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Delivering individualized health through food: Role of agriculture and genomics |
J. B. GERMAN, Dept. of Food Science & Technology, Univ. of California, Davis, 1 Shields Ave., 212 Food Science & Technology, Davis, CA 95616-8598 The biological sciences, enabled by bioinformatics, is changing our understanding of foods and health. Nutrition is a multidisciplinary field focusing on integrative metabolism of animals and humans. Scientists are deducing the mechanistic basis of the relationship between diet and health by understanding the interaction of nutrients with metabolic pathways. The tools to describe metabolism in each human are also emerging. Metabolic health is not accurately determined by a small set of biomarkers of disease but a comprehensive and quantitative measurement and analysis of metabolites, i.e. metabolomics. Nutrition scientists are now recognizing and adapting these tools to define more precisely the ways that foods interact with individual metabolism and promote good health to prevent disease. Cholesterol was the first proof of principle. It is a metabolite whose quantitative measurement provides a reflection of the metabolic status of individuals in a population. However, it is when individuals gain the knowledge of their own cholesterol status that particular foods become more valuable to those who wish to improve that cholesterol status. Now hundreds of metabolites can be measured and as their variations in people become understood, variations in health are recognized. The diversity of agriculture and foods can then appreciate in value by accomodating to the inherent biodiversity of humans. Food Science is also an integrative field in which all of the disparate values of food safety, nutrition, cost, convenience and of course delight, are being individualized. Foods can readily accomodate many ways to provide for the breadth of informed personal choices for health and even further to bring delight to them. The future for food processing will merge biological knowledge of living organisms with the knowledge necessary to convert biomaterials to more valuable foods. The ultimate goal is to empower consumers to control their own health, safety and delight.
Session 8, Tailoring food choices to improve health: What role will the food industry play?
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