The Wageningen Nutritional Sciences Forum 2009 was organized on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the Division of Human Nutrition of Wageningen University. Since its inception in 1969, the Division has grown into one of the largest global academic training sites in nutritional science. The Division deserves credit for several major advancements in the field of nutritional science and has been well recognized for its vision, ambition and tradition of excellence. During the symposium with the title of ‘Too Much, Too Little: The Future of Nutritional Science’, which was organized in Burger's Zoo in Arnhem, The Netherlands, several prominent leaders in nutrition from around the world presented their perspective on a number of key issues facing the field of nutritional science today.
The symposium started off with a presentation by Dr Mike Gibney from University College Dublin on ‘Too Much: Nutrition in Abundance’ in a session that addressed today's challenges in nutrition. When talking about nutrition in abundance, it is evident that the major problem at stake is the growing prevalence of obesity and the projected increase in obesity-related morbidities. Dr Gibney called on nutritional scientists to come to terms with the notion that genetics plays a dominant role in explaining why some individuals end up obese, whereas others do not. One major problem that the field of nutrition has encountered in studying obesity is the underreporting of food consumption. In his view, there is no greater intellectual and scholarly challenge than underreporting, which has undermined the conclusions of too large a number of studies. A possible solution may lie in switching from a more classical reductionistic approach, focusing on individual nutrients, toward the study of food and meal patterns. Dr Gibney's final plea was toward the study of biomarkers representing metabolomic profiles, primarily from urine.
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