Ensayo sobre salud, nutrición y gastronomía

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Abstract

Resumen Avances científicos, tecnológicos y médicos o nuevos modelos de organización social y política han sido el centro de las conjeturas de las temáticas de ciencia ficción, en las que la comida aparecía como un tema tangencial, pero siempre presente. La mayoría de las experiencias trascendentales de nuestra vida activan el circuito del placer. En las sociedades occidentales, la elección de la comida ha dejado de ser una cuestión de supervivencia para convertirse en algo relacionado con el placer sensorial y, en ocasiones, con el placer intelectual. Actualmente existe una nebulosa de alimentos a los que se les añade, quita, sustituye, concentra o aumenta la biodisponibilidad de algunos componentes con el objetivo de diseñar un alimento funcional. También han aparecido los mal llamados "superalimentos". ¿Cómo abastecer de alimento a una población creciente con una disponibilidad del suelo menguante? La fuente de proteína para la alimentación es otro de los caballos de batalla para el futuro: cualquiera de ellas está directa o indirectamente relacionada con la explotación del suelo. La interacción entre ciencia, tecnología y cocina hace que nuevas técnicas de conservación, más allá de obtener productos seguros, permitan conocer la manera en que estas tecnologías modifican la textura de los alimentos y que puedan pensarse nuevas soluciones para los consumidores que aúnen calidad organoléptica y nutricional con innovación.

Translated abstract

Abstract Scientific, technological and medical research, or new models of social and political organization have been at the center of fiction themes, with food appearing as a tangential theme but always present. Most of the transcendental experiences of life activate the circuit of pleasure. In Western societies food choice is not a matter of survival to become something related to sensorial pleasure and, sometimes, intellectual pleasure. Currently there is a nebula of food, functional foods, to which components are added, removed, replaced, concentrated or the bioavailability of some components is increased. Along those, the so-called "superfoods" have emerged. How to supply food to a growing population with a dwindling soil availability? The source of food protein is another issue for the future; any of them is directly or indirectly related to land exploitation. The interaction between science, technology and cuisine makes new preservation techniques, beyond obtaining safe products, to get insight into the way in which these technologies modify the texture of food and that can be thought of in new solutions for consumers that combine organoleptic and nutritional quality with innovation.

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Most cited references 7

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Functional food science and defence against reactive oxidative species.

Kelly Rice, K-W Stahl, F Kok … (1998)

This paper assesses critically the science base that underpins the argument that oxidative damage is a significant causative factor in the development of human diseases and that antioxidants are capable of preventing or ameliorating these disease processes. The assessment has been carried out under a number of headings, and some recommendations for future research are made based on the present day knowledge base. The knowledge database (1) Consideration of the basic science that underlies understanding of the role of free radicals in causing cellular pathologies, and the role of antioxidants in preventing this, shows that an imbalance of reactive oxygen species and antioxidant defence systems may lead to chemical modifications of biologically relevant macromolecules. This imbalance provides a logical pathobiochemical mechanism for the initiation and development of several disease states. Experimental data obtained in vivo provide evidence that antioxidants function in systems that scavenge reactive oxygen species and that these are relevant to what occurs in vivo. The relevance in vivo of these observations depends inter alia on knowledge of the uptake and distribution of the antioxidant within the human body, and on what tissue levels of the antioxidant may be expected in relation to dietary levels. (2) There is some way to go until validated precise methods are available for measuring biomarkers of oxidative damage in human subjects in vivo under minimally invasive conditions. With respect to oxidative damage in DNa, HPLC and GC-mass spectrophotometry methods have both merits and limitations. Lipid oxidation products in plasma are best measured as isoprostanes or as lipid hydroperoxides using specific HPLC techniques. Development of isoprostane measurement will advance specificity and precision. The measurement of oxidative damage to proteins has some potential but such methods have not been effectively exploited. (3) Epidemiological studies support the hypothesis that the major antioxidant nutrients vitamin E and vitamin C, and beta-carotene (which may or may not be acting as an antioxidant in vivo), may play a beneficial role in prevention of several chronic disorders. More research is needed on the impact of other non-nutrient compounds, such as other carotenoids and flavonoids, on human health. In general, human intervention studies using hard end-points are the gold standard. Trials are restricted mainly to the major antioxidants and do not allow firm conclusions because of inconsistent findings, an insufficient number of studies and the use of varying doses. There is evidence that large doses of beta-carotene may be deleterious to the health of certain subgroups of the population such as heavy habitual smokers. (4) With respect to the safety of administration of supplementary vitamins, vitamin C is safe at levels of supplementation up to 600 mg/d, and higher levels, up to 2000 mg/d, are without risk. Vitamin E has a very low human toxicity and an intake of 1000 mg/d is without risk; 3200 mg/d has been shown to be without any consistent risk. Large intakes of beta-carotene must be viewed with caution because they have been shown to confer detriment to a population at high risk of lung cancer when administered after many years of high risk (smoking) behaviour. Until further work clarifies the situation in heavy smokers with respect to taking supplements, larger doses should be avoided by such individuals. There is little reliable information about the human toxicology of flavonoids and related non-nutrient antioxidant constituents of the diet. (5) The food industry has long experience in the control of oxidative damage in foods and this experience can be used to advantage for the protection of food antioxidants which are beneficial. Some of these, such as vitamins C and E and beta-carotene, are well known, and strategies for their protection in foods are already exploited by food technologies. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)

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An alternative animal protein source: cultured beef.

Mark Post (2014)

Alternative sources of animal proteins are needed that can be produced efficiently, thereby providing food security with diminished ecological burden. It is feasible to culture beef from bovine skeletal muscle stem cells, but the technology is still under development. The aim is to create a beef mimic with equivalent taste, texture, and appearance and with the same nutritional value as livestock-produced beef. More specifically, there is a need for optimization of protein content and fat content. In addition, scalability of production requires modification of current small-scale bioreactors to the largest possible scale. The necessary steps and current progress suggest that this aim is achievable, but formal evidence is still required. Similarly, we can be optimistic about consumer acceptance based on initial data, but detailed studies are needed to gain more insight into potential psychological obstacles that could lead to rejection. These challenges are formidable but likely surmountable. The severity of upcoming food-security threats warrants serious research and development efforts to address the challenges that come with bringing cultured beef to the market.