Over The Horizon

Death via Diet and Lifestyle

Some 60% of all deaths and important disease is thought to be linked to diet and lifestyle, according to a senior human nutrition research scientist at the Australian CSIRO.

Nutrition research applied by industry has improved public health substantially and could make an even bigger contribution, Dr David Topping told food researchers and industry leaders at the recent opening of Crop and Food Research's new Food Industry Science Centre in Palmerston North.

While mortality was always 100% in the end, "we could defer it for quite a while", he said.

This has been shown by the big drop in cardiovascular disease seen in Australia since unsaturated fats became widely used in processed foods over 30 years ago.

As well as widespread death and disability caused by heart disease, nutrition-linked conditions could have a high impact by being present at key stages of life (for example, causing neural tube defects in babies), or could lead to a lot of distress to a lot of people as with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Coronary heart disease caused 28% of the annual deaths in Australia, and colo-rectal cancer 4,300 deaths per year. Laxative sales were over $31 million, with at least 15% and perhaps up to 30% of Australians having IBS. There were very strong linkages between nutrition, lifestyle and these conditions, Topping said.

"There's a huge health bill -- it all adds up to a lot of money and personal cost."

Emerging areas of research interest included n-3 fatty acids, believed critical for the immune and cardiovascular system, cancer risk and neurological development, and pre-biotics which encourage favourable large bowel bacteria. Fat-soluble antioxidants and chemically modified resistant starches were also of importance.

Topping said that to successfully commercialise research, there needs to be a mindset of partnership to match the needs of industry and the consumer. As well as sound scientific skills and good management, there also needed to be a research culture in the food industry partner.

This includes understanding that R&D is intimately related to growth (and not cost-cutting), that all the implications -- including marketing, product development and revenue/expenditure issues -- are understood and that all collaborators have ownership of the project.