Compared with developed countries, the overall level of nutritional science research in China lags behind, and there is a lack of targeted countermeasures for many major nutritional problems that affect national health. Therefore, how to effectively integrate China's scientific research strength, study the nutritional needs in line with China's lifestyle and genetic characteristics, and take effective preventive measures to control the occurrence of nutrition-related diseases, so as to provide an important guarantee for the sustainable development of China's social economy and the health of/kloc-0.3 billion people and future generations, has become an urgent problem for the development of nutrition science in China.
On June 1 1~ 12, 2009, Xiangshan Science Conference held its 352nd academic seminar with the theme of "Nutrition Science Development and National Health" in Beijing. Chen Junshi, Yang Shengli, Chen Kaixian and Chen Yan are the executive chairmen. Nearly forty experts and scholars were invited to attend the meeting, and conducted extensive academic exchanges and in-depth discussions on three central topics: the development and importance of nutrition science in China, nutrition and health, and nutrition and disease.
Researcher Chen Junshi made a summary report entitled "The Development of Nutrition Science and National Health" from four aspects: the development of international nutrition science, the main work of nutrition science in China at present, the existing needs and gaps, and the supporting system needed by nutrition work. He systematically reviewed the historical changes and development of Chinese and western nutrition. The new nutrition science theory put forward at the end of the 20th century pushed nutrition from a simple biological science to a new height of cross-integration of biology, environmentology and sociology. The development of human genomics promotes the development of nutritional genomics. He analyzed and summarized the current work of nutrition science in China in four main areas: nutritional deficiency and early childhood nutrition; Nutrition and chronic diseases; Clinical nutrition; Nutritional genomics. He stressed that to face up to the gap between China and developed countries in the development of nutrition science and meet the needs of national health, we should focus on the following aspects: establishing a national nutrition testing system and collecting a large number of population sample data to lay the foundation for the research of nutrition health and chronic diseases in China; Combine basic research, molecular epidemiological research and clinical intervention research to carry out major prospective research on nutrition and chronic diseases; In-depth study on the role of nutrition in children's development; In view of the lack of micronutrients such as calcium, iron and vitamin D in China, explore solutions; Solve the policies, regulations, technologies, costs and benefits related to nutritional support for clinical patients; Keeping up with the international frontier, according to the hot issues such as fat that China is actually concerned about, the requirements and recommended amounts of human nutrients that meet the actual population in China are put forward; In-depth study of plant bioactive components based on homology of food and medicine, including effective components, mechanism of action, functional evaluation and so on.
1. Development and Importance of Nutrition Science in China
Many human diseases are directly related to improper nutrition and lack of exercise, such as obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease, tumor and so on. Therefore, it will be one of the core contents of nutrition to systematically study and understand the interaction between nutrients and human body, its organs, tissues, cells and various biomolecules. The complexity of studying the interaction between nutrition and organism is much higher than that between drugs and organism, so it is the main direction of nutrition science to study the temporal and spatial changes of the interaction between nutrition and organism and its correlation with health and disease with the concepts and methods of system biology. The World Health Organization pointed out that medicine in the 2 1 century should not continue to pay attention to diseases, but to human health. Strengthening the public health system and the construction of preventive medicine is an important task for the transformation of medical model in China and the world.
In recent ten years, the dietary and nutritional status of China residents has improved obviously, but nationwide, malnutrition (mainly micronutrient deficiency, such as iron, calcium, zinc, vitamin A, vitamin D and folic acid) is still outstanding, especially in rural areas and poverty-stricken areas. In addition to the lack of nutrition, the imbalance of nutritional structure in China is very serious. With the change of food structure from "sufficient food" to "affluent food", the intake of high-calorie and high-fat diet in urban population increases and the physical activity decreases, which leads to the aggravation of obesity and other problems year by year, and the prevalence of related chronic degenerative diseases (obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, etc.). ) has also risen rapidly. Generally speaking, the nutrition of China residents is facing the dual challenges of nutritional deficiency and unbalanced nutritional structure.
