Calls for public-private research alliance at Nutrition Live Online 2020

03 Jun 2020 --- The American Society for Nutrition (ASN) is using its virtual conference Nutrition Live Online 2020, held from June 1 to 4, as a platform to address critical topics in the industry. The event is spotlighting calls for enhanced research, ranging from digestive health and dieting risks to childhood malnutrition amid COVID-19 food shortages. As the global pandemic has postponed physical trade shows, stakeholders continue to look toward virtual technology to spread awareness on how industry must take a multi-faceted, holistic approach in tackling crucial nutrition problems.

The ASN has been “overwhelmed” by the global participation rate of the event, Mary Pat Cornett, Chief Strategy and Operations Officer at the ASN, tells NutritionInsight. Moreover, she regards the event as “outstanding,” considering its abundant positive feedback and high amount of registrations. Notably, the conference has had over 28,000 registrations, with over 5,000 registrations alone in the first two days of the event.

“Initially, our singular goal was to ensure the dissemination of research and to ensure that students and young scientists didn’t lose the opportunity to present their science when COVID-19 forced the cancellation of our meeting. Those goals were easily met when we made the decision to design a virtual meeting,” she explains.

With the first virtual event going "smoothly," Cornett afirms ASN is already focused on refining future offerings.“Moonshot” nutrition research needed
Science and policy experts urged for coordinated research in the face of the US nutrition crisis during a live session called “Strengthening Federal Nutrition Research: Gaps and Opportunities, including Lessons from COVID-19.” The discussion speakers identified nutrition research as instrumental in improving public health and resilience for future crises. Moreover, they emphasized that these issues were prevalent throughout the US before the COVID-19 crisis.

“It is evident that a broad collaboration among public and private sector entities is needed to address issues, such as malnutrition in the US and elsewhere,” Dr. Paul Coates, Vice President-Elect of the ASN, tells NutritionInsight.

He asserts that the highest priorities relate to enhancing the intake of nutritious food by US consumers. Diet-related illnesses are the leading source of poor health in the US, he further flags. Some of the many warranted fields of research include immunity, genetics/epigenetics, vascular health and the gut microbiota.

Manufacturers have been ramping up investment across all of these areas. In the space of gut health alone, industry has recently seen a slew of research endeavors. Last month, Cargill began accelerating microbiome R&D, while an EU-funded project emphasized the crucial role of probiotics in sustaining digestive health. Similarly structured to Nutrition Live Online 2020, the Digestive Disease Week publicized a range of study abstracts on the latest research in the gut health space. 

Cooperating on a cross-governmental level
To capitalize on the opportunities for new nutrition-related discoveries in basic, clinical, public health, food and agricultural and translational scientific research, the panel speakers agreed that a cross-governmental approach is best suited to enhance the much-needed coordination of the broadly dispersed nutrition efforts.

The highest nutrition research priorities relate to enhancing the intake of nutritious food by US consumers, Dr. Coates states.  The main cross-government options discussed included a new Office of the National Director for Food and Nutrition; a new US Global Nutrition Research Program; a new Associate Director for Nutrition Science within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; and a new US Task Force on Federal Nutrition Research. 

“There are other cross-governmental solutions under consideration as well, but the above-mentioned ones seemed the highest priority for enhancing the much-needed coordination of the broadly dispersed nutrition efforts, currently engaged in by more than ten federal agencies,” he maintains.

The discussion platform further addressed how the outbreak has highlighted many national food and nutrition challenges, including hunger and food insecurity. In this context, NutritionInsight previously reported on the vital role of nutritionists’ and dietitians’ expertise in tackling these issues among COVID-19 patients. Nutritionists have also warned that stockpiling and hoarding food may pose yet another risk to consumers’ health. 

Addressing these concerns, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has devised a new strategic plan to accelerate nutrition science discoveries over the next decade, which will reflect a wide range of nutrition research supported across NIH.

The session was based on a forthcoming white paper entitled Strengthening National Nutrition: Rationale and Options for a New Coordinated Federal Research Effort and Authority, which is scheduled to appear in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition later this month. “When it is published, the ASN will offer the broad nutrition community opportunities to weigh in and comment on the paper,” Dr. Coates affirms.

Convening the nutrition community at the ASN's virtual meeting may be the "single biggest step forward" in achieving its mission to advance the science, education and practice of nutrition.Dieting risks and children’s nutrition spotlighted
The conference has made myriad paper abstracts available to the public to shed light on the curious findings of several different nutrition research fields. Picking just a few examples from diet research, a study found that following low-carb and high-fiber diets may lead to micronutrient deficiency. 

Another study involved an internet survey of more than 400 US college students, which found that weight loss diets can result in orthorexia nervosa, a potentially damaging obsession with healthy eating. It revealed that more than three-quarters of respondents who reported following a weight loss diet also showed signs of orthorexia, compared to less than 40 percent among those who were not dieting. 

In children’s nutrition research, a study of children and teenagers found that more than a quarter of the calories they consume were those from added sugars and solid fats, also known as “empty calories.” The top sources of these empty calories were soft drinks, fruit drinks, cookies and brownies, pizza and ice cream. Finally, a study review highlighted that an increasing level of parental involvement supports positive dietary behavior change in children.

By Anni Schleicher