Nutrition interventions for healthy ageing across the lifespan: a conference report.

Thanks to advances in modern medicine over the past century, the world's population has experienced a marked increase in longevity. However, disparities exist that lead to groups with both shorter lifespan and significantly diminished health, especially in the aged. Unequal access to proper nutrition, healthcare services, and information to make informed health and nutrition decisions all contribute to these concerns. This in turn has hastened the ageing process in some and adversely affected others' ability to age healthfully. Many in developing as well as developed societies are plagued with the dichotomy of simultaneous calorie excess and nutrient inadequacy. This has resulted in mental and physical deterioration, increased non-communicable disease rates, lost productivity and quality of life, and increased medical costs. While adequate nutrition is fundamental to good health, it remains unclear what impact various dietary interventions may have on improving healthspan and quality of life with age. With a rapidly ageing global population, there is an urgent need for innovative approaches to health promotion as individual's age. Successful research, education, and interventions should include the development of both qualitative and quantitative biomarkers and other tools which can measure improvements in physiological integrity throughout life. Data-driven health policy shifts should be aimed at reducing the socio-economic inequalities that lead to premature ageing. A framework for progress has been proposed and published by the World Health Organization in its Global Strategy and Action Plan on Ageing and Health. This symposium focused on the impact of nutrition on this framework, stressing the need to better understand an individual's balance of intrinsic capacity and functional abilities at various life stages, and the impact this balance has on their mental and physical health in the environments they inhabit.

Optimal nutrition and the ever-changing dietary landscape: a conference report.

The field of nutrition has evolved rapidly over the past century. Nutrition scientists and policy makers in the developed world have shifted the focus of their efforts from dealing with diseases of overt nutrient deficiency to a new paradigm aimed at coping with conditions of excess-calories, sedentary lifestyles and stress. Advances in nutrition science, technology and manufacturing have largely eradicated nutrient deficiency diseases, while simultaneously facing the growing challenges of obesity, non-communicable diseases and aging. Nutrition research has gone through a necessary evolution, starting with a reductionist approach, driven by an ambition to understand the mechanisms responsible for the effects of individual nutrients at the cellular and molecular levels. This approach has appropriately expanded in recent years to become more holistic with the aim of understanding the role of nutrition in the broader context of dietary patterns. Ultimately, this approach will culminate in a full understanding of the dietary landscape-a web of interactions between nutritional, dietary, social, behavioral and environmental factors-and how it impacts health maintenance and promotion.

Nutrient reference value: non-communicable disease endpoints--a conference report.

Nutrition is complex-and seemingly getting more complicated. Most consumers are familiar with "essential nutrients," e.g., vitamins and minerals, and more recently protein and important amino acids. These essential nutrients have nutrient reference values, referred to as dietary reference intakes (DRIs) developed by consensus committees of scientific experts convened by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and carried out by the Food and Nutrition Board. The DRIs comprise a set of four nutrient-based reverence values, the estimated average requirements, the recommended dietary allowances (RDAs), the adequate intakes and the tolerable upper intake levels for micronutrient intakes and an acceptable macronutrient distribution range for macronutrient intakes. From the RDA, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) derives a labeling value called the daily value (DV), which appears on the nutrition label of all foods for sale in the US. The DRI reports do not make recommendations about whether the DV labeling values can be set only for what have been defined to date as "essential nutrients." For example, the FDA set a labeling value for "dietary fiber" without having the DV. Nutrient reference values-requirements are set by Codex Alimentarius for essential nutrients, and regulatory bodies in many countries use these Codex values in setting national policy for recommended dietary intakes. However, the focus of this conference is not on essential nutrients, but on the "nonessential nutrients," also termed dietary bioactive components. They can be defined as "Constituents in foods or dietary supplements, other than those needed to meet basic human nutritional needs, which are responsible for changes in health status (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office of Public Health and Science, Department of Health and Human Services in Fed Regist 69:55821-55822, 2004)." Substantial and often persuasive scientific evidence does exist to confirm a relationship between the intake of a specific bioactive constituent and enhanced health conditions or reduced risk of a chronic disease. Further, research on the putative mechanisms of action of various classes of bioactives is supported by national and pan-national government agencies, and academic institutions, as well as functional food and dietary supplement manufacturers. Consumers are becoming educated and are seeking to purchase products containing bioactives, yet there is no evaluative process in place to let the public know how strong the science is behind the benefits or the quantitative amounts needed to achieve these beneficial health effects or to avoid exceeding the upper level (UL). When one lacks an essential nutrient, overt deficiency with concomitant physiological determents and eventually death are expected. The absence of bioactive substances from the diet results in suboptimal health, e.g., poor cellular and/or physiological function, which is relative and not absolute. Regrettably at this time, there is no DRI process to evaluate bioactives, although a recent workshop convened by the National Institutes of Health (Options for Consideration of Chronic Disease Endpoints for Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs); March 10-11, 2015; http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dri/ ) did explore the process to develop DVs for nutrients, the lack of which result in increased risk of chronic disease (non-communicable disease) endpoints. A final report is expected soon. This conference (CRN-International Scientific Symposium; "Nutrient Reference Value-Non-Communicable Disease (NRV-NCD) Endpoints," 20 November in Kronberg, Germany; http://www.crn-i.ch/2015symposium/ ) explores concepts related to the Codex NRV process, the public health opportunities in setting NRVs for bioactive constituents, and further research and details on the specific class of bioactives, n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (also termed omega-3 fatty acids) and their constituents, specifically docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid.

Safety evaluation of a natural tomato oleoresin extract derived from food-processing tomatoes.

Experimental and epidemiological studies indicate that consumption of tomato products containing high amounts of lycopene is associated with lowered cancer risk. The protective effects of lycopene may be related to its antioxidant potential. Lycopene has been demonstrated to inhibit oxidation. A proprietary, natural tomato oleoresin extract (NTOE), is a purified tomato oleoresin containing 6% lycopene produced from tomatoes. NTOE was evaluated for toxicological effects, and found the 50% lethal dose (LD(50)), derived from the acute oral toxicity study, was greater than 5000 mg/kg body weight. The no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) derived from the 13-week study was 4500 mg/kg/day. Acute dermal toxicity study of NTOE found no toxicity at 2000 mg/kg body weight. NTOE lacked dermal irritation in the rabbit model, but was found to have moderate eye-irritant capabilities. NTOE tested at 5% (w/w) in petroleum jelly was a moderate sensitizer in the guinea pig model. There was no evidence of mutagenic potential up to 5000 microg/plate, as determined by the Ames assay. These results demonstrate the inability of NTOE to produce oral, dermal or mutagenic toxicity in animal models at doses greater than 300 times the normal human consumption of lycopene. Consumption analysis of lycopene-containing foods estimated mean daily intake of lycopene at 8.2mg/day.