In the special speech "The dietitian system in China should be in line with international standards", the international dietitian alliance, the international standards of dietitian occupation, and the dietitian systems in relevant countries and regions were introduced. China's disease spectrum, medical model and lifestyle are undergoing major changes. Both outpatients and inpatients need correct and effective medical nutrition treatment. The work of dietitians should cover all aspects of medical care and people's healthy life, but at present, our country pays insufficient attention to the professional role of dietitians. For a long time, there have been problems in China's nutritionist training and education system and registered nutritionist certification system, and the number and professional level of nutritionists need to be improved urgently.
Experts attending the meeting generally believe that in recent years, the state has paid more and more attention to the important role of nutrition science in improving people's health level, and the investment in nutrition science research has also increased accordingly, but it still lags behind the development of national economy and the huge demand of the state for population and health. Because the genetic background and dietary structure of China residents are different from those in the west, the existing nutritional health data abroad may not be applicable to China, and there is a lack of nutritional health data and standards for China population. Relevant state departments should attach importance to and increase investment in nutrition science research, establish a nutrition and health database of China residents as soon as possible, and accumulate basic data of national health.
Two. Nutrition and health
The Paris Declaration published at the end of the 20th century pointed out: "A good doctor should be a doctor who keeps people from getting sick, not a doctor who can cure people". Medicine is not only a science about diseases, but also a science about health. Only medicine with the primary purpose of "preventing diseases and promoting health" is "affordable and thus sustainable medicine", which coincides with the idea of "preventing diseases at work" of China's sages. The medicine of "preventing diseases" is a "healthy science". It needs the integration of natural science and humanities. The advantages of traditional Chinese medicine in intervention and prevention of various diseases have been widely recognized and spread. It is of great practical significance and application value to advocate, explore and carry forward the nutritional thought and health-preserving viewpoint of traditional Chinese medicine and popularize simple and feasible dual-purpose prescriptions for maintaining national health in daily life.
The nutritional status of young children is closely related to the social and economic development of a country. The low nutritional status of children causes invisible potential losses, and unconsciously loses their abilities and wealth, which is not only related to personal happiness and achievements, but also related to the development of the country's overall human resources. Human brain development and mental development begin at the beginning of life. When nutrients are lacking, the brain develops slowly, and early malnutrition is of fundamental significance to the intellectual development of life. Fetal malnutrition will lead to low birth weight and changes in organ structure and function during intrauterine development, which means that the risk of chronic diseases in adults increases. Insufficient height in childhood will also lead to an increase in the incidence and mortality of coronary heart disease and hypertension in adulthood. Therefore, scientists call the age of 9-24 months a "window of opportunity" for nutritional security. Give good nutrition in a short time, with less investment, but the highest return.
The special lecture "Nutrition is the Material Basis of Quality Education for Students" specifically analyzes the dietary nutrition status of primary and secondary school students in China in recent 20 years. On the one hand, the overweight and obesity rate of urban students has increased by three times, and chronic diseases have appeared among overweight and obese children. On the other hand, rural students' dietary nutrition intake is insufficient, and micronutrient deficiency is more common, especially for boarding students in poverty-stricken areas in the west. Education and health are the two cornerstones of human capital development, and nutrition is the material foundation, which needs government attention, multi-sectoral cooperation and nutrition policy legislation.
Nutrition and Development, Health and Disease in Early Life introduces the thrifty genotype hypothesis, thrifty phenotype hypothesis and Doherty theory in recent years, and points out that these hypotheses and theories put forward new ideas and research directions for nutrition science, especially the mechanism of how environmental factors interact with genetic factors in early life development, leading to metabolic diseases, and how to implement effective nutrition intervention in the future.
In the discussion, it is considered that the problem of infant nutrition should be combined with the family planning policy of prenatal and postnatal care, paying special attention to pregnant women and strengthening the intervention and guidance of infant nutrition in order to improve the population quality and national quality of our country. It is hoped that the relationship between maternal nutrition and child development during pregnancy can be studied by means of gene and system biology.
