Nutrition for a Better Life

In Nutrition for a Better Life, one of the food industry's leading experts takes a factual look into the past and future of food and nutrition. Former Nestlé CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe shows that while in the past forty years convenience was the selling point for many industrially produced foods, consumers have now come to demand specifically healthy products. Going forward, it is health that will drive innovation in the industry. Using cutting-edge technology and scientifically based nutrition standards, the food industry will play a decisive role in improving the wellbeing of entire population groups, offering effective and cost-saving personalized diets that will both prevent and administer to the acute and chronic diseases of the twenty-first century.

Contents
Foreword 9
Introduction 15
The future of food-personalized, science-based, resources efficient, caring 19
Chapter 1:
On the way to nutrition of the future 21
Global megatrends on the consumer side 22
The tasks of the new food science 33
Life Sciences-A new dimension of science as a solution 35
Chapter 2:
From the beginnings of industrial food production to today 43
When the specter of hunger dominated the world 44
With industrialization came prosperity 47
What has changed since the baby boomer period 65
The international food industry 72
The development of research from its beginnings to nutrigenomics 76
Chapter 3:
How can a growing world population stay healthy and live longer? 85
Societal changes affect the global food industry 87
Food to stay healthy and fit 93
How the global food industry is structured 101
Chapter 4:
Life Sciences and the revolution of biology, nutrition and health 109
The mission statement-A personalized diet for different population groups 109
Understanding how the body really works 111
Living a long and healthy life as a research target 125
Chapter 5:
The responsibility of the food industry 129
The consumer is the focus from the very beginning 129
The growing market for specialty and wellness food 131
Nutrition as therapy 139
Solutions for certain life situations and risk groups 140
Chapter 6:
The responsibility of policy 143
Preventive health systems as part of global health 145
Ensuring fair competition as a political task 147
Chapter 7:
The responsibility of each individual 149
What can we decide and what not? 149
Traditions, diet myths and ideological trends 154
How the social environment shapes our eating habits 160
The influence of diet on health 163
Chapter 8:
Milestones on the way to the future 175
What is conceivable, what is possible? 176
Appendix 181
Notes 189
Literature 199
Internet 211
Acknowledgements 217
Index 218