of food of nutritional science have found patronage the expertise and endeavour of nutritional composition, population health, and the from a wealth of sources — but complex science is the focus here. That requires prevention of nutritional deficiencies. malnutrition and diet-related disease seem shared ownership, political and scientific, Widdowson and McCance ensured that intractable, and political champions of of the challenge. It requires political esteem the rations diet circa World War II was nutritional science seem few. for scientific advice. Back in the 1940s, adequately nutritious. Their approach Nutritional science also has a challenge Lord Woolton is said to have engaged a engendered reductionism to meet a of definition. It is fundamentally a life reluctant government in the cause for clear public need, and the solutions were science concerned with how food and nutritional adequacy of the ration diet. delivered through a social strategy of nutrients support human metabolism in He incorporated the scientific expertise of provision and rationing, combined with health, prevention, and management of Widdowson and McCance into a successful political commitment from a Ministry disease. In 2005 the Giessen Declaration political strategy6. Today, for nutritional of Food fully aware of the damage that extended the purview of nutritional science to speak freely and have influence, nutrition deficiency could wreak on the sciences, or ‘the new nutrition’, into there must be political awareness, health of the people. This distillation social and environmental domains — the observation and, where necessary, of evidence, circumstance and power unprecedented challenges humankind tempering of power concentrations within exemplifies how political will can support faces required nutritional science to be food systems. This is key to avoiding the the best of nutritional science for meeting reframed3. The Giessen Declaration outlines commodification of nutritional science. public priorities. the principles of nutritional science moving Greater institutional support and greater Nutritional science is considered a forward, including sustainability and public research funding are also needed, young and evolving field. If the work of planetary health, defining the field as “the streamed for nutrition science to serve real Widdowson, McCance and others could study of food systems, food and drinks, public priorities. be considered nascent in some regard, their nutrients and other constituents, The nutritional science community has there followed decades where the model and of their interactions within and responsibilities too — to build research established by the reductionist approach between all relevant biological, social and agendas based on the needs of the moment, was simply unsuitable, but often prevailed environmental systems”3 — a tall order of to engage with and communicate to the needs in research, industry and policy, for priorities and expertise for a young and of policy-makers, and to equip students mitigating public priorities of complex evolving discipline primarily concerned and professionals with the interdisciplinary malnutrition and diet-related disease1. largely, to date, with a reductionist approach confidence to meet societal needs. Reductionism underpins much in dietary to the prevention of disease and the The golden age of modern nutrition supplementation and food fortification, promotion of biological health. And yet in the 20th century has been described as saturated fat and sugar replacement and perhaps, as with the work of Widdowson “an accident of geopolitical history”1. We product reformulation, and the definition and McCance commissioned by Minister propose it as a congruence of scientific of foods as healthy or otherwise by of Food Lord Woolton, nutritional sciences endeavour with societal need, supported by nutrient composition. Also in its evolution, should be shaped by the needs of a moment political will. There are lessons for success modern nutritional science has embraced — a political architecture created for the here, perhaps, to inform the Food Systems technological innovation — in genomics, expertise and innovation of science to Summit and Nutrition for Growth Summit metabolomics, machine learning and data coalesce with a clear public need. in 2021. ❐ network science. Machine learning brings a And that need is clear. Following wealth of possibilities to our understanding decades of decline, the number of hungry Published online: 19 March 2021 of food composition, and the impact of people in the world has been rising since https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00254-4 the food on health and disease2. In their 2014; as of 2019, 690 million people were Article in this issue of Nature Food, do undernourished and affordable, healthy References Valle and colleagues apply a network diets were out of reach for billions (ref. 1. Mozafarian, D., Rosenberg, I. & Uauy, R. BMJ 361, k2392 (2018). medicine approach to understand how 4), 144 million children under five were 2. Barabási, A.-L., Menichetti, G. & Loscalzo, J. Nat. Food 1, polyphenols interact with target proteins stunted, 47 million were wasted and 38 33–37 (2020). 3. Beauman, C. et al. Public Health Nutr. 8, 695–698 (2005). 5 for disease — again, opening up vistas of million were overweight . Chronic and 4. Future Food Systems: For People, Our Planet, and Prosperity opportunity through data network science intractable burdens of malnutrition and (Te Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, for exploring the unknowns of nutrition. diet-related disease are exacerbated further 2020). 5. Carducci, B. et al. Nat. Food 2, 68–70 (2021). A rich and contentious discourse exists on by the COVID-19 pandemic — the World 6. Lang, T. Feeding Britain: Our Food Problems and How to Fix Tem the strengths of study designs, limitations of Bank estimates that COVID-19 could (Pelican, 2021). 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