by In 2018 chronic diseases related to diet, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some cancers, were responsible for half of all deaths in the country, or about 1.5 million people. Globally, a study estimates that diet-related diseases are responsible for 11 million deaths each year, making diet the number one risk factor for death.
Given the importance of nutrition and diet, it is surprising to learn that research has shown that 65-70% of all food in a grocery store is unhealthy, from a nutritional science perspective. But it doesn’t have to be that way and I want to change that.
We live in a world where exciting, new, all-natural ingredients are being discovered or created. That’s how Just Egg was able to develop an egg alternative from mung bean protein isolates years ago. If an ingredient needed to provide a particular taste or function does not exist, today’s food scientists can create it. These new ingredients can provide the taste or function we are used to in a healthier way. AI has and will continue to help develop knowledge faster than we can apply it to new products to make people and the planet healthier. That’s clear from a visit to the IFT First conference, where 17,000 people had the chance to see ingredients from over 1,000 exhibitors.
Food as Medicine goes back hundreds of years and can be found in Western, Chinese and Indian medicine (Ayurveda). Herbalists, herbalists, and naturopathic physicians also saw food as medicine. The natural products movement was based on the idea that the body has incredible healing power, if given just food (organic, heirloom, all-natural) to help the body heal itself. Before there was pharmaceuticals, food was a major medical approach to treating disease.
Medical foods have been around for years — specially formulated foods used to manage the nutritional needs of patients with chronic medical conditions or diseases; intended for patients with limited or impaired abilities to ingest, digest, absorb or metabolize normal foods.
Dr. Stephen De Felice came up with the term nutraceutical in 1989, combining “nutrition” and “pharmaceutical.” These are foods or part of foods that are beneficial in providing various health benefits including treatment and/or prevention of diseases. A similar term is functional foods, where biologically active components of functional foods can provide health benefits beyond their nutritional value when consumed regularly. Consumer demand for better health from their food has helped drive the growth of functional foods, nutraceuticals and dietary supplements. What’s different is supplements that arose out of their pre-science past and are now associated with evidence-based research, even double-blind research.
Nutraceuticals 2.0 are similar to traditional pharmaceutical development and in some cases life science companies, using nutrition to deliver targeted therapy. Lylah LLC saw the strong correlation between the microbiome and heart disease and developed a therapeutic Nutraceutical supplement/supplement.
Targeted conditions can range from bowel health ie. pre, pro, and postbiotics, metabolic health, hormone health, immunity, inflammation, energy, rest, recovery and sleep to chronic diseases such as cancer.
Innovations in protein development such as meat, chicken and seafood alternatives made from plants, or cultured cells, are proof that we have come a long way from bean-based hamburgers. But the same kind of innovation is happening in almost every food category. In addition to searching the world for plants that have certain desired traits in whole or in part, we can now use techniques like precision fermentation to create the traits we want. Even if one takes genetic modification and bioengineering off the table, there is plenty of innovation.
Much of the early innovation was driven by the need to move from an animal-based to a plant-based food system to increase sustainability. At one point, the entire vegetarian/vegan market was estimated to be around $4 billion. Beyond Meat said in its filings that the vegan meat market could grow to about $35 billion of the $250 billion domestic meat industry. The global plant-based milk market was valued at $35 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to $123.1 billion by 2030. Many of the products on today’s grocery shelves may not be on grocery shelves in the next 10 years, as they will be changed. through more sustainable and/or healthier alternatives.
Food is the largest and primary social determinant of health. Food or more specifically, nutrition is the foundation. But it is more than food, it is also diet. Beer and onion rings may be all-natural and vegan, but they’re not healthy. For food as medicine to reach its potential, nutrition education and coaching must be available on demand and at scale. People need the equivalent of a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist to consult with, to achieve a healthier lifestyle. Fortunately, this can be done through digital health apps that focus on nutrition and may or may not include access to an RDN. There is so much misleading and misleading information and bad food out there, that it is difficult to navigate our food system. Precision and personal nutrition and medicine could lead to new ingredients, healthier products and new tools like digital therapy and remote monitoring, with the desired result of better quality and quantity of life.
At Celebration Sunday, we see an opportunity to disrupt the Standard American Diet, (SAD) supported by a food system that has become a massive chronic disease delivery system. With all-natural, minimally processed whole foods, a new class of evidence-based nutraceuticals, functional foods and supplements, new ingredients, innovations in food and nutrition science and a better understanding of the microbiome, we can and must replacing most if not all of the microbiome. bad food on our grocery store shelves or eaten away from home, with healthier and more sustainable food. We can go beyond using food as medicine to treat or manage disease to prevent diet-related diseases in the first place.
The potential is there that no one will ever have to suffer from chronic diet-based disease again.
Ed Gaskin is the Executive Director of Main Streets Greater Grove Hall and the founder of Sunday Celebrations.
