Nutritoin’s Golden Age

This could be nutrition’s golden age. It has become increasingly apparent through modern science that there is an intricate connection between the food we eat and the health of our bodies. Indeed, how could it be otherwise? Food is essentially a collection of chemical compounds. Through digestion, those compounds are broken down, absorbed, and made available for the countless metabolic processes that sustain the body, right down to the level of the individual cell. The commonsense notion that nutrition and health are inextricably linked is therefore supported by the science: a diet that provides the body with the nutrients and other beneficial compounds it needs should put us in a better position to maintain health.

We also have an extraordinary advantage that people in earlier ages could scarcely have imagined. In the developed world, foods of almost every kind are available throughout the year, regardless of season. We have access to fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, fish, and countless other foods from virtually every part of the world. With sufficient knowledge, there is little reason why we cannot construct a diet that is more nutritionally diverse and nutrient-dense than the diets available to most people throughout history.

But I wonder whether nutrition science has yet taken the food-health connection far enough.

We routinely hear that particular foods are beneficial for particular aspects of health. For example, omega-3 fats are often associated with brain health, while blueberries and lion’s mane mushrooms are frequently discussed for their potential effects on the brain. But this raises a much more interesting question: What exactly is in these foods that produces these effects?

If a food really does benefit the brain, wouldn't it be enormously valuable to identify the specific compounds responsible, determine what they do within the brain, and understand how much is required to produce the effect? Instead of simply saying that “blueberries are good for you,” for example, we could eventually know which compounds in blueberries produce which biological effects, through what mechanisms, and under what circumstances.

I believe this may be where nutrition science is headed.

The first great stage of nutrition science was largely concerned with discovering what nutrients humans need to survive and prevent deficiency. The next stage has been concerned with dietary patterns and their relationships to chronic disease and longevity. The next great advancement may be much more precise: identifying the individual compounds in foods and determining the specific physiological processes they influence.

Imagine eventually being able to look at a food not simply as a source of calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, but as a complex collection of bioactive compounds, each potentially interacting with specific systems within the body.

That could usher in a truly new era of nutrition—one in which we understand not merely what foods are healthy, but why they are healthy.

And that, perhaps, would be nutrition’s real golden age.