Diet and prevention as a chance in the fight against civilization diseases
Interview with prof. dr hab. Krystyna Gutkowska, director of the Institute of Human Nutrition Sciences at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, about the emerging Innovative Center of Nutrition Sciences.
At the end of 2020 construction of the Innovative Center for Nutrition Sciences has begun. What will be the main directions of research conducted there?
Prof. dr hab. Krystyna Gutkowska: The overriding goal of the Innovative Center for Nutritional Sciences, as a leading scientific, didactic and implementation institution, is the development of research directions, the results of which will be used in solving nutritional and health problems for various population groups in our society. This goal can be achieved only through a holistic approach to the food production and consumption system, i.e. starting from the production of raw materials, through their processing, packaging and sale, and ending with its purchase, storage, preparation for consumption and the resulting multiple effects, both from perspectives of the individual and society. This approach is a consequence of the concept of the founder of the Faculty of Human Nutrition and Rural Household, prof. dr hab. Dr. hc Stanisław Berger, according to whom human nutrition is an area of science dealing with the interdependence between food and the human body at the molecular, cell, tissue, whole organism and population levels.
The implementation of the planned investment will intensify the development of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, as well as the region, through innovative scientific research, implementation of innovative technologies in the field of nutritional sciences and the transfer of knowledge to society and the economy. This will allow for the development of modern research related to the personalization of nutrition, innovative food design and the creation of good practices in the field of broadly understood human nutrition science. Modern conditions of scientific work will guarantee the preparation of an active and competitive staff of highly qualified specialists to carry out innovation and implementation activities. It will also contribute to the achievement of tangible effects in the form of developing standards of human nutrition in health and disease used in interactive web applications in free access for the public. Personalizing the diet and monitoring its effectiveness are in line with the strategic goal of the National Health Program, which is to extend healthy life, improve the health and quality of life of the population and reduce social inequalities in achieving health by improving the diet, nutritional status and physical activity of the society.
What specialists will the Center train?
The Innovative Center for Nutritional Sciences is dedicated primarily to scientific research, but the mutual relations between science and didactics will also be present in the area of its tasks. The center will be a specific base for modernizing educational programs in the field of multi-faceted and holistic approach to human nutrition. We are talking about training experts prepared both to initiate and implement changes in the way of nutrition, aimed at improving the health situation of various population groups, as well as specialists in the design of personalized food and technological processes used in the production of food characterized by high nutritional value, low energy value, low food index. glycemic and, thanks to the use of innovative and natural raw materials and modern packaging and storage methods, an extended shelf-life. The center will also provide a scientific and research base necessary to educate specialists in the field of nutritional education, or more broadly – health education. By introducing modern methods of assessing the effectiveness of various models and systems of dietary counseling, using multimedia tools and remote communication, it will be possible to improve the process of matching the recommendations provided to the needs and perception of individual categories of recipients.
The Center is to help in solving the nutritional and health problems of Polish society. What diseases are we talking about?
First of all, about diet-related diseases, resulting from the manner and state of nutrition, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, some cancers, as well as metabolic diseases: lipid disorders, gout or rare congenital abnormalities of metabolism. Hence, at the Innovative Center for Nutritional Sciences, an important element of research will be the ability to determine the impact of both macronutrients in the diet and selected minerals, vitamins and other bioactive substances on the regulation and rate of human metabolism and its metabolic profile. In conjunction with genetics and lifestyle factors, this will allow the personalization of dietary recommendations, contributing to the improvement of health and quality of life in society. In order to assess the key health parameters and changes in metabolism at the level of cellular regulation, devices will be used to enable qualitative and quantitative analyzes of selected metabolites, e.g. the transformation of amino acids, fatty acids or selected bioactive compounds. The use of metabolomics research will help in identifying parameters indicating the importance of food in the prevention and treatment, and monitoring the effectiveness of diet therapy in non-communicable diseases. The identification, validation, development and implementation of new biomarkers of diet-related diseases on the basis of methods of assessing metabolic products may also help to identify the dependence of diet on individual predisposition to occurrence of specific metabolic disorders. This will constitute the basis for the development of personalized dietary recommendations, and the determination of the nutritional and dietary needs of various population groups and individuals may be the starting point for designing food with the desired pro-health characteristics, the operation of which will be verified in properly planned models of nutritional and dietary counseling.
How important is dietary prevention for public health?
Diet, as well as other lifestyle elements, especially physical activity, are of great importance to your health. Many scientific and popular science monographs have been written on this subject, as well as thousands of articles. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that our diet should be based on fruit and vegetables – a minimum of 400 g per day, preferably in at least five portions. They are a rich source of vitamins and minerals that reduce the risk of developing various psychosomatic diseases, and their insufficient consumption is one of the ten most important health threatening factors.
