In a paper published online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition this week, Wageningen University's Michiel Korthals proposes changes to nutrigenomics research policy such that it fosters "a research partnership with society on the basis of fair representation," he says. Korthals suggests that three normative concepts of nutrigenomics research — that food is interpreted exclusively in terms of disease prevention, that health is quantified "through positive food-gene interactions," and that "disease prevention by the minimization of risks is an individual's task" — do not mesh well with the nutritional habits and cultural beliefs of some societies. Further, he adds, this "nonsynchronized coevolution of nutrigenomics and society" that he has observed highlights "the concept of the fair representation of food styles in nutrigenomic developments."
HT: Michael Müller (@nutrigenomics)