Thanks to a recent major alumni gift from the Esperance Family Foundation, the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Connecticut is planning to expand research on functional foods, a rapidly growing movement to improve the health of millions through diet and wellness.
Functional foods are foods or components of foods that may convey health benefits beyond basic nutrition. Examples are a variety of antioxidents from fruits and vegetables and other bioactive compounds in whole grains and legumes, which may prevent or delay onset of coronary heart disease, diabetes and cancer. The phrase ‘functional food’ was first introduced in Japan in the mid-1980s and is now a nearly $30 billion annual market in the U.S. alone. Some projections indicate the market will double in the next three years.
In March 2006, the Department of Nutrition invited Dr. Roger S. Newton (’74 MS Nutrition) and his wife Coco Newton, MPH, RD, CCN (Registered Dietitian and Certified Clinical Nutritionist) to participate in a series of meetings and presentations on functional foods. Attracting a diverse audience of academic disciplines across the University community, the presentations revealed many common interests and aspirations in the areas of functional foods.
The Newtons were particularly heartened by discussions between departments that have identified new ways of working more closely together, such as Kinesiology and Nutritional Sciences. Other topics presented by faculty and graduate students related to the roles of specific plant compounds known as phytonutrients in the prevention and modulation of disease.
Mrs. Newton was the featured speaker, presenting “Nutrition is Functional Medicine.” She outlined an emerging medical system model within which the application of functional foods in clinical medicine can benefit outcomes. Functional Medicine is making inroads in clinical practice among physicians and other health care providers who understand that biochemical individuality and a patient-centered approach is more curative than a disease-centered approach.
A functional medicine approach uses biochemical testing and therapeutic utilization of diet and specific nutrients, herbs, enzymes, medical foods, and other supplements to modulate metabolism. Nutrigenomics is the science that studies the influence that specific food nutrients/molecules have on genetic expression and the influence on chronic disease. Nutrition therapy is shifting towards a gene based and personalized approach, thus functional medicine and functional foods research is pioneering the discovery and clinical application of nutrient-gene associations.
“Our conventional medical system today doesn’t really take nutrition seriously, but instead regards it as ancillary to the primary treatment with pharmaceuticals,” Mrs. Newton says. “Similarly, we are limited by the conventional dietetics approach, which focuses more on diets for disease states, rather than an individual’s nutritional biochemistry. What we need is a system that uses nutrition as a ‘cornerstone’ to medicine that gets at underlying causes and dysfunctions in metabolism, not just the suppression of symptoms. Functional foods research and therapeutic applications play a vital role in the future of medicine.”
For his part, Dr. Newton credits a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry in part to the mentoring of two UConn professors in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, the late Robert Jensen and Hamilton D. Eaton. He has never forgotten his “nutrition roots” and believes that functional medicine and functional foods research and application are important solutions for much of what is lacking in today’s health care system.
Dr. and Mrs. Newton believe that UConn can be a pioneer in the area of functional foods research through the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. They envision specific classes and programs in functional foods and functional medicine created by the University, in collaboration with other organizations such as the Institute for Functional Medicine.
A major boost to these ambitions may be announced in September, when a decision will likely be made about a $2 million proposal before the U.S. Department of Agriculture to establish a Functional Foods Center at UConn. The Center’s goal will be to prevent and reduce the risk of chronic disease and obesity-related metabolic disorders in children and adults through research, education and extension/outreach.
“I am excited about the possibility of establishing such as a comprehensive center at UConn partnering with the federal government, academia, and industry,” says Dr. Sung Koo, Professor and Head of the Department of Nutritional Sciences. “I personally am grateful to Dr. and Mrs. Newton for their encouragement, support, and vision for the proposed center.”
Participants are expected to include the Departments of Nutritional Sciences, Animal Science, Plant Science, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Kinesiology at UConn, the UConn Cooperative Extension System, the Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station, as well as private industry, the UConn Health Center, the National Institutes of Health, the Connecticut Small Business Development Center and other key stakeholders.