Three. nutrition and disease
Studies at home and abroad have confirmed that environmental factors play a decisive role in the occurrence and development of chronic metabolic diseases, and intervention by changing diet and lifestyle is the most effective method to prevent chronic metabolic diseases at present. In a large-scale prospective nutritional epidemiological study, the interaction between genetic and environmental factors and the regulation mechanism of the occurrence and development of chronic metabolic diseases were systematically studied, which laid the foundation for establishing early diagnosis biomarkers and effective intervention strategies suitable for the genetic and phenotypic characteristics of China population. It is of great significance for controlling the further spread of chronic metabolic diseases in China to study the nutritional needs that meet the genetic and metabolic phenotypic characteristics of China people, formulate nutritional intervention strategies that meet the genetic background and eating habits of China people, develop and establish biomarkers that are more sensitive than traditional methods for early diagnosis, and find high-risk groups and individuals in the clinical reversible stage and intervene.
Major chronic metabolic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, malignant tumors and Alzheimer's disease are closely related to overnutrition and metabolic disorder. How to deeply understand the biological basis of the occurrence and development of metabolic diseases from the perspective of nutrition-induced signal regulation, and then implement effective intervention measures to curb the rapid spread of these major chronic diseases has become a huge challenge in the field of nutrition and health.
The special lecture "Diet, Nutrition, Lifestyle and Cancer Prevention" quoted 10 cancer prevention suggestions mentioned in the report "Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Cancer Prevention" issued by the International Cancer Foundation, indicating that cancer can be prevented through a healthy lifestyle. A large-scale prospective study should be conducted to study the dose-effect relationship between dietary/nutritional factors (such as red meat, vegetables and fruits) and cancer occurrence, and to study the interaction between dietary/nutritional factors and gene polymorphism; Carry out intervention research-establish biomarkers that can reflect cancer risk. Cancer has posed a serious threat to our national health, and the occurrence and development of cancer is closely related to nutritional deficiency and excess.
IV. * * * Knowledge and Suggestions
Through full exchanges and discussions, the participating experts agreed that:
(1) The development of modern science has given nutrition science a new definition, which is organically integrated.
Life science, sociology, environmental science, the real significance of developing nutrition science lies in comprehensively improving and promoting national health and the prevention and treatment of major diseases. The improvement of nutrition science research level is closely related to the progress of medical model in China, the guarantee of sustainable economic development in China and the overall improvement of national health level.
(two) the development of nutrition science with China characteristics, should integrate the national nutrition science field.
Advantage strength, combining modern life science and technology with epidemiology and traditional nutrition, adopting biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology, as well as emerging life science and technology methods such as genomics, protein genomics and metabonomics. , to carry out multi-level research on molecules, cells, animals and people, to carry out large-scale prospective cohort studies and multi-center intervention studies, and to form a population = >; Basic research => Clinical research = > Population research system, and pay attention to the application of modern scientific and technological means such as nutritional metabonomics and biomarkers in large-scale cohort research and intervention research.
(3) Pay attention to the hot issues in the field of international nutrition science and explore the new development of nutrition science.
Direction and new ideas, according to the reality of China, put forward innovative and important scientific issues in line with China's national conditions.
(d) As an infrastructure for scientific research on nutrition, a national nutrition supervision institution should be established.
Measurement system, regularly collect China residents' diet, nutrition, health and other information, form a * * * database, serve scientific research and disease prevention, and provide timely and convincing information for the country to formulate relevant policies.
(5) Pay attention to the nutrition and development of early children and strengthen the nutrition problems of children and adolescents.
Prevention work pays special attention to and solves the nutritional problems of infants in rural poverty-stricken areas from the aspects of popularization and application mode, long-term effect and economic evaluation.
(six) to strengthen the construction of professional nutritionists, so that the dietitian system in China is in line with international standards.
Quasi-integration. Pay attention to clinical nutrition work and the training of clinical nutritionists, strengthen the research on clinical nutrition support, and establish and improve relevant laws and regulations on clinical nutrition.
(seven) the state should further strengthen the overall support for the development of nutrition science, and formulate the national
Nutrition improvement regulations and other nutrition legislation will increase the support of the national science plan for the sustainability of nutrition science research, ensure the development of nutrition science in China, and continuously improve the health quality of people in China.