Personalized food, alternative protein: advanced nutrition trends named

Hippocrates’ statement “we are what we eat” is still the main motto of nutritionists, as well as everyone who adheres to a healthy lifestyle. The ancient Greek healer and philosopher believed that human diseases are the result of disorders of nutrition, habits and lifestyle, and somewhere one can agree with him. Therefore, the topic of how to use food to maintain health and prolong life is of interest to many. Recently, a subsidiary of a Dutch dairy products manufacturer cited five nutrition trends that, according to its social research, will dominate in 2024. MK asked a Russian doctor to evaluate how suitable they are for Russians.

Environmental friendliness

The first trend that the Dutch cite is environmentally friendly food. According to research from FrieslandCampina Ingredients, 48% of consumers have changed their eating habits in the last year to care for the environment, and 47% of respondents do not believe in the eco-friendly claims of brands.

“There are several aspects regarding environmental friendliness,” explains a cardiologist, professor of the Department of Faculty Therapy of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Russian National Research Medical University named after. N.I. Pirogova, Doctor of Medical Sciences Alfred Bogdanov. — To promote food products, many companies declare that their production is environmentally friendly, which has nothing to do with the quality of food products. Indeed, there is a category of the population that attaches fundamental importance to environmental friendliness of production; Basically, these are residents of megacities who consider themselves to be supporters of a healthy lifestyle, who take care not only of themselves, but also of the preservation of the environment.

The second aspect is the environmental friendliness of the products themselves. These are various farm products and home-made products. Nowadays, many small households are engaged in the production of such “village products”. They position their business as growing plant or animal components without adding any stimulants, antibiotics, fertilizers, etc.

The problem is that, firstly, such products are always more expensive than “regular” ones and are available to a limited number of people. And, secondly, according to the results of the analysis of this market, all small enterprises, as soon as their individual farms begin to produce a little more products and move into the category of medium or large farms, can no longer do without fertilizers, stimulants, etc. Now we can observe a large number of companies that started out as small industries and at this stage carefully monitored environmental friendliness, but then switched to the same feed and so on.

There is a well-established opinion that products grown outside industrial production have greater nutritional value and – one cannot say “greater health safety”, but more correctly – less pharmacological and chemical loads. And indeed it is.

But still, one should not reach the point of fanaticism in this matter, because the difference in chemical composition between the products of individual producers and those produced on an industrial scale is so minute that there is currently no scientific evidence of the benefits of “farm products”. There are no studies that prove that if you eat exclusively the products of individual farmers, you will be less likely to develop chronic diseases or increase your life expectancy. This is, rather, not a medical issue, but a matter of fashion for such products and the financial ability of certain categories of the population to purchase them.

“The intestines are the head of everything”

The following conclusion was made by analysts: for two-thirds of consumers, the state of the gastrointestinal tract is extremely important, and 52% believe that it affects the state of mind. Therefore, food manufacturers should pay attention to pro-, prebiotics and other components useful for the gastrointestinal tract.

According to the doctor, the study of microbiota (the totality of all microorganisms in the intestines) is now receiving enormous attention all over the world. The role of the microbiota has been discovered in the last ten years from a fundamentally different angle. It turned out that in terms of volume, microflora is an almost independent organ in humans; it is a huge area that is populated by microorganisms that are responsible not only for the digestion of food, but also for the transport and absorption of most vitamins and minerals. They regulate the human hormonal sphere. Therefore, this trend needs to be actively supported.

Now on sale there are a large number of products enriched with microorganisms (live bacteria) and products that are prebiotics, that is, they contain substances that feed microorganisms of normal flora. In addition, there are many medications to maintain and restore normal intestinal microflora. Doctors confirm that in severe patients, maintaining microflora increases their rehabilitation capabilities.

In addition, many diseases of our century – both Covid and complicated pneumonia – are associated with a load of antibiotics on the body; According to statistics, the consumption of antibiotics has now increased significantly. During the year, any person undergoes at least one course of antibiotic therapy, and often several times. And the first object that suffers from antibiotics is the intestinal microflora. Therefore, in our time it is so important to pay increased attention to it.

Alternative protein

Another trend in nutrition is that 45% of consumers consume alternative protein, but not all of them give up animal products. As the expert explained, the main idea of ​​this direction is to reduce the amount of animal protein and create products that should initially be of animal origin, but where the protein is replaced with a plant source. The most striking example of this, and probably practically the only one, with the exception of soy products, is the so-called plant milk – oatmeal, almond.

This idea, in general, could be considered useful, given the bias towards animal protein compared to plant protein in the routine diet of Russians. On the other hand, for a healthy person, replacing regular milk or animal products with plant-based ones in this option will not bring much benefit, but for patients who really need it, it would be much more correct to simply reduce the consumption of animal protein, thereby reducing the consumption of animal fat containing cholesterol, and replace it with regular plant products containing protein. The effect will be the same, but it will be ten times cheaper. The most well-known sources of plant protein are legumes, including soy, and cereals also contain it. Therefore, there is no point in focusing on the use of some pseudo-products, but it is simpler and more reasonable to reduce the share of animal protein and increase the share of plant protein sources.

Personalized nutrition and healthy aging

The remaining two trends are “personalized nutrition” and “healthy aging.” Research shows that 25% of consumers believe there are not enough products available that meet their specific needs. Regarding the importance of “aging well,” the company said: “There are now 703 million people over the age of 65 in the world. In 2050 there will already be 1.5 billion of them. And many of them want to increase their quality of life with the help of healthy nutrition.”

“Often older people save money, but protein products are not cheap, and in the end they consume significantly less of them,” says Bogdanov. — This, by the way, is dangerous from a cardiological point of view. We often receive elderly patients with reduced protein levels, and we are forced to restore them. For this purpose, there are special mixtures for enteral nutrition (a type of therapeutic or supplementary nutrition) for elderly people. But they are prescribed by nutritionists and gastroenterologists.

The most reliable and correct approach to creating a diet for older people remains the postulates of fundamental dietetics – a balanced diet. And a very powerful trend now, in which Russia is leading, is precisely personalized dietetics.