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The Future of Food | Professor Christine Loscher | TEDxDCU


Translator: Tarek Khouzam Checker: Ayman Mahmoud
Ladies and gentlemen, Good evening.
There is an old saying, older than everyone
And in this room tonight. He says, “You will be eating it.”
The history of the saying dates back to 1826 in France,
The first English-language statement on the subject was published in 1923,
Nearly a century ago.
We know that we are what we eat, and understand this well,
We watch television programs that talk about this all the time.
But what are we actually doing about it?
Right now, the food we eat today is our choice.
We choose the food we put in our shopping carts.
So many of us continue to fill their shopping carts
By the food we are fully aware of how bad it is for us.
Does this have consequences?
Yes, I will talk about this day.
But what if I ask you this question:
Will be our choices for food
Which we place in our shopping carts cause a reduction or even
Get rid of the choices we have about the quality of our food in the future?
In order to answer this question
We need to look at what happened to our food,
We need to look at what happened to our choices in food,
Then we need to look at what happened to us.
When was the last time you visited the mall?
Types of foods can be enormous for some,
But shopping experience this century is different
About the previous century?
If we look at this picture, where we see people shopping in 1950
Shopping now, we may say that there is no big difference.
But if we looked elsewhere and looked at some products
Which was bought by people in 1950,
Of staple commodities such as eggs, yogurt, cheese,
Who rely heavily on dairy industries,
We may say, “Well, these are the same things we buy these days from shopping malls.”
But if we look hard, we will find that today there are choices in shopping malls,
We could not have imagined it a century ago.
We have fortified foods with increased vitamins.
We have omega-3 fatty foods.
We have foods with cholesterol-lowering properties,
We even have food filled with bacteria and nutritional supplements.
We could not have imagined this century before.
These are our foods, these are the food function,
These are the foods that give you health,
And nutritional value that exceeds its nutritional value without treatment.
Other foods have spread throughout the last century,
Age of processed foods.
If we look at these foods,
We will see, almost every week in shopping malls,
There are new foods manufactured on shelves.
What is the difference between these foods?
How did these foods change?
Well, one of the major changes that have occurred to these foods,
What I call the “trans fat revolution”
Trans fats are processed when the oil passes,
During the hydrogenation process,
The oils are transformed from liquid to solid state.
This is best for processed food.
This gives the food shape, texture, taste,
So that this prolongs the validity of food.
Their cost is also cheap.
These ingredients are dreamed by every food maker.
But let’s see what happens to trans fats during the last century.
1911 was the first year in which trans fats were sold to consumers.
We will skip