Studies have shown that people who consumed fruit and vegetables in excess of 400 g per day had significantly better results in the memory assessment test, which suggests a relationship between the consumption of these groups of products and the results of cognitive tests. Other studies have confirmed that the inclusion of fruit juice rich in flavonoids, including anthocyanins, in the diet of elderly people with mild to moderate dementia can improve their memory and cognitive processes. Although the knowledge about the relationship between the food consumed and health seems to be extensive, remember that when choosing food products, consumers are only slightly influenced by it. On the one hand, they declare that they are aware that their health and condition depends on how they eat, and on the other – they treat food as a pleasure, they choose what they like. Unfortunately, the hedonistic aspect often loses us, because what we like is not always healthy for us. It must be emphasized that diet prophylaxis can reduce the incidence of civilization diseases, which gives enormous benefits, not only social, but also economic.
Innovative recipes for nutritional products are to be developed at the Center. What are the latest trends in modifying the market offer?
Consumers in the second decade of the 21st century are influenced by such megatrends as “freshness”, “naturalness”, “health”, “authenticity” and “personalization”. The “health” trend is particularly strong, and the resulting interest in food with pro-health attributes. It is worth mentioning that products communicated as pro-health are often equated with functional food, i.e. showing, in addition to nutritional and sensory effects, also a positive effect on health.
Using the experience of two projects carried out in 2009-2016 at the Faculty of Human Nutrition and Consumption Sciences, namely “Bio-food” and “Bioproducts”, i.e. functional products of animal and plant origin with increased nutritional value and pro-health values, we have knowledge in the field of creating the right attributes of food in order to have a pro-health impact. In the context of these experiences, we plan to monitor and explain online the impact of technical and technological processes on food quality parameters. In the Food Industry Technology Hall planned at the Innovative Center for Nutritional Sciences, modern methods will be used on a semi-industrial scale:
- production of cereal products using modern technological solutions to control the process of fermentation, cooling and freezing of semi-finished products, specialized bakery ovens equipped with energy recovery systems allowing for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and enabling the bakery production of products enriched with natural pro-health ingredients,
- production of extruded and co-extruded products,
- production of cold meats (finely and coarse minced) with functional additives, including those increasing the nutritional value and pro-health,
- production of raw maturing meats,
- production of products with reduced water content using spray and freeze-drying as well as convection drying with the use of appropriate carriers in the encapsulation process, allowing to obtain products from which the bioactive substance is released in a controlled manner, creating completely new perspectives for the food industry.
Research related to the production of health-promoting food, enriched with nutritional values, must be carried out in parallel with sensory research. It is important to find a compromise between the nutritional value of newly designed food and its consumer acceptance. Planned research on health food design must meet both the highest quality and safety standards and meet the expectations and preferences of consumers.
What are the most important projects currently carried out at the Institute of Human Nutrition Sciences, which will be continued at the Innovative Center of Nutrition Sciences?
Currently, most projects concern organic food. These are often studies conducted in international consortia. Prof. dr hab. Ewa Rembiałkowska, dr hab. Renata Kazimierczak or dr hab. Ewelina Hallmann from the Department of Organic Food at the Department of Functional and Organic Food are managing several projects in this area, namely: “Code of Practice for organic food processing ProOrg”; “Transformation of European Food Systems towards Sustainability by Transnational, Innovative Teaching-TEFSI” or “Effect of Farming Systems on the Accumulation of Biologically Active and Anticancer Compounds of Potato Tubers with Colored Flesh”.
As part of cooperation with the Carrefour Foundation, the Institute of Human Nutrition Sciences obtained another grant and implements the “BIO for Mother and Child” program, which aims to educate mothers, pregnant women and staff of institutions associated with this group about organic food. This project is under the honorary patronage of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
There are also several projects financed by the National Science Center in the Miniatura 2 program, and related to technical, technological and analytical aspects in the food processing process, such as: “Analysis of the impact of packaging parameters on respiration processes of common mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) expressed as changes in the quality characteristics of mushrooms stored at room temperature ”; “Analysis of the volatile compounds profile formation mechanism in meat subjected to low-temperature heat treatment (sous-vide)”; “Analysis of biofilm formation and penetration of pathogenic bacteria into food sprout seeds”; or “Using the chromatographic profile of volatile compounds and near infrared spectra to identify adulteration in minced meat.” Projects financed under this program also relate to human nutrition, e.g. “Analysis of the effect of vitamin D supply from food products on the level of 25 (OH) -cholecalciferol in the blood, depending on exposure to solar radiation”.
There are also projects implemented as part of international cooperation, e.g. “Innovative Approaches for Pork Production with Entire Males – IPEMA” or “Preventive measures to reduce the adverse health impact of traffic-related air pollution – PrevenTAP” financed by the Norwegian Research Council.
