New Framework for Human Nutrition Seeks to Effectively Tackle Obesity
Current models used in measuring health impacts of the human diet are limiting health experts’ capacity to solve obesity and its related problems, according to new research.
In their study, Professor David Raubenheimer and Professor Stephen Simpson from the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre developed a new framework called ‘nutritional geometry’ which is backed by 20 years of research.
The new framework considers how mixtures of nutrients and other dietary components influence health and disease, rather than focusing on any one nutrient in isolation. The researchers believe that this new model will assist health professionals, dietitians and researchers to better understand and manage the complexities of obesity.
For so long, research has focused on a single-nutrient approach, which is predicated on a lack of resources or micronutrient deficiency. For instance, the absence of vitamin C in human diets is a known cause of scurvy. However, the researchers argued that this traditional approach is no longer useful in the face of modern nutrition-related diseases, particularly for foods containing particular blends of nutrients and savvy marketing by the packaged food industry which exploits these preferences.
"Conventional thinking which demonises fat, carbohydrate or sugar in isolation as causes of the obesity crisis - dubbed the single nutrient approach - has now run its course. We’ve provided a framework for not only thinking about but also experimentally testing issues around dietary balance. Much like the invention of the telescope or microscope, this framework offers a new tool with which to look at complex dietary problems and bring them into focus," said Professor Stephen Simpson, one of the lead researchers.
He said that their new approach is to unify observations from many fields and better understand how nutrients, foods and diets interact to affect health and disease in humans
"The ’nutritional geometry’ framework enables us to plot foods, meals, diets and dietary patterns together based on their nutrient composition, and this helps researchers to observe otherwise overlooked patterns in the links between certain diets, health and disease." he adds. He notes that it enables complex problems like obesity to be viewed from a variety of perspectives, from the impacts of nutrients on metabolism and the health of individuals, through to the sustainability of global food systems.
The study was published in the Annual Review of Nutrition journal.
Source of this article:
Nutritional Ecology and Human Health
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