ILSI Federation Newsletter: Sustainable Nutrition
March 2023
Our newsletter intends to provide an overview of upcoming, current and recent ILSI Federation activities pertaining to sustainable nutrition, a complex concept at the crossroads of culturally relevant dietary habits, education, new technologies, next generation of foods and personalized nutrition. Presented by: Bonnie Chou (ILSI Taiwan), Hannia Leon (ILSI Mesoamerica) and Helene Tournu (ILSI Global).
ILSI Federation Activities
ILSI acts with researchers from the public and private sectors, as well as academia, on translational and pre-competitive science and health issues to address common interest or concern. Public-private collaboration - where all interests, conflicts and biases are declared, and all funding is acknowledged - can improve the science used to promote the health and safety of the public and the environment. Together with its hundreds of associated academic institutions around the world, public sector agencies, more than 300 member companies and civil society organizations, the ILSI Federation develops project proposals that address important public health issues with the highest standards of scientific integrity.
Upcoming and Ongoing ILSI Activities
Determinants of Eating Behavior in Latin America
Eating behavior is defined as the normal behavior related to eating habits, the selection of foods that are eaten, culinary preparations and the amounts of them eaten. The ways we eat, our preferences and rejections towards certain foods are strongly conditioned by learning and the experiences lived in the first 5 years of life. In general, children incorporate most of the eating habits and practices of a community before that age. This research network, coordinated by ILSI Mesoamerica, aims to support healthy eating habits from early on in life. Interested? Contact Hannia (executivedirector@ilsimesoamerica.org).
Foods for Human and Planetary Health
For the milestone of its 10th anniversary, ILSI Taiwan and its scientific committees (including the committees on food safety, nutrition, risk analysis and communication) will host a dialogue on foods for human and planetary health, and will discuss the way forward for its tripartite audience. This event will be held on July 28th, 2023. Contact Bonnie for more information (bonnie@ilsitaiwan.org).
Scientific Advisory Committee on Gene Editing (I-SAGE)
ILSI India recently created I-SAGE, a scientific advisory committee, which will focus on the applications of gene editing technologies (GET) in the areas of agriculture (such as productivity and nutrition) and health. I-SAGE will review the global developments of GET and recommend future activities to be undertaken by ILSI India. Interested in knowing more? Contact Rekha Sinha (rsinha@ilsi-india.org).
Virtual Certification in Clinical Nutrition, 2023
This course, coordinated by ILSI North Andean, is offered to health professionals in Colombia, and is certified by the EI Bosque University (Bogota, Colombia). A group of up to 30 researchers and teachers will provide content for five modules:
- Fundamentals in nutrition.
- Nutrition, malnutrition and disease.
- Nutritional therapy for adults and in pediatrics.
- Economics of malnutrition.
- Research in clinical nutrition.
Find more information here, or contact Claudia (direccion_regional@ilsinorandino.org).
Health and Nutrition for Each Generation
Human health management is considered to begin in the fetal period. In order to age healthily, it is necessary to gather a wide range of knowledge and deepen discussions on maternal and child nutrition from pregnancy onwards, as well as nutritional needs for each age group from newborn to old age. This objective fits within Goal 3 of the Global Sustainable Development Goals regarding "Good Health and Well-Being." ILSI Japan will carry out research activities under the theme of "Nutrition issues and measures for each generation to extend healthy life expectancy." The first seminar (in Japanese) will focus on pregnant women and infants, and it will be held in June. For more information, please reach out to ILSI Japan at ilsijapan@ilsijapan.org.
Knowledge Center for Functional Foods, Immunity and Gut Microbiome (K-FFIG)
ILSI India established this unique center of excellence, K-FFIG, in 2019 to focus on gut health and the microbiome. This think tank conducts scientific meetings, sponsors studies and surveys, and publishes monographs. Read a recently published monograph on Bioactives and Functional Foods, including bioactive molecules from traditional Indian food, here. For more information, please contact Rekha Sinha (rsinha@ilsi-india.org).
Recent ILSI Events and Publications
ReThink Protein Needs and Dietary Shift in Southeast Asia: Health, Innovation and Sustainability
In the context of production, health and sustainability, scientists from academia, governmental agencies, agri-technology and food sectors reviewed new initiatives and research to re-assess proteins sources, requirements and intake, as well as evaluate protein quality in varied diets. This symposium, presented by ILSI Southeast Asia Region, was held virtually and in-person in Singapore, in collaboration with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research of Singapore and the National University of Singapore. More information is available here.
Edible Insects in the Human Diet
This webinar, organized by ILSI Mesoamerica, presented the latest research on the processing of insects for the preparation of food, as well as the search for bioactive compounds, by Prof. Celeste C. Ibarra-Herrera (School of Engineering and Sciences, Monterey Institute of Technology, Monterey, Mexico). The target audience of this event is the food industry, teachers and students who work on the subject matter. Find the video recording here (in Spanish).
Perspective: Leveraging the Gut Microbiota to Predict Personalized Responses to Dietary, Prebiotic and Probiotic Interventions
This peer-reviewed publication, commissioned by ILSI Europe's Prebiotics and Probiotics Task Forces, provides updates on the main computational and experimental tools currently being used to critically assess microbiota-mediated personalized nutrition and health to ultimately design more effective and individual-specific interventions. The full publication is available here.
A Practical Path to Healthy Eating Promotion: Towards Healthy Processed Foods
ILSI Taiwan's conference highlighted that "Plant-Based Diets for Health and Sustainable Planet" are a key focus for Taiwan’s Health Promotion Administration (HPA). Learn more (in Chinese).
