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Food and foodstuff individualization: Cui bono? (For whose benefit is it?) |
P. A. DAVIS, Dept. of Nutrition, Univ. of California, Davis, 1 Shields Ave., 3135 Meyer Hall, Davis, CA 95616-8669 There are perils and pitfalls of using the ongoing genomic revolution to “individualize” and “label” foods/food components as health enhancers. The ever-accelerating technological ability to define at lower and lower costs and finer and finer resolutions (making smaller and smaller population sizes feasible) the associations between one’s genome and the impact of certain foods and food components on one’s health, will pose extraordinary challenges to the stakeholders (e.g. the food industry) in the American diet. However, association is not causality when it comes to diet and health, and our ability to deal with and understand the multi-factorial nature of diseases subject to dietary influences remains limited. Moreover, this growing ability to identify benefit(s), as well as the food components that provide those benefits, comes inextricably linked, by implication, to identifying those components that don’t provide benefits. In addition, expectations and pressures that research findings be rapidly transformed into applications are often without an appreciation of the limited nature of diet health research findings. Some current findings/controversies regarding food and health wilI be discussed in the context of “individualization”, an informed “consumerism” and the obligations these impose on the food industry and other stakeholders in the American diet. Both consumers and food producers should understand the full risks, benefits and their associated uncertainties of any particular diet or single foodstuff. Efforts must be made to give the individual consumer the respect, time, and opportunities necessary to recognize and balance the competing needs involved in selecting a diet. The food industry must maximize the possible benefits, minimize the possible harms, and distribute these risks and benefits fairly and without bias if “individualized” foodstuffs/diets are to be used to increase health most effectively.
Session 8, Tailoring food choices to improve health: What role will the food industry play?
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