Nutritional Ecology and Human Health
David Raubenheimer1, Stephen J Simpson1
1Charles Perkins Centre and School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia;
Annual Review of Nutrition
|June 15, 2016
Summary
Human nutrition science excels at micronutrient deficiencies but struggles with obesity and cardiometabolic disease (OACD). Nutritional ecology and its modeling approach, nutritional geometry, offer new ecological-evolutionary frameworks to address these challenges.
Area of Science:
- Human nutrition science
- Nutritional ecology
- Public health
Background:
- Twentieth-century nutrition science successfully addressed micronutrient deficiencies.
- Recent decades show a failure to curb rising rates of obesity and associated cardiometabolic disease (OACD).
- This necessitates a re-evaluation of current approaches in human nutrition.
Observation:
- The field of human nutrition faces limitations in addressing complex, multifactorial diseases like OACD.
- Existing paradigms may not adequately account for the ecological and evolutionary context of human diets.
- Debate exists regarding the field's shortcomings and the need for innovative strategies.
Findings:
- Nutritional ecology offers an ecological-evolutionary foundation to enrich human nutrition science.
- This interdisciplinary field provides theoretical frameworks to address limitations in current nutrition science.
- Nutritional geometry, a modeling approach from nutritional ecology, can integrate these theories.
Implications:
- Implementing nutritional geometry can provide new direction for human nutrition research.
- This approach aids in better understanding the complex interplay of diet, environment, and health.
- It offers a novel pathway for managing and preventing obesity and associated cardiometabolic disease.
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