WOMEN ON TOP NUTRITIONAL SCIENCE UNDER ATTACK www.foodtechnology.co.nz 3 Kathryn Calvert Editor NZ FOODTechnology It’s hard to secure accurate statistics to show the amount of women at the top of the food industry in New Zealand, but anecdotally that number appears to be significant. From Food and Grocery Council chief executive Katherine Rich, Kono NZ chief executive Rachel Taulelei and 42 Below Vodka co-founder Justine Troy, to Eat My Lunch head Lisa King, Environmental Protection Authority chief scientist Jacqueline Rowarth and Cawthron senior scientist (and recent winner of the inaugural Ministry for Primary Industries Award for significant contribution to food safety) Dr Lesley Rhodes, New Zealand women are making their mark on the industry in profound ways. This month, we’ve sat five significant but somewhat low-profile female food industry success stories down and asked them to write about themselves and/or anything they think you as readers might find interesting. Flick to page 14 for the results. Have a superb late winter August/September. EDITOR'S NOTE BREAKING NEWS A public reluctance to trust nutritional insights is concerning Dutch scientists, who warn that the phenomenon will hinder progress in the crucial role of nutrition in everyday life. In a new editorial in the European Journal of Nutrition, the scientists say the mistrust is “deflating” but agree with medical doctors, philosophers and sociologists of science that claim nutritional research has not kept up with the times. The scientists say research findings often neglect major societal challenges – such as an aging population and the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases – and require real-world health insights. “The mismatch imposes limits to the capability of nutrition science to contribute to real-world health,” they say. “This capability is restricted in at least three ways; by the questions we pursue; by the technical and methodological characteristics of our approach; and by the organisation of nutrition science.” The team believe new challenges in designing personalised, public health nutrition strategies, and providing healthy and safe diets will now be very different than in the past. This means the methods in nutritional science need to change, as it is difficult to transfer the effectiveness of randomised control trials to diets and food patterns in daily life. “Food differs according to region and climate, while dietary habits and meal patterns shift per week, month, season and food availability,” they say. “Questions elicited by this real-life picture cannot be explored in the artificial environment of the RCT. Nutrition science needs to actively seek and embrace the addition of new, innovative concepts to study the effects of nutrition on health maintenance and disease prevention in real life, in collaboration with other relevant disciplines.” The scientists say the steady stream of diets, culinary books, cooking programmes and nutrition theories from self-appointed experts are taking precedence over what the science recommends. This is worrying, as few individuals are able to perceive and experience the benefits of choosing their food according to the state-of-theart of nutrition science. “What grasps the public eye are often over-simplified statements about what is or is not healthy,” they say. “These result in confusion among lay persons about what they can and cannot believe.” Nutrition is funded and organised to score with high-profile, high-impact publications and with “simple messages” that attract media attention. “Breaking free from this vicious cycle requires reciprocity and inclusiveness,” they say. “Reciprocal and inclusive research carries consequences for how we design that research, and for how we translate its results for the benefit of society.” The group believes a focus on real eating practices, explicating health values of participants, and engaging participants in articulating their values as well as common health outcomes is necessary.
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