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Summary and Conclusions
When you get right down to it, food is practically
the whole story every time.
Kurt Vonnegut ( Galapagos )
This report describes how the nutrition and food sciences have ad-
vanced enormously in this century and contributed to the development of
an abundant, health-promoting food supply and better health for people
around the worlds We malice the case that the nutrition and food sciences
will continue to advance, providing even greater health benefits to the
nation, as long as research is supported adequately and highly qualified
students are attracted to these disciplines and trained to become out-
standing investigators and practitioners in settings that range from labora-
tories to communities.
Nutrition is involved to some extent in almost all of the processes of
human life. It clearly plays a role in the majority of the chronic degenera-
tive diseases that cripple and kill most people in the United States. We
believe strongly that investing more resources in basic and applied re-
search in the nutrition and food sciences by the federal government, food
Throughout this report we use the phrase nutrition and food sciences as a convenient
way to refer to both nutrition (or nutritional) science and food science in the same sentence.
The reader should not misconstrue our use of this phrase as a recommendation that the two
disciplines be homogenized or blended into a single area of study. While more collaborative
efforts among nutrition scientists and food scientists are needed to meet some of the re-
search opportunities described in this report, these disciplines are separate but related, and
each confronts important challenges.
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2
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NUTRITION AND FOOD SCIENCES
industry, foundations, and nonprofit organizations will pay big dividends
in improved health and well-being of the nation. In addition, many oppor-
tunities exist to improve the public's knowledge of nutrition and to in-
crease their practice of good nutrition. Improving the food supply will
make it easier for many more people to meet current dietary guidelines
and enable this country to increase its export of processed food products.
A PRESIDENTIAL INITIATIVE FOR THE
NUTRITION AND FOOD SCIENCES
This is a propitious time for developing a mechanism to bring greater
attention to the nutrition and food sciences. Such a mechanism must pro-
vide for a public debate on the support society will provide these disci-
plines in terms of research, education, and training of professionals; edu-
cation of the public; and the development and evaluation of public policy.
In fact, the Food and Nutrition Board in 1991 recommended that the
executive branch consider establishing a single, high-level entity to coor-
dinate and direct government activities to improve this country's diet and
health.
Expanding on this concept, we recommend the establishment of a
Presidential Initiative for the nutrition and food sciences within
the Executive Office of the President, under the auspices of the
Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering and Tech-
nology (FCCSET) of the Office of Science and Technology Policy
(OSTP). OSTP assists the President in providing leadership in various
areas of science and technology, in part by evaluating the scale, quality,
level of coordination, and effectiveness of federal efforts. OSTP plays an
important role in coordinating science policy and ~nhnnrin~ onon~r~ti~n
between the public and private sectors.
~r
FCCSET-supported initiatives often bring high-level attention to is-
sues not easily encompassed or well attended to within individual govern-
ment agencies and programs. Furthermore, these initiatives often lead to
greater government commitment and financial support, better coor(lina-
tion of activities, and spinoff activities within the private sector. Federal
research on global warming, for example, is coordinated by FCCSET un-
der the direction of the President's Science Adviser. Among the many
benefits of this initiative is much more funding for research on climate
change. A Presidential Initiative in the nutrition and food sciences would
bring needed attention, coordination, and support to federal and private
efforts in research, education, training, and the development of science-
based public policy in these areas. Furthermore, such an initiative would
establish a comprehensive system to set goals, monitor activities, and document
progress.
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SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
3
Further support for an FCCSET-supported initiative in the nutrition
and food sciences comes from the council itself. Recently, a FCCSET
committee studying federal food safety research activities recommended
that FCCSET establish a standing committee to coordinate food safety
research among agencies and ensure that this research receives adequate
attention and budgetary support. Of particular note, that committee con-
cluded that many future research needs in food safety are linked closely to
other facets of nutrition and food science described in this report, includ-
ing the relationship of nutrition to health.
In our judgment, an itleal opportunity to launch a Presidential
Initiative in the nutrition and food sciences is in conjunction with
a second White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health.
The first such conference was held 24 years ago by then-President Rich-
ard Nixon. That three-day meeting focused the country's attention on the
quality of the food supply, the prevalence of hunger and malnutrition,
improving the nutrition of vulnerable groups, nutrition education efforts,
and the surveillance of the nutritional health of the nation. Most impor-
tant, it led to actions that continue today, including expanded food assis-
tance programs and nutrition education efforts, nutrition labeling of foods,
and better efforts to monitor nutritional status. We urge the administra-
tion to hold a second White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and
Health perhaps in 1994, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first confer-
ence to assess progress over this time period, examine the future of the
nutrition and food sciences and their role in maintaining health and pre-
venting and treating disease, iclentify means of providing additional re-
sources to these disciplines, and improve the use of available resources.
