Smart food coming to a supermarket near you

Foods that reduce weight in the obese; packages that can tell you how fresh and nutritious its contents are; foods that can prevent disease, are all part of a future discussed by international scientists in Sydney earlier this month.

Dozens of the world’s top experts in the molecular make-up of food attended the Neutrons and Food workshop, hosted by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).

Co-chair of the meeting and project leader of Food Science at ANSTO’s Bragg Institute, Dr Elliot Gilbert, said that science is going to have a huge impact on what we find in our supermarket trolleys in the future.

“The already existing cholesterol reducing margarines are just the beginning of foods with special benefits that are developed by scientists. Starches that could prevent cancers and functional foods that could combat Alzheimer’s have got scientists all over the world looking more closely at food than ever before.

“The potential to benefit the health and welfare of people is enormous,” says Dr Gilbert.

“Neutrons have the ability to unravel the complexity of food at the molecular level and this is key to our understanding.”

Ageing in place demands nutrition in place
The social and psychological benefits of ageing in place continue to be well-documented. But as more and more people age at home, some of the health benefits of institutional care can be lacking. 

The Society for Nutrition Education has partnered with the American Dietetic Association and American Society for Nutrition to publish a position paper focusing on access to safe and adequate food and nutrition services, including nutrition education, for the increasing number of older adults who receive health care in their homes or communities rather than in nursing homes or other residential facilities.

Appropriate food and nutrition programs include adequately funded food assistance and meal programs, nutrition education, screening, assessment, counselling, therapy, monitoring, evaluation and outcomes documentation to ensure more healthy ageing.

Should guidelines for weekend and holiday eating be incorporated into food pyramid?

The holidays can be challenging for even the most diligent dieters. But are weekends just as detrimental? Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Quinnipiac University in Hamden, found that weekend eating patterns change significantly.

John Inman, a University of Pittsburgh Professor of marketing and associate dean for research in the Joseph Katz Graduate School of Business, and his coauthor, Adwait Khare, Quinnipiac University professor of marketing, studied two years’ worth of data on consumers’ eating behavior and found that the quantity and quality of foods eaten during a meal and over the course of the day differs considerably on weekends and holidays.

Just as important as the daily caloric increase on weekends and holidays is the nutritional value of the food consumed, according to the research, which was published in the Fall 2009 issue of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing.

Labor Day barbeques and Thanksgiving Day feasts focus on family and friends bonding over tables laden with high-calorie foods. Because the quantity and quality of food consumed changes during these times, Professor Inman suggests that the US Department of Agriculture incorporate recommendations for holiday and weekend eating into its food pyramid guidelines.

Understanding eating patterns and knowing that a weekend can be just as dangerous to the diet as a holiday dinner arms consumers, doctors, and nutritionists with more knowledge to fight obesity, says Professor Inman.