In today’s society, informed decision making and consumer choice are key concepts. It is important that consumers are informed of new evidence which may assist them in adopting a healthy lifestyle and reduce their risk of disease; but the advice needs to have a strong evidence base. Nutrition and health issues are of particular interest to consumers today, and subsequently the media feed their interest with regular food and nutrition related news features.

The association between what we eat, and our short and long term health has long been recognised. Epidemiological studies or experiments, are published in scientific journals on a weekly basis adding further weight and credibility to this established association. However, the media often pick up on interesting, quirky studies, even if they contradict last week’s headlines, or are based on epidemiology or experimental studies with a weak methodology. This obviously leads to much confusion among consumers, and undermines consumers’ confidence in any nutritional advice.

Following a number of experimental and epidemiological studies that have been undertaken, more recent headlines associated with acrylamide have been more positive ‘Cooking chemical 'no cancer risk'’. So were such disquieting headlines ever deserved? Earlier experimental research suggested that acrylamide can cause several types of cancer in animals; however concentrations of the chemical used in the animal tests were much higher than found in foods.¹ More recently findings from epidemiological studies focusing on different types of cancers have been completed and to-date have echoed the re-assuring headlines² that the quantity of acrylamide identified in some foods is unlikely to be any threat to health.

Associations between a food product, and/or its constituents, and a disease are generally best identified through epidemiological studies, ideally by a prospective study following a large sample population. The type and quantities of the foods consumed by the sample population will be recorded, and after a period of time, the foods consumed by those who do, and do not, develop the disease under study will be compared. However, to ensure the association is valid a large sample population is needed, in the region of 100,000 if rare diseases are being considered. Some studies have taken place across Europe in order that such a large sample population can be met. For example, the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC) is currently underway across 10 countries, involving 520,000 Europeans (for more information about the study click here).

To identify the mechanism through which a food constituent may be involved in the development of a disease we need to have accurate and reliable information on the biologically active substances (i.e. nutrients and phytochemicals) within the food. If this information is not accurate associations may be overlooked, or other associations may be fabricated. To ensure valid and reliable data are available for use across Europe, the EU funded project entitled EuroFIR was started in 2006 to develop and integrate a comprehensive, coherent and validated food composition databank for use across Europe. The EuroFIR project has also looked at the concentration of some of the phytochemicals found in plant derived foods. Phytochemicals are biologically active plant constituents which may help reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke and perhaps Alzheimer’s disease (for more information on bioactives see web-feature).

A unique feature of the EuroFIR project has been the combination of compositional data with information on biological effects of some commonly recognised phytochemicals, which assists in understanding the results from scientific studies.

Much confusion has arisen regarding the health benefits of some foods rich in phytochemicals. For example, coffee has been associated with health benefits, due to the presence of bioactive components - coffee phenolics which appear to have an antioxidant role. However, a number of studies have indicated that in large amounts coffee may be positively associated with high blood pressure, and subsequent risk to cardiovascular health due to its impact on concentrations of compounds (e.g. homocysteine) in the blood which are associated with an increased risk of cardio vascular disease. Further information on the phytochemical content of coffee, and other foods, and information on the biological effect of common phytochemicals will assist health professionals in providing consistent advice about diet and health.

Experience to date indicates that those involved in disseminating information about food and health, need to take more responsibility about the accuracy and appropriateness of the information. For example, scientists need think about the impact that their stories may have on public health if it makes the headlines, bearing in mind that journal papers are not easy to interpret for many clinicians, let alone those journalists who have little experience in this field. Meanwhile journalists also need to take a responsible approach to reporting the findings of new studies which can, inappropriately, be picked up from conference proceedings, or an individual journal paper and ensure that these are reported in the context of other scientific literature. With valid and reliable data, scientific experts can be confident in responding to media enquiries, and health professionals can advise patients, whilst prioritising nutrition messages and ensuring their consistency to avoid confusing the public.

References

1 http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2005/jan/acrylfood

2 Mucci et al. (2003) Dietary acrylamide and cancer of the large bowel, kidney, and bladder: Absence of an association in a population-based study in Sweden. The British Journal of Cancer 88, 84 −89