Together, the Presidential Initiative and White House conference wouIcl
bring needed attention, support, ant! focus to enhancing research, educa-
tion, and training in the nutrition and food sciences. We direct readers to
Chapters 3 through 8 of this report to review all our several hundred
important recommendations in these areas. Only some of them can be
summarized in this chapter.
Research
In Chapter 1, we note that the most promising directions for research
in the nutrition and food sciences are encompassed by five themes that
together address human health and well-being and the prevention and
treatment of disease. Here we use these themes to illustrate some impor-
tant opportunities for research.
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4
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NUTRITION AND FOOD SCIENCES
Nutrients and Biologically Active Food Constituents in Development,
Cell Differentiation, Growth, Maturation, and Aging
Macronutrients (carbohydrates, fat, and protein), micronutrients (vi-
tamins and minerals), and other biologically active constituents in food
(e.g., carotenoi(ls and fiber) play important roles in maximizing physi-
ological functions and supporting health. Current research is showing how
nutritional quality at critical points throughout the life cycle from preg-
nancy, lactation, and childhood to old age profoundly affects develop-
ment and risk of disease. Optimizing growth, develc~ment, resistance to
disease, and longevity requires more information on the interactions among
nutrients and other biologically active constituents in food, since these
relationships affect the absorption, bioavailability, and functions of these
important dietary components In the body.
One important function of nutrients is to regulate gene expression.
Developments in molecular biology and genetics promise to increase dra-
matically our understanding of this function of nutrients throughout the
life cycle. Using various approaches to manipulate the mammalian ge-
nome will also make it possible to identify and study rate-limiting en-
zymes in metabolic pathways that direct the flow of nutrients throughout
the body under conditions of both health and disease. Furthermore, these
approaches will lead to a better understanding of the functions of vitamins
and minerals within cells. As the human genome is mapped, it will be
possible to identify, then clone a(lditional genes whose products play im-
portant roles in the physiology, metabolism, and functions of nutrients.
For example, the clevelopment and differentiation of many tissues,
including those of the nervous system during embryonic development, are
regulated in part by retinoids derived from vitamin A. These tissues con-
tain in the nuclei) of their cells receptors for the retinoid compounds.
Vitamin A directly affects cell clifferentiation. At the other end of the life
cycle, some aspects of the aging process are being linked to cumulative
damage to body fats, proteins, and DNA as a result of oxidation. Antioxi-
dant nutrients such as vitamins C and E, selenium, and the sulfur-contain-
ing amino acids as well as other important constituents of food such as
beta-carotene, zinc, an(1 copper that help to prevent and repair the dam-
age from oxidation may help slow the aging process or at least the extent
of cellular damage that accompanies it.
Genes, Food, ant] Chronic Diseases
Dietary patterns an(1 inheritance are linked in fun(lamental ways to
one's state of health and the risk of a wide variety of diseases, including
cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. We
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S UMMARY AND CONCL USIONS
s
have learned a great deal and continue to learn about how to reduce the
genetically determined risk of these diseases in many individuals by im-
proving dietary patterns and lifestyles. Better knowledge of the genetic
basis of these diseases will make it possible to tailor individual nutritional
approaches to prevention and treatment of them. The new and emerging
field of gene therapy (the introduction of a functional gene to replace or
supplement the activity of a resident defective gene) has vast potential for
preventing and treating nutrition-related genetic diseases, such as athero-
sclerotic heart disease brought on by high concentrations of cholesterol in
the blood. Mapping the human genome will help us to identify some of
the genes involved in multifactorial disorders (those with more than one
cause) such as diabetes, obesity, and hypertension.
Determinants of Food Intake
Genetic, metabolic, sensory, and socioculturaT factors (such as age,
sex, and income) and the characteristics of our food supply affect food
preferences and choice of food. At present, we have a limited understand-
ing of how these factors, individually and in combination, affect indiviclual
actions. Research is elucidating the role of neurotransmitters such as sero-
tonin and the opioic3 peptides, whose concentrations in the brain are de-
termined in part by diet, on food selection and preferences, and on the
amounts of food consumed. Research is also needed to understand how
sensory preferences for foods are affected by body weight and various
sociocultural and behavioral factors.
