Professorial lecture asks: what makes food functional?

Jun 04, 2007

Food plays a much bigger role in the world than most realise. Not only is it essential to survival, but it is also implicated in chronic disease management, emerges in debates on economics and trade and is central to the culinary arts.

At the recent Professorial Lecture at the University of Wollongong last week(Wednesday 30 May), Professor Linda Tapsell from the National Centre of Excellence in Functional Foods, discussed the importance of food and its position in science, health, commerce and the arts in order to address the question -- what makes food functional?

Professor Tapsell discussed how modern science has enabled the 'mining' of its secrets to uncover a multitude of compounds with activity defined through carefully designed experiments. These compounds have been classified, and in some cases purified and commercialised.

"Supplements enabled consumption in higher doses to support nutritional adequacy," Professor Tapsell said.

"Today, however, we know a lot more about food itself. We know that food components interact with genes to turn on and off cascades of events that produce and sustain the human biological system.

"We are beginning to appreciate the food matrix, one that delivers compounds in functional groups designed to support the survival of the organism consumed as food, whether plant or animal. In many ways it is a prime example of the 'the more we know, the more we realise we don't know', but this makes the scientific challenges all the more engaging."

Professor Tapsell also discussed how moving from the microscope to the health of the population presents a different type of challenge. Translating knowledge from one level to another demands discipline and an appreciation of the rules of methodology that enable scientists, practitioners and the public to make sense of what each other is saying.

"On another scale, food can lie at the heart of economic development. It is important to the Australian economy, for example, and for our food companies to survive they need to produce food that is not only healthy but looks good and tastes great. And so we arrive at food and nutrition as art."

The 'Professorial Lecture Series' is an opportunity to hear about the research work and achievements of academic staff members who have either been promoted to Professorial level or are recent appointments to the University.

The next lecture will be presented by Professor Susan Dodds from the Faculty of Arts, entitled "Big Picture Bioethics: Public Reasoning and Values Contestations - How can democracies make legitimate policy on ethically contentious issues?"