Real world benefits: Overcoming global nutrition challenges at UC Davis

26 Apr 2024 --- Rates of food insecurity, malnutrition and obesity continue to rise globally, each requiring different, tailored and sustainable solutions. We examine crucial nutrition challenges and how to address them with professionals from the University of California (UC) Davis, US, its Innovation Institute for Food and Health (IIFH) and a UC Davis-borne company, Rivalz Snacks.

“How do we provide nutrition and make it affordable? Because of many affordability issues, people are not eating,” Rao Unnava, Ph.D., the dean of UC Davis’s Graduate School of Management, tells Nutrition Insight. 

“They skip a part of the meal because they don’t have the money to buy that. That is what our students are focusing on — providing good solutions to a planet that needs them. This nutrition challenge is a big one, and it has to be solid. Otherwise, we will see some major healthcare issues that will develop from that, such as malnutrition.”  

A second challenge he highlights is sustainability and water use. Moreover, Unnava underscores: “At some point, we have to figure out a way not to depend as much on the animals because it’s costing the environment quite a bit.”

Proof cases 
John Melo, CEO of PIPA and IIFH advisory board member, explains that the institute does “amazing research” and prepares future talent, focusing on building young leaders who can be effective and “bringing together the right communities that drive this ecosystem concept.” 

“The opportunity is — how do we apply all that in a way that can move the world? We’ve come up with these grand challenges,” he details. “They are not in themselves the end game.” 

“They are proof cases — if you can deliver each of them well, a large population in the world can be impacted and elevated by the success of those grand challenges or projects.” 

He emphasizes that these four challenges were created by determining where to have a significant impact with the least time and effort. They identified places where “you can move the needle, deploy technology at scale and simultaneously attract the right sources of capital to have an impact.” 

Unnava highlights the importance of providing affordable and sustainable nutrition.Optimizing protein 
The first grand challenge Melo describes is improving the available nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa, delivering a complete nutrition package — that doesn’t only focus on calories needed — in an economical way. 

“If we can take an amazing product, like the nutritional package in Rivalz Snacks, or use some unique technology like the enzyme in Digestiva and then take them to Sub-Saharan Africa, we can change the game regarding economics and the daily delivery of protein.” 

Led by UC Davis researchers, Digestiva develops specialized enzymes that enhance the nutritional efficacy of dietary proteins to make them more easily digestible and allow access to the full health benefits of proteins. 

“The second one is Guatemala,” Melo continues. “The majority of the population of Guatemalans eat beans and tortillas. And, as you can imagine, that’s not limited to Guatemala.” 

“Can we significantly improve the nutritional benefit, specifically around protein, that’s delivered around that diet? That will significantly improve the health, including the muscle density of the population and potentially significantly decrease the risk of obesity and diabetes.”

He underscores that amplification of protein in a daily bean and tortilla diet would have an immense societal impact as a proof project, potentially impacting hundreds of millions of people with a similar diet. 

Amazonian superfoods 
The third grand challenge focuses on the Amazon. “It’s amazing to me how many superfoods come out of Amazon ingredients or are available out of Amazon ingredients,” highlights Melo. “But a lot needs to be done for that to work well.” 

For example, the blue-green algae spirulina has “69 g of protein from 100 g of total available product,” he details. 

Protein and its different applications are key in the four grand challenges identified by IIFH.“But how much of that protein is bioavailable and has a real impact? How much of spirulina is understood and commercialized in the world? How can we package spirulina with something like Digestiva, squalene or vitamin E to create an amazing, daily dietary impact?” 

Melo sees a role for IIFH in answering these questions and helping to create nutrition to feed communities in the Amazon and beyond. 

Women’s health 
Harold Schmitz, senior scholar in UC Davis’s Graduate School of Management and general partner in venture capitalist firm The March Group, explains that protein and its different applications are the theme of these four grand challenges. 

He explains that the fourth grand challenge is women’s health, which came up in the UC Davis Athletics program. 

“Throughout intercollegiate athletics with women, there is this desire to be thin. But at the same time, there are performance demands. A very unhealthy situation develops with that group of women that matters for everybody,” he underscores. “How do we apply this protein expertise and thinking in the use-inspired case of women’s health?”

Melo adds that as he became more engaged in women’s health, he discovered that the “level of research investment in the US for women’s health was almost none.” Moreover, he cautions that most US FDA studies are designed around men. 

“We can focus some of the technologies specifically on women’s health. That will carry the rest of where we can go,” he asserts. “A lot of the issues we discussed, or at least for some of them, women are more affected than men. How can we go after making them better first, because if you make women better first, you make society better forever.”

At Natural Products Expo West, we met up with Rivalz Snacks CEO Peter Barrick.Snacks to combat obesity  
One of the companies coming out of UC Davis that is focusing on nutrient-dense foods is Rivalz Snacks. Ralph Jerome, the company’s co-founder and board member of Rise Against Hunger, highlights how the company attempted to address malnutrition issues in the US and the obesity pandemic in the country. 

“We focused on metabolic health, which is at the core of it.” For example, looking at glycemic index, the amount of sugar in food, and what would be suitable replacements, such as healthy fats, fiber and protein. 

“Even though the US consumes a lot of protein, it’s probably not getting an optimal level of protein because the recommended daily intake is relatively low, focusing more on preventing disease, whereas what we want to do is create optimal health. Then you have an aging population, a population that’s doing all kinds of crazy bad diets, or GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1).” 

Jerome illustrates that people need nutrient-dense foods, which became a key for Rivalz Snacks. “Not only nutrient density but also a way of controlling the glycemic effects of the foods. That was the basis.”  

Rivalz Snack’s CEO Peter Grant Barrick adds that with AI, the company has created “a snack as a meal,” tapping into a need not being met by current products.  

“The first question you ask as an entrepreneur is, is there a want or need in the market that’s not being met by current products? We found that the consumer, especially the younger consumer, is going away from three traditional meals, demanding more from their snacks.”

He highlights that with the GLP-1 trend, demand for typically salty snacks, fat, salt and carbs is decreasing, while there is an increase in vegetable protein snacks, yogurt and fish. 

“We have covered a halo behind that incredible movement. We are preventative — rolling back the 50-year pandemic with every bag sold,” says Barrick. “But when the side effects are now coming out on GLP-1, such as losing muscle mass, we’re complimentary — eating our snacks can help sustain muscle mass.” 

By Jolanda van Hal