La sociologie de l’alimentation comme piste pour lutter contre les maladies chroniques et les inégalités sociales de santé

Face à la croissante prévalence des maladies chroniques (phénomène aussi appelé « transition épidémiologique »), notre santé est intrinsèquement liée à notre relation avec l’environnement. Elle ne dépend plus seulement de soins, mais aussi et surtout de sa prévention. L’alimentation est une interaction quotidienne avec l’environnement, elle peut soit contribuer à prévenir des maladies chroniques, soit les favoriser. Si s’alimenter représente un pouvoir d’agir au quotidien sur notre santé, ce pouvoir se retrouve contraint par des facteurs socioéconomiques, ainsi que largement influencé par des facteurs culturels. Les plus précaires sont les plus affectés par les maladies chroniques, tout en ayant une alimentation susceptible de contribuer à leur développement. La sociologie de l’alimentation peut aider à élaborer une prévention adaptée, via l’étude des représentations alimentaires de ces populations

Food composition databases: does it matter to human health?

Food provides humans with more than just energy and nutrients, addressing both vital needs and pleasure. Food habits are determined by a wide range of factors, from sensorial stimuli to beliefs and, once commanded by local and seasonal availability, are nowadays driven by marketing campaigns promoting unhealthy and non-sustainable foodstuffs. Top-down and bottom-up changes are transforming food systems, driven by policies on SDGs and by consumer’s concerns about environmental and health impacts. Food quality, in terms of taste, safety, and nutritional value, is determined by its composition, described in food composition databases (FDBs). FDBs are then useful resources to agronomists, food and mechanical engineers, nutritionists, marketers, and others in their efforts to address at maximum human nutrient needs. In this work, we analyse some relevant food composition databases (viz., purpose, type of data, ease of access, regularity of updates), inspecting information on the health and environmental nexus, such as food origin, production mode as well as nutritional quality. The usefulness and limitations of food databases are discussed regarding what concerns sustainable diets, the food ‘matrix effect’, missing compounds, safe processing, and in guiding innovation in foods, as well as in shaping consumers’ perceptions and food choices.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Diversité des agricultures – le cas des filières céréales, oléagineux et légumineuses à graines

L’objectif de cet article est de décrire, sans être exhaustif, la diversité des agricultures en mobilisant des exemples au niveau du système technique et des pratiques culturales, pour la France métropolitaine et pour trois filières : les céréales, les oléagineux et les légumineuses à graines. L’analyse de la diversité des agricultures montre que des voies de diversification des systèmes techniques et des pratiques culturales existent, mais que celles-ci sont fortement dépendantes de la diversité des voies de valorisation dans les filières. Au sein de ces dispositifs de valorisation, hormis quelques dispositifs spécifiques, les recommandations sur les pratiques sont suffisamment vastes pour permettre une diversité de systèmes de culture et de production, dès lors que les critères technologiques d’accès à la filière sont atteints. Il convient alors de s’interroger sur le poids de ces critères technologiques sur les choix techniques des agriculteurs. Il apparait également nécessaire de questionner la valeur donnée à la diversité par les différents acteurs des filières, de l’agriculteur au consommateur, en évaluant notamment la performance économique des systèmes agricoles les plus diversifiés ainsi que les leviers pour augmenter les performances d’une agriculture diversifiée. Il s’agit d’élargir le socle de connaissances sur lequel les acteurs pourront concevoir eux-mêmes de nouvelles formes de diversité et d’ouvrir le débat avec les acteurs des filières sur la préservation des formes de diversité des agricultures comme potentiel de résilience

Conceptualising the drivers of ultra-processed food production and consumption and their environmental impacts: A group model-building exercise

Using group model building we developed a series of causal loop diagrams identifying the environmental impacts of ultra-processed food (UPF) systems, and underlying system drivers, which was subsequently validated against the peer-reviewed literature. The final conceptual model displays the commercial, biological and social drivers of the UPF system, and the impacts on environmental sub-systems including climate, land, water and waste. It displays complex interactions between various environmental impacts, demonstrating how changes to one component of the system could have flow-on effects on other components. Trade-offs and uncertainties are discussed. The model has a wide range of applications including informing the design of quantitative analyses, identifying research gaps and potential policy trade-offs resulting from a reduction of ultra-processed food production and consumption

Visions for this century (2)

International audienc

Vers une approche holistique de l'alimentation pour lutter contre les maladies chroniques

La Nutrition.fr est édité par Axis Media, société de presse indépendante, créée par le journaliste scientifique Thierry Souccar. Axis Media est spécialisée dans l’information sur la sant

A new focus on grain processing looking for the best expression of their healthy properties as a basic food

International audienc

Influence of processing on cereal health potential: holistic versus reductionist approaches

International audienceMore and more epidemiological studies emphasized associations between the degree of food processing and risks of chronic diseases. Notably a high consumption of ultra-processed foods has been associated with increased risks of obesity, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, total cancers, and irritable bowel syndrome. Concerning cereals, studies globally show that while whole-grain cereals are protective refined cereals are either neutral or deleterious against some chronic diseases, e.g., obesity and type 2 diabetes. Besides refining, cereal-based foods are subjected to other various technological processes, i.e., fractionation, extrusion, extrusion-cooking, water cooking, flaking, puffing, baking, sprouting, fermentation and addition of sugar, salt, fat and/or additives. According to the NOVA classification ranking foods according to degree of processing simple cooked or flaked cereals (e.g., cooked brown rice and oat flakes), muesli and pasta are considered minimally-processed products, cooked cereals with added culinary ingredients such as butter, oils, salt and/or table sugar and breads are considered processed products, and extruded-cooked/puffed cereal snacks, and most of industrial biscuits and breakfast cereals for children are considered ultra-processed products, notably because containing cosmetic purified ingredients and/or additives, e.g., fructose-glucose syrup, thickening agents, taste exhausters and colouring agents to restore and/or exacerbate texture, colour and taste. From a reductionist perspective, if cereal grains are only sums of nutrients then they can be fractionated, then reconstituted through reassembly of ingredients, additives and cereal fractions. But this is to forget the role of the cereal matrix. Indeed, from a holistic perspective, food health potential combines both « matrix » and « composition » effects, and studying impact of processing on cereal health potential should always consider both simultaneously. For example cereal unstructuration through extrusion-cooking or excess refining combined with addition of glucose syrup both increase glycaemic index. In another way, cereal grain unstrucration or fractionation may decrease its satiety potential, all the more it has been enriched with fat and sugars, the less satiating nutrients - compared to fiber and protein. Therefore, when formulating cereal-based foods it seems important to avoid too much degrading matrix and/or adding cosmetic/organoleptic ingredients/additives that yield ultra-processed cereal-based foods, that are generally poorly satiating, micronutrient-low, hyperglycaemic and containing new compounds for human organism. In a near future cereal technologists will be probably faced with a quadruple constraint, including not only the preservation of organoleptic properties and food safety, but also that of human health potential on a long term and the development of more sustainable processes

Food health potential is primarily due to its matrix structure, then nutrient composition: a new paradigm for food classification according to technological processes applied

International audienc