Editorial - Insights in Nutrition and Metabolism (2020) Volume 0, Issue 0

Future trends in dietetics

 There are many types of food trends and fads, not only including weight loss or diets. Recent interest in health foods such as quinoa and soy beans have cause prices to skyrocket and production to vastly increase. This affects the communities in which these foods are grown or produced, and also has environmental impacts. Each food that suddenly has a popularity spike affects those who produce it and the area it comes from. Quinoa - This “superfood” became popular in North America in 2005 as a high protein, grain-like pseudocereal that’s as easy to cook as rice. Its original use centred in South America, where it is easy to grow. This grain made up a large part of the local people’s diets and sustained a large population (especially in Peru and Bolivia) with high protein and carbohydrate components. With the recent boom in popularity, the price of the grain has tripled since 2006, making the once staple food of Peruvian and Bolivian villages suddenly very expensive. Farmers are having difficulty being able to eat their own grains, since it is so profitable to sell the majority of it to North American retailers, and the replacement grains the people of the area are using don’t have the same nutrient composition as their original quinoa diets. The effects of this change are not yet realized and should be re-evaluated in the future. A variety of soybean types. Soybeans - Soybeans are being used to produce a huge number of products for vegetarians, vegans, and people with allergies to certain foods. The range of products produced using soybeans is extensive, and includes tofu, soy sauce, lecithin, meat analogue, miso, soy flour, soy milk, tempeh and yuba. A grove of acai palms in Brazil. Acai berry - This antioxidant-packed fruit became popular in 2008 for its health benefits. It contains anthocyanins and flavonoids which act as antioxidants by bonding with free radicals that could otherwise affect cells and cause irregularities.This quality of acai berries made their juice, pulp, and other products made from the fruit very popular in health food circles, and increased their price and production. This fruit requires a warm environment to grow, and is common in Brazil, where acai tree groves are growing with the demand of product Spirulina - This species of blue-green algae became popular in the 1980s due to its high protein levels, complete amino acid composition, and the unproven claim that it had the highest chlorophyll content of any plant species. Flax seed - The seed derived from a flax plant has many purposes, one being a good source of food. A broader piece of advice from The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2015) suggests “the adoption of healthy eating patterns characterized by higher consumption of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and lower intake of calories, saturated fat, sodium, refined grains, and added sugars. The ebb and flow of what’s popular in the world of food is a mirror into what we collectively seek in any given moment. Not so much to eat, but what to be. We’re a fickle lot, foodies always in search of the newest thing; if only we could be a bit more like our stable who obsess instead about the latest vintages of fine wine and where the truffles are growing this year, perhaps we’d finally be sated. However, there’s lots of good news in food, as the impact of yoga and Ayurveda on our food supply continues to grow. Perhaps it’s that yoga-trained people are making their way to the boardroom and decision-making roles in the food industry, or maybe we’ve reached a tipping point where yoga practitioners are a significant market segment. Here are a few trends that I predict will continue to unfold. We’re getting (more) serious about sustainable nutrition. For the first time, agriculture got a front-row seat at the global discussion around climate change. Several initiatives unfolded at the same time, with various linkages of food, agriculture, and climate discussions. The consumption of meat was a controversial subject; vegan diets are on the rise, and are clearly the most sustainable and can be among the healthiest, when done thoughtfully. The issues with food sustainability include many topics and challenges that will continue to be seen and felt everywhere food is sold: The production of plant-based foods such as protein items, kinds of milk, grains, desserts, and many more innovations. This is founded on the idea that making food for humans instead of animals to feed humans is more efficient and produces less waste. We have seen companies like Kind Bar and Impossible Burger explode with sales and success. The use of byproducts such as coffee flour, shrimp shells (chitlin), eggshells, or banana peels using versus wasting with IDP produce as well as the utilization of the whole animal - check out the IDP program by Compass planet-friendly packaging food recovery with food banks and many community services that feed leftover foods to the homeless lowering waste with recycling and composting utilization of sustainable ingredients and ethical farming practices energy efficiency and local foods for land use, agricultural diversity, and local food stability food safety and the avoidance of food-borne illness along with the waste that ensues from food recalls. The research with the microbiome fits nicely with the sustainability message because it emphasizes a plantbased diet that is high in fiber to promote a healthy microbiome or the growth of healthy bacteria. This is one of the most heavily researched areas of health and nutrition and will continue to be fruitful for some time. Personalized nutrition is a hot topic now that the human genome is sequenced. We will definitely be reading and reporting on more research as it is reported.

Author(s): Dilip Ghosh

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