Nutrition and Health for All
This panel discussion, organized by ILSI India, identified factors affecting nutrition status and health, ranging from diet and genetics to soil health and climate change. The discussion also provided actions required for improvement. The resulting report can be found here.
Nutrition Reviews podcast: "Eggs as an affordable source of nutrients for adults and children living in food-insecure environments"
Each month, the editor-in-chief of ILSI’s Nutrition Reviews journal, Doug Taren, talks with authors about the context of their published review, why the topic is important to address, and how they think it can advance nutritional sciences. Find the link to this podcast episode here. For any questions, please reach out to James at jcameron@ilsi.org.
Sustainable Nutrition: From Theory to Practice
This webinar, organized by ILSI Brazil, was tailored around three main questions:
- Why does the food system have to change?
- How can we look at nutrition and sustainability at the same time?
- How do we put sustainable nutrition into practice?
Scientists from EAT/The Alliance of Biodiversity and CIAT, Unilever and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development discussed the global models, the collective actions required and the environmental and sanitary impact of food from the perspective of the food industry. The recording of this webinar is available here.
Modeling Health and Economic Impact of Nutrition Interventions: A Systematic Review
Improving nutrient intake via foods is part of national public health programs around the world that are designed to combat micronutrient deficiencies and diet-related non-communicable diseases. This review, commissioned by ILSI Europe's Health Benefits Assessment of Foods Task Force, evaluates existing models currently used to assess the health and/or economic impact of nutrition interventions, such as focusing on reducing salt and sugar intake, and on increasing vitamin D, iron and folate/folic acid intake. The full publication is available here.
Sustainable Nutrition or Nutritional Sustainability
You can read free and open access Nutrition Reviews articles on these two concepts here. ILSI's peer-reviewed journal, Nutrition Reviews, is published monthly in partnership with Oxford University Press, and it provides authoritative and critical literature reviews on current and emerging topics in nutrition sciences, food science, clinical nutrition and nutrition policy. Have an upcoming research or academic paper you're looking to publish? Consider submitting it to Nutrition Reviews! The journal is currently accepting papers. Learn more about submissions here. Contact James for more information (jcameron@ilsi.org).
Toward a Global Community to Achieve a Safe and Sustainable Diet
This ILSI Korea academic symposium presented current knowledge on various topics, ranging from personalized nutrition to adopt new dietary patterns for health to molecular diagnostics for point-of-care pathogen detection, as well as the need for agro-biotechnologies for food security. Please find the recordings (in Korean) and PDFs here.
Healthy Diets for Environmental Protection
ILSI Taiwan highlighted the global trend and national nutrition policy about "Healthy Diets for Environmental Protection" during its 2021 annual meeting. More than 225 participants gathered in the forum to discuss the current practice and challenges of the diversity of plant protein sources in Taiwan. Learn more (in Chinese).
Climate Change and Nutrition Security
Climate change has an impact on nutrition security and, at the same time, dietary habits, agricultural practices and lifestyle factors have carbon footprints and are intricately associated with the environment. ILSI India organized a roundtable on LIFE-Lifestyle for Environment. The roundtable report provides information on how sustainable, environmentally friendly practices can help in mitigation of carbon footprints.
From Around the World
International Organizations
Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress
The third edition of the Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress (SRI) will be held in-person and virtually in Panama from June 26-30, 2023, encompassing three main themes:
- Turning the Tide for Climate: Collaborative Action for Institutional Transformation
- Healthy and Inclusive Communities
- A Peaceful Planetary Mind
In addition, there will be a specific theme on Latin America and the Caribbean: Science and Innovation for Sustainability with a session on "Changing food choices of human beings to ensure health, food security and environmental sustainability." Asian and African satellite events are also organized as virtual events on July 10-12, 2023, and June 20-22, 2023, respectively.
Regional Organizations
Brazil
Ministry of Agriculture, and the "Intersectoral Strategy for the Reduction of Food Losses and Waste in Brazil" and "National Food and Nutrition Security System" programs.
Europe
The European Commission Farm to Fork Strategy, and the Sustainable Food Consumption proposals to facilitate the transition to healthy and sustainable diets (these proposals are tailored to improve consumer information, reinforce sustainable food procurement and promote the adoption of fiscal measures that support sustainable food consumption).
Sustainable Food and Industry 4.0: Towards the 2030 Agenda. The 37th EFFoST International Conference (November 6-8, Valencia, Spain), will feature sub-themes, including responsible consumption and production, innovative food processing technologies, development of sustainable food production systems, and sustainable development goals in public and private institutions.
Japan
The Strategic Initiative for a Healthy and Sustainable Food Environment (HSFE), is an initiative launched by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) to promote a healthy and sustainable food environment by leveraging multisector collaborations between industry, academia and the relevant ministries and agencies.
Republic of Korea
The Republic of Korea National Plan has included, for the first time, official guidance for alternative proteins, including standards for foods developed with new technology (Ministry of Food and Drug Safety). The plan also focuses on sustainable production and consumption, access to a healthy diet for all, and food supply stability, joining global efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Singapore
Food for Thought, a digital publication by the Singapore Food Agency, and the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, Grace Fu, speaking at the Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit (October 2022).
Taiwan
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Taiwan, and its 2023 Climate Change Response Act, are transitioning from an announced pledge to a determination to implement changes to reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions, and promote food waste reduction (Council of Agriculture) and low-carbon diets, including plant-based and locally-produced foods (Health Promotion Administration).
U.S. and Canada
Nutrition 2023, American Society for Nutrition (July 22-25, Boston, MA, USA), has a program that includes Cellular and Physiological Nutrition/Metabolism, Climate and/or Food Systems, Clinical and Translational Nutrition, Global and Public Health Nutrition, Population Science, and Career and Professional Development.