In 2018, diet-related chronic diseases, 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, one study estimates that diet-related diseases are responsible for 11 million deaths each year, making diet the leading risk factor for death.
Given the importance of nutrition and diet, it’s surprising to hear that research has shown that between 65-70% of all food in a supermarket is unhealthy, from a nutritional 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. For example, Just Egg was able to develop an egg alternative from mung bean protein isolates years ago. If an ingredient needed to provide a certain taste or function doesn’t exist, today’s food scientists can create it. These new ingredients can provide the taste or function we’re used to in a healthier way. AI is and will continue to help us develop knowledge faster than we can apply it to new products to make people and the planet healthier. That’s a clear takeaway from a visit to the IFT First conference, where 17,000 attendees had the chance to see ingredients from more than 1,000 exhibitors.
Food as medicine has been around for centuries and can be found in Western, Chinese and Indian (Ayurvedic) medicine. Mycotherapy, herbalists and naturopathic doctors also saw food as medicine. The natural products movement was based on the idea that the body has incredible healing power if it is given (organic, heirloom, all natural) food to help the body heal itself. Before pharmaceuticals, food was a major medical approach to treating disease.
Medical nutrition has been around for years: specially formulated food used to meet the nutritional needs of patients with chronic medical conditions or diseases. This food is intended for patients with limited or impaired ability to ingest, digest, absorb or metabolize regular food.
Dr. Stephen De Felice coined the term nutraceutical in 1989, a portmanteau of “food” and “pharmaceutical.” These are foods or parts of foods that are beneficial in providing various health benefits, including the treatment and/or prevention of disease. A similar term is functional foods, where the 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 contributed to the growth of functional foods, nutraceuticals, and dietary supplements. What is different is that supplements have come out of their pre-scientific past and are now involved in evidence-based, even double-blind, research.
Nutraceuticals 2.0 is similar to traditional pharmaceutical development and in some cases it is life science companies using nutrition to deliver a targeted therapy. Lylah LLC saw the strong correlation between the microbiome and heart disease and developed a therapeutic Nutraceutical/supplement.
Targeted conditions can range from gut health (pre-, pro- and postbiotics), metabolic health, hormone health, immunity, inflammation, energy, relaxation, 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, prove that we’ve come a long way from bean-based burgers. But the same type of innovation is happening in nearly every food category. In addition to searching the world for plants with certain desired traits, in whole or in part, we can now use techniques like precision fermentation to create the traits we desire. Even if we take genetic modification and bioengineering off the table, there’s still plenty of innovation to be had.
Much of the early innovation was driven by the need to transition from an animal-based food system to a plant-based system to increase sustainability. At one point, the entire vegetarian/vegan market was valued at around $4 billion. Beyond Meat said in its filings that the vegan meat market could grow to around $35 billion from 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. It’s possible that few of the products will exist on grocery store shelves in the next 10 years as they are replaced by more sustainable and/or healthier alternatives.
Food is the single largest and most important social determinant of health. Food, or more specifically, nutrition, is the foundation. But it’s more than food, it’s also diet. Beer and onion rings can be all-natural and vegan, but they’re not healthy. For food as/medicine to realize its potential, nutrition education and coaching must be available on-demand and at scale. People need the equivalent of a Registered Dietitian to consult with, to achieve a healthier lifestyle. Fortunately, this is possible through digital health apps that focus on nutrition and may or may not offer access to an RDN. With so much misinformation, misleading information, and bad food, our food system is difficult to navigate. New ingredients, healthier products, and new tools like digital therapies and remote monitoring have the potential to lead to precision and personalized nutrition and medicine, with the desired outcome of improved quality and quantity of life.
At Sunday Celebrations, we see an opportunity to disrupt the Standard American Diet (SAD), supported by a food system that has become a giant chronic disease delivery system. With all-natural, minimally processed whole foods, a new class of evidence-based nutraceuticals, functional foods and supplements, novel ingredients, innovations in nutritional science, and a better understanding of the microbiome, we can and should replace most, if not all, of the bad foods on our grocery shelves or eaten outside of the home with healthier, more sustainable foods. We can go beyond using food as medicine to treat or manage disease to preventing diet-related disease in the first place.
It is possible that no one will have to suffer from chronic diseases caused by diet anymore.
Ed Gaskin is director of Greater Grove Hall Main Streets and founder of Sunday Celebrations.