Research on diet and health and our ability to identify indivicluals and
groups at risk of diet-related illnesses depend on our aLflity to measure
intake. Current methods of assessing dietary patterns and nutrient intakes
are extremely limited and need to be improved. In addition, much more
remains to be learned about the behaviors and motivations of people who
have improved their diets compared to those who have not. Basic and
applier! studies are needect to understand the obstacles to, and opportuni-
ties for, dietary change.
Improving Food and Nutrition Policies
Research to improve our knowledge of current dietary patterns and
the individual and social forces that influence eating habits is vital if we
are to develop effective public policies that wfl! improve eating habits in
this country. Efforts to monitor and assess the nutritional health of all
segments of our population shouIcl be continued anc] the methodologies
improved. In addition, our knowledge of food composition needs to be
enhanced, and databases to accommodate this information need to be
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6
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NUTRITION AND FOOD SCIENCES
expanded and improved. More information is required about subgroups of
the population who are at the highest nutritional risk in this country,
including the poor and homeless, adolescent girls, the elderly, and various
ethnic minority groups. At the same time, we need to understand better
how dietary patterns may protect some groups from certain diet-related
diseases. Our abilities to assess the nutritional status of individuals and
populations and their risks of disease will improve dramatically with the
development of novel biomarkers (e.g., concentrations of the zinc-induc-
ible protein metallothionein in red blood cells to assess zinc nutriture or
concentrations of vitamin A labeler! with a stable isotope to measure total
body stores of this nutrient). In addition, methodologies to be expanded
and improved include anthropometry, which is widely used to assess growth
and body composition, and biochemical and functional assessments of nu-
tritional status.
Targeted interventions are still needed to improve dietary patterns in
this country, reduce inequities in access to food, and provide food assis-
tance to individuals in need. However, for these interventions to be more
successful than they currently are, they must be designed with a sophisti-
cated unclerstancling of diet-related and social behaviors. Furthermore,
interventions need to be evaluated to determine whether they are accom-
plishing their goals, to learn which components are the least and the most
successful, and to aid in the design of more effective interventions in the
future.
Enhancing the Food Su p pill
Given consumers' preferences for more convenient and healthful foods,
improved knowledge of human nutritional needs and technological clevel-
opments are enabling the U.S. food industry to develop a wicler variety of
products. These include fortifier] foocls, low-fat and low-calorie foods, functional
foods (in which concentrations of one or more food constituents have
been manipulated to enhance their contributions to a healthful diet), and,
most recently, foods produced by the emerging techniques of biotechnol-
ogy (such as cereal grains with greater nutritional value and better-tasting
vegetables with longer shelf life). Taking a raw commodity, such as wheat
or soybeans, and making it more nutritious, safer, more convenient, more
acceptable, easier to prepare, or specific to the needs of special popula-
tions adds value to the commodity. Techniques of adding value to foods in
the future include improved methods of manufacturing, preserving, and
packaging. Our abilities to prepare high-quality value-added foods will
increase as we learn more about the physical and engineering properties
of food, develop better technologies to separate food ingredients, and
make more use of computers and biosensors in food-processing systems to
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SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
7
increase product quality and safety and process efficiency while minimiz-
ing wastes.
Innovative and practical approaches must be developed to minimize
food contamination and educate the public about proper food preparation
and storage techniques. Food safety issues pertaining to naturally occur-
ring toxicants in foods, as well as food allergies, sensitivities, and idiosyn-
crasies, also should be better studied. By understanding the chemical structure,
reactivity, and physical properties of food at the molecular level, food
scientists and technologists will be better positioned to use more readily
available, less expensive, and nutritionally or functionally superior ingre-
dients to improve our food supply. Areas of study to be emphasized in-
clude the roles of water in food, the architecture of the macronutrients in
food, free-radical reactions (which are involved in food spoilage), and the
effects of food processing on the cellular membranes of plant and animal
foods.
Education and Training
Success as a scientific investigator in the nutrition and food sciences
requires graduate education, usually at the doctoral and frequently at the
postdoctoral level. Current institutional infrastructures should be exam-
ined as these disciplines advance to meet the research challenges identi-
fied in this report. Faculty will need to engage in interdisciplinary efforts
with each other and with basic biological and social scientists. This could
lead, for example, to graduate programs being offered by groups of faculty
with a common interest in nutrition or food science rather than by a
specific department or division. Students in these disciplines will need to
develop an understanding of a related discipline such as molecular biology
or political science, depending on their career paths, to become successful
investigators and practitioners.
