Thursday, July 20, 2006

Nutrigenomics are Here!

What is Nutrigenomics?

Everyone knows that the foods you eat, the supplements you take and the exercises you do (or don’t) can have a significant impact on your health. But did you know that your genes play a role as well?

In recent years, scientists have discovered that small variations in your genes can influence how well your body metabolizes food, uses nutrients, and cleanses damaging toxins.

posted by Caroline Craven @ 2:42 PM   1 Comments Links to this post  

1 Comments:

At 6:19 AM , Rachel Dechenne said...

Putting Nutrigenomics on the map

What might appear like just another fad has much more implications than you might think. Most of us can't exactly explain what functional food stands for, let alone nutrigenomics! In thousands of laboratories around the world, however, scientists are busy whispering the "N" word with respect and devotion. All that hard work to gratify us with a new generation of allegedly called “functional foods” this time based on our genetic make-up. Currently nutrigenomics proponents argue that, if made available to everybody, it will reduce and ultimately eliminate racial and ethnic disparities resulting from environment-gene interactions, particularly those involving dietary, economic and cultural factors (Center of Excellence in Nutritional Genomics at UC Davis, USA).

“Lets don't bother about putting too much effort into changing our lifestyle and support organic, locally produced, well-balanced food, exercising and rethinking our food habits. That doesn't work anyway.” Very soon a deluge of adverts will say that: "It's the genes fault if we put on weight or get depression etc. All we all have to do is to take a quick blood test and go to the supermarket to buy the corresponding techno-food/drink”. Of course, cheap version will also be available in newly built supermarket owned by Tesco, Wal-Mart and consorts in India, Thailand, China, etc. » This could sound as a pretty good idea, just like the promises to alleviate world starvation with genetically modified crops ten years ago! However, just like the latter, nutrigenomics’ honorable goal is far from having any beginning of proof to substantiate it. I am not implying that nutrigenomics is good or bad. As a science it has no other pretension than to push our knowledge of food and diet interactions a little bit further.

My concern is that the appetite for control and greed of a few might eventually prevail over a “boring” balanced and precautionary approach that would benefit all. What’s important, I believe, is that a full assessment of the risk/benefit of the technology, including consumers participation, is conducted before deciding of the trajectories of development. As a trained food policy analyst and lawyer, I’ve made my homework and started to document that research examining the social impacts and the balance of risks/benefits of the commercialization of these future products on a global scale are largely overlooked. If the political process is not opened up to take into account alternatives views, including consumers opinions, it may lead to confusing further more public perceptions regarding an healthy diet. It might contribute to further transforming our societies into big hospitals filled with hypochondriacs. Despite this, Governments around the world, lured by this easy way out of the health care nightmare, are investing in food industry to produce the miracle product instead of insuring a sound and fair supply chain. Of course the alternative offered is not an easy one. Moderation is not as sexy as a wonder science, but it is certainly a more realistic approach for consumers. Of science can help but it can’t tackle the roots of MAL-NUTRITION raging in both hemispheres (obesity, anorexia, etc). The inequalities and consumerism illusions caused by government disengagement, bad governance and the triumph of unfettered free trade dogma are certainly not just a matter of finding a new wonder science.

In short, what really concern me is that the current development of this niche science is kept behind closed doors without an appropriate risk assessment of the technology to determine which developments to prioritize based on the necessary evidence-based information.

The current private and public sector research in nutrigenomics, at the EU and the US levels, is heavily aimed at commercial rather than “public health” ends. Where a commercial approach is pursuit, there is very little public research serving to inform about the ethical challenges of future genetically-tailored functional food. Consequently not much is done in term of regulatory benchmarking to protect from misleading health claims and avoid pushing through unneeded commercial applications. It is, therefore, crucial to inform all the stakeholders (regulators, scientists, social scientists and especially the consumers) of the importance of integrating a broad socio-cultural dimension in the technology assessment of nutrigenomics. But as underlined before, the moderation path doesn’t stand a chance while facing the prospect of an ever growing billion $ market in functional food. At the end of the day, it’s all down to us: the consumers. If we don’t use our critical judgment to stop being force fed with illusions that get us fat and ill while starve the rest of the world, than a few billionaires at the top of intangible fortresses “multinational companies” will keep on draining the biosphere of all its blood.

What I am personally planning to do is to extend my investigation started at City University, London, under the supervision of Professor Tim Lang and inspired by my work with Vandana Shiva in India. I am currently putting together a proposal to rise funding with the help of professional fundraiser (pro-bono) here in London. It is, as you might imagine, not the easiest task but as I try to demonstrate here, such work is urgently needed. I will put the information gathered in a format accessible to a wide audience and not only the so-called experts. The work I am intending to do will supply people with enough information to develop their own opinion on what the development of the science behind nutritional genomics will entail for their everyday life. It will also show how our support for functional food (buying power) reverberates in the population of the South. It will, among other, explain how these poor countries are currently graciously providing the human guinea pigs necessary to get the precious genetic data, the core material upon which nutrigenomics knowledge is built, and cheap scientists to develop premium techno food for a handful of “worried-well”.

As stated earlier, my message will revolve around the fact that unhealthy nutrition is a complex problem rooted in inequalities and delusions caused by government disengagement, bad governance and the triumph of unfettered free trade dogma. It is not just a matter of finding a new wonder science. Let’s not be fooled and concentrate our precious resources on what really works!

All the best,

Rachel Dechenne

 

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