The innovative Center for Nutritional Sciences will allow not only to continue, but also to expand the spectrum of educational and research activities of our scientists.
The mission of the Center is to be an intelligent transfer of research results and technologies to the Polish nutritional and food system. How will it be done?
This is already happening, it is enough to mention the projects carried out at the Faculty of Human Nutrition in scientific and implementation or scientific and industrial consortia. We owe good relations with the food industry to previous large projects with the participation of food producers and manufacturers. This gave us a solid foundation for further cooperation. It is worth noting that farmers also participated in the Proopti Beef project conducted by our Department, which proves that the transfer of knowledge not only takes place between science and industry, but also science-primary production. The interactive knowledge base on the optimization of beef production prepared as part of this project contains information useful for representatives of all stages of production, both primary and processing. It can be said that the transfer will take place on the basis of partnership, and its main idea will be to obtain mutual benefits, i.e. the win-win principle will accompany us in establishing and continuing cooperation with external stakeholders, among which there will be Others. food producers, health and healthy lifestyle educators, representatives of health and social care institutions, as well as representatives of the broadly understood food services sector and many others interested in the offer of cooperation with the Innovative Center of Nutrition Sciences.
The newly created Center will implement the idea of the “knowledge triangle”, i.e. the perfect synergy between research, education and business. By creating dynamic trans-sector partnerships – Knowledge and Innovation Communities – KICs, it will be the only unit in Poland that is part of the EIT Regional Innovation System (RIS EIT), i.e. a structured program that allows research units and social organizations from Poland and Europe to use of research and implementation works carried out therein. The purpose of the Center’s operation is consistent with the EIT RIS. It assumes increasing innovative abilities in scientific research, implementation and education in the field of innovative, pro-health food design, as well as balanced nutrition, dietetics and rational nutritional behavior of consumers. It is particularly important that in the newly created Center, the areas of science, implementations, industry and the social environment, so far connected, will become – through a modern and integrated formula of research, implementations, applications and education – equal partners, interested in cooperation and the community of knowledge and innovation.
In order to build new standards, the innovative Center for Nutritional Sciences will combine specialist knowledge, research results, applications and implementations with a vision of the future about launching “tailor-made – Taylor made” food production. Research, implementation and dissemination decisions will be made with the right balance between flexibility and accountability. This is related to the two-tier structure of the Innovative Center for Nutrition Sciences, in which an effective research management system and scientific leadership staff will coexist with decentralized, operational scientific-implementation-dissemination partnerships (KIC), involving specialized scientists, doctoral students, students and producers as well as specialists from both Poland and the whole of Europe as the so-called Top Researchers & Innovators.
Will the Center conduct joint projects with foreign research centers?
Already today, many projects are carried out in international consortia. We actively cooperate with Italy, France, Germany, Scandinavian countries, especially Sweden. Our scientists conduct joint research and prepare publications together. Prof. Joanna Kałuża from the Department of Human Nutrition has been cooperating with the Karolinska Instytut in Sweden for many years in the preparation of joint publications based on databases from long-term clinical trials at the disposal of Swedish scientists. Earlier, I mentioned numerous projects carried out in international consortia under EU programs. There are more such examples of international cooperation.
The Innovative Center for Nutritional Sciences is to be an important teaching and research center not only in Mazovia, but also in Poland.
It is worth emphasizing once again the unique character of the Innovative Center for Nutrition Sciences and its connection with the vision of innovative development of the Masovian region, one of the framework goals of which is to improve the quality of life and use human and social capital to create a modern economy. This will contribute to the achievement of the main goal, i.e. the growth of the metropolitan importance of Warsaw in Europe. The Center will allow the use of the higher education system to significantly increase professional qualifications in line with the needs of the socio-economic environment in the field of health, nutrition and food. The Center will also create the opportunity to create new research teams with the participation of employees of the Institute of Human Nutrition Sciences and scientists representing other domestic and foreign units, with proven competences in the field of research, implementation and educational activities. This, in turn, will contribute to a significant increase in the research potential of our unit, continuing the achievements of the first research and education institution in the country and in the central-eastern part of Europe that conducts research and education in the field of human nutrition. The project to create an Innovative Center for Nutritional Sciences will enable a real increase in the activity of our research teams in conducting research in the European Research Area, and will also strengthen their national and international position.
A healthy society was included in the national smart specializations, and in the Regional Innovation Strategy, safe food and high quality of life were recognized as smart specializations, which can be implemented thanks to the innovative activities of the Innovative Center for Nutrition Sciences.
The center will allow the use of the higher education system to significantly increase the professional qualifications of national specialists in line with the needs of public health. And solutions in the field of health, nutrition and food can be implemented in centers in other regions of the country.
Interviewer: Paulina Górnicka
Promotion Office of SGGW