Undergraduate Education
The best undergraduate programs in the nutrition and food sciences
help students understand the interrelationships of nutrition, food, and
health and to develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. A core
curriculum for nutrition undergraduates should include general and or-
ganic chemistry and biochemistry; biology and integrative biology (e.g.,
physiology); nutrition science; microbiology; food chemistry; mathematics
through elementary calculus; physics; statistics; and behavioral sciences.
Students interested in food science need the same basic science training
in biology, chemistry, and physics, plus food engineering, food processing,
and coursework in regulatory policy. Many fine research universities and
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is
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NUTRITION AND FOOD SCIENCES
colleges without specialized undergraduate programs in nutrition or food
science face special challenges in identifying students in these settings
who may have interests in the critical problems facing these disciplines,
excite their curiosity, and identify opportunities for them to begin to Study
these issues within their institutions.
=
Summer courses in the nutrition and food sciences would provide
great opportunities to acquaint undergraduates with a range of research
problems in these clisciplines and the approaches and technologies used to
solve them. Several models of these programs exist; each provides stu-
dents with lectures and opportunities to conduct research. Summer train-
ing programs should be organized and offered by nutrition science and
food science departments and by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) through their Human Nutrition Research Centers and Regional
Research Centers across the United States. Funding for competitively
awarded fellowships and travel grants to attend these programs could come
from professional societies in the nutrition and food sciences, industry,
USDA, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Tension may exist between institutions that offer baccalaureate de-
grees in the nutrition and food sciences and the American Dietetic Asso-
ciation ancI Institute of Food Technologists, which accredit or approve
many of the programs. Both disciplines benefit from this credentiating or
approval process, but meeting the requirements outlined by these profes-
sional associations makes clemancis on departmental curricular resources
and can limit student clevelopment. We recommend that departments take
the initiative and clevelop, in cooperation with the appropriate profes-
sional societies, a credentialing and approval process that is fully congru-
ent with future opportunities in the nutrition and food sciences, clearly
allied to the rapid advancements in knowledge and technology, and in-
creasingly competitive in attracting bright undergraduates who wish to
pursue advanced degrees.
Graduate Education
Graduate students who intend to become investigators in nutrition or
food science receive education and training that is configured around
their undergraduate background ant! career goals. Required courses in
nutrition often include gracluate-leve! basic cellular ant! molecular biol-
ogy, biochemistry, physiology, perhaps genetics and epidemiology, and
one or more courses in the social sciences. In food science, core courses
inclucle graduate-level food chemistry, food microbiology, food engineer-
ing, and basic science or engineering. Many different academic structures
exist to educate and train students in the nutrition and food sciences; each
has its strengths and weaknesses. Departments of nutrition, foot! science,
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S UMMARY aND CONCL USIONS
9
and combined departments are perhaps the most visible. The graduate
programs in nutrition in several medical schools are varied, reflecting
both the lack of nutrition departments and a school-by-school approach to
developing the medical-nutrition curriculum. We concur with past reports
of the great need to improve nutrition education in medical schools. In
addition, several graduate nutrition departments are located within schools
of public health. To ensure that these schools have a strong nutrition
component, we recommend that nutrition be one of the public health
disciplines required for accreditation.
Graduate Education Support
Increasing the number of training grants and fellowships will help
attract more investigators to the nutrition and food sciences. (It is worth
noting that the number of doctorates awarded in the nutrition and food
sciences is only about 3.7 percent of the number awarded in the life
sciences.) We recommend a new national combined pre- and postdoctoral
awards program to provide more flexible and comprehensive training sup-
port for nutrition and food scientists. Graduate students would compete
for awards that would guarantee the winners stipends for the last three
years of graduate work and the first three years of postdoctoral work.
Student who obtained a Ph.D. degree in nutrition or food science would
enter a postdoctoral laboratory in a complementary discipline that is not
located in a nutrition or food science department. Students who obtained
a Ph.D. in a supporting (discipline (such as molecular biology, physical
anthropology, or engineering) would select a postdoctoral laboratory within
a department or program in nutrition or food science. We envisage such a
program being funded by NIlI and USDA, perhaps with the help of the
National Science Foundation (NSF) and private foundations. To create
and maintain a viable program, at least 10 awards should be provided each
year.
Support
Meeting the research challenges and opportunities summarized above
requires that the research enterprise itself be supported adequately. We
are acutely aware that the current funding climate limits the financial
support for meritorious research and training in the nutrition ant! food
sciences and in the biomedical sciences generally. Among the reasons are
the huge federal debt, restructuring and consolidation within the private
sector, and the plethora of important social needs that require financial
support from private, nonprofit organizations and foundations. We sug-
gest that the major supporters of the nutrition and food sciences conduct
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10
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NUTRITION AND FOOD SCIENCES
self-assessments of their research and training programs in these disci-
plines to ensure that available funds are spent wisely and efficiently.
It is not possible to estimate accurately the total resources applied to
research in the nutrition and food sciences, in part because the central-
ized government system for compiling and reporting does not include
private sector investments in research and does not impose uniform re-
quirements on agencies reporting data. Documenting the government's
research effort would be substantially improved if federal agencies were
to become consistent in their definition of nutrition- and food-related
research, consistent in the inclusion or exclusion of overhead costs in the
estimates of research costs, and use the same system throughout govern-
ment to account for Blair contributions. Ideally, such a system could be
used by the private sector and nonprofit institutions as well.
Federal Government
The federal government estimates its annual expenditures on research
and research training in the nutrition and food sciences to be more than
$400 million each year. However, expenditures in constant dollars reached
a peak in fiscal year (FY) 198S, declined for two years, then increased
somewhat in FY 1991, indicating overall that investments in nutrition and
food science research are not keeping place with inflation.
National Institutes of Health NIH leads all federal agencies in financial
support of nutrition research and training, contributing about three-quar-
ters of total federal expenditures in these areas. It supports both basic and
clinical research on nutrition throughout the life cycle and nutritional
factors in the development, prevention, and treatment of disease. NIH
does this through various mechanisms, primarily investigator-initiated re-
search grants but also through eight Clinical Nutrition Research Units
(CNRUs) and four Obesity Nutrition Research Centers (ONRCs). We
recommend that the level of support from NIlI for nutrition research
reflect the important role of diet in health promotion and the prevention
and treatment of disease. This is currently not the case. Two important
mechanisms for NIH to accomplish this goal are through its Bionutrition
Initiative and by ensuring that the nutrition sciences have strong repre-
sentation throughout the institutes. NIH should also ensure that nutrition
scientists are adequately represented on all of its study sections that evaluate
proposals for nutrition research. In general too few nutrition ~?xn~rts sit
1 . · .1 . 1 . ~ . ~ . . r.
on study sections that evaluate proposals with significant or strong nutri-
tion components. The committee also recommends that the training func-
tions of CNRUs and ONRCs be expanded and strengthened to enhance
the trainees' expertise in nutrition through formal didactic and laboratory
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S UMMARY AND CONCL USIONS
11
based training. In addition, consideration should be given to increasing
the financial support to the CNRUs and ONRCs and initiating a process
to determine the desirable number of centers, as they have successfully
encouraged multidisciplinary research and training in clinical nutrition
within biomedical research institutions. Funds to implement these recom-
mendations should not come at the expense of support for investigator-
initiated research.
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1 1 . . 1 . .
For more than a century, USDA has
supportect research In the nutrition and food sciences. Today, it contrib-
utes approximately one-seventh of total federal expenditures for research
in these areas, focusing on the nutritive value of foods. human nutrition
1 ~ ~ . - . . ~ ~ 1.
I, mu co~su~:~puo~ patterns, IOOa quarry and safety, ancl strategies
for improving diets and the food supply. We recommend that USDA de-
velop a strategic plan that places research in the nutrition and food sci-
ences more in the center of its agricultural research initiatives. Congress
should provide full funding for USDA's National Research Initiative, which
would lead to a tenfold increase in spending on its program in human
nutrition, food safety, and health. Increased support for research on de-
veloping and applying new and emerging food and engineering technolo-
gies is also needed to enable food scientists to develop more value-added
food products for export. USDA should also explore the oossibilitv of
1 .
1 1
changing the way it allocates monies to states for agricultural research,
emphasizing competitively-awarded, peer-reviewed grants in the nutrition
and food sciences, in contrast to automatic entitlements. In addition, some
of the funding for USDA's food assistance programs should go to competi-
tively awarded research proposals to evaluate the success of these pro-
grams and ways of improving them.
Nationcll Science Founclation NSF does not have a research program in
the nutrition or food sciences, so its direct support of research in these
areas is small. We recommend that NSF play a greater role in supporting
the nutrition and food sciences in two ways. First, more nutrition and
food scientists should be members of NSF advisory panels that review
research grant applications. NSF would then be likely to support more
basic food science and food engineering research as well as basic be-
havioral research related to food intake patterns and other sociocultural
determinants of food behavior. Second, NSF should support more stu-
dents in food science and engineering through its Graduate Research
Traineeship Program and establish at least one Center of Excellence in
food engineering.
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12
Industry
OPPORTUNITZES IN THE NUTRITION AND FOOD SCIENCES
The food industry supports a considerable but nonquantifiable amount
of research in the nutrition and food sciences, although recent corporate
restructurings and economic recession have led companies to shift re-
sources from basic research and development to the support of business
operations. We recommend that the private sector establish better links
with academic departments of food science and nutrition. These alliances
would provide universities sources of new funds, enable them to keep
their best and brightest faculty, and speed the transfer of research results
from their laboratories to the marketplace. Industry, in turn, would have a
larger pool of qualified food and nutrition scientists from which to select.
We urge the meat and dairy industries- as well as other commodity groups
concerned with plant foods that participate in USDA-administered pro-
grams of research and promotion to be generous in allocating, funds to
competitively awarded research on their products and encourage investi-
gator-initiated research. The entire food industry should increase its spending
on research related to value-added food processing, which is needed to
increase this country's international competitiveness and trade balance.
Private, Nonprofit Organizations
Foundations such as the Pew Charitable Trusts and voluntary health
agencies like the American Heart Association have made limited but im-
portant contributions to research in the nutrition and food sciences, par-
ticularly in strengthening university research programs. We encourage these
sources to continue their support and hope that more foundations of the
food industry and those with a public-health orientation begin to support
these disciplines. Specifically, we recommend new initiatives along the
lines of one begun by the Pew Charitable Trusts to award fellowships and
help several institutions develop and give direction to their nutrition and
food science programs. Support from a wide variety of private, nonprofit
organizations will become even more important if federal support of re-
search and training remains level or is capped.
CREATING THE FUTURE
These are among the best of times for the nutrition and food sciences,
yet their future is far from certain. Few investments promise comparable
returns in terms of improved quality of life for individuals and productiv-
ity of society as do those in the nutrition and food sciences. For these
disciplines to take advantage of the many opportunities identified in this
report, more financial support is needed for research and the training of
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S UMMARY AND CONCL USIONS
13
students, and greater efforts must be made to attract a new generation of
high-quality, achievement-oriented, career-seeking scientists. To achieve
these goals in today's political and economic climates, nutrition and food
scientists will need to become more politically active through their profes-
sional societies and as individuals to advocate more government and pri-
vate support of their disciplines. In addition, as potential role models,
they must become more visible and available to students in elementary
and high school to promote the appeal of careers in the nutrition and food
sciences.
In addition to pursuing research challenges identified in this report, it
is important that investigators and practitioners in the nutrition and food
sciences provide ongoing evaluations of the consequences and policy im-
plications of meeting these challenges. The research required to do so is
important and must be supported adequately. Research agendas recom-
mencled in this report and by others can raise moral and ethical questions
that should be identified and addressed. One such question is raised by
the two fundamentally different approaches to improving dietary patterns
in this country: modifying people's food habits through lif~?.stvle Cohn
arc ~.1 ~1 1 . 1 .1 r 1
_ ~= ~ _ _ J ~ ,:~ _ _
versus ~ou~y~r~, tine roof suppty to make one forces people eat more
health-promoting. Many views exist as to which approach is more effica-
cious, practical, acceptable, safe, and affordable and how resources should
be allocated between the two to achieve the goal. Some of these views can
and should be investigated experimentally; others must simply be based
on judgments made by those who can influence policies. Our task has
been to describe research opportunities that exist to further each ap-
proach (see especially Chapters 4 and 6~.
The heightened federal effort to study and combat global warming
came in large measure as a result of coordinated efforts by individual
scientists and their professional societies, who insisted on, and proved the
need for, greater government participation. Today's nutrition and food
science communities hold the future of these disciplines in their collective
hands. Elow the nutrition and food sciences are perceived in the next
century and the level of support they receive for research, education, and
training depend a great deal on our activities today.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
food science
