Food and Health Some Current Issues and Future Trends

This paper deals with some of the many current issues and future trends in the area of food, diet and health in Europe. A complete coverage would be impossible in a short article in view of the extent and complexity of the food system and its major interaction with health. It is also important to stress at the outset that food/diet is only one component of health and other factors such as environment, overall lifestyle and genetics also play a major role. The genetic dimension is of particular importance as there is an increasing realisation that a person's genetic make-up plays a major role in their ability to 'deal' with infection or to 'cope' with certain foods or other agents, e.g. tobacco, which may be associated with various conditions such as atherosclerosis and lung disease. Food is eaten for sustenance ('we eat to live') but also for pleasure ('we live to eat') and so in Europe overnutrition is often a problem and contrasts with starvation and famine sometimes found in Third World countries. As a result the so-called diseases of affluence, and the accompanying enormous cost of health care, are major problems in most European countries leading to increasing pressure for more preventive and less curative medicine. With the above backdrop it is not surprising that there is unprecedented interest by consumers in developed countries in food/health issues and while consumers of the 80s asked 'are there additives'? the consumers of the 90s ask 'is the food safe'?. While microbiological food poisoning is a major problem in Europe today, the modern consumer often sees a more sinister dimension arising out of the use of agri- and veterinary chemicals/preparations in food productions and the use of additives and a range of technologies by the food industry. As a result the quest by consumers for reliable information in this area is unprecedented. This paper addresses some of the above issues and also the major role the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) can play in promoting an interdisciplinary approach in the solution of some of the current and future food and health issues.