Kursinformation

Nutrition & Biomedicine | School of Life Sciences | Technical University of Munich WS 25/26

A Google Earth Perspective on Nutrition, Health & Sustainability

Martin Kussmann ^1,2

¹Kompetenzzentrum für Ernährung (KErn), Bayerische Landesanstalt für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und Forsten (LfL); Freising, Germany
²Kussmann Biotech GmbH; Nordkirchen, Germany

The two major challenges to be met for preserving a healthy human life on a healthy planet are sustainable generation und use of energy and food. My lecture will focus on the critical need and emerging solutions for a sustainable food system, thereby building a viable and healthy future for both humanity and the planet.

As we navigate the Anthropocene, humanity faces enormous environmental challenges. Our population is projected to reach 10 billion by the end of this century, places significant stress on climate, land, water and biodiversity. These issues call for an overhaul and upgrade of our agricultural, food and healthcare system, to render them more resilient. Fortunately, we are armed with an unprecedented array of knowledge, technologies, and tools. The converging revolutions in biotechnology, information science and artificial intelligence present substantial opportunities.

Nutrition occupies a pivotal role at the intersection of human health, animal welfare, and environmental sustainability. It encompasses: the management of global food supplies to sustainably meet population demands; the advancement of personalized and precision nutrition to optimize individual health outcomes; and the exploration of bioactive compounds in natural plants and food sources. The objectives of modern nutritional science are to support human health and wellbeing, contribute to disease prevention, and extend the health span concomitant with increasing life expectancies.  Concurrently, nutrition must be practiced with an acute awareness of sustainable resource utilization, aiming to mitigate lasting detrimental effects on the environment and climate.

To meet these seemingly overwhelming and partly competing challenges of our era, nutrition science is progressing toward a systems-based, translational approach. This (r)evolution requires the development of sustainable food systems, a healthcare system that balances efficiency with affordability, and the creation of nutritional and dietary plans customized for diverse consumer and patient needs and demographics. Achieving a sustainable food system necessitates a greater reliance on plant-based sources for essential macro- and micronutrients as well as phytochemicals. An efficient and cost-effective healthcare system should integrate comprehensive nutritional strategies – encompassing general, medical, and clinical nutrition - to augment and complement pharmaceutical interventions. Personalized nutrition, moreover, depends on translational research that incorporates detailed phenotyping of participants to ensure the representation of various population segments.

Under this scope, I will update you on the state-of-the-art of the aforementioned scientific disciplines and review a collection of (partly own) scientific work that addresses the interconnected streams of sustainable nutrition and healthcare, as well as the advancement of nutrition as a translational science. These contributions utilize systems biology and data science to elucidate physiological processes, thereby reinforcing the conceptual framework of nutrition as a systems science. Additionally, this body of work will highlight how integrating indigenous knowledge with contemporary scientific approaches can offer innovative solutions to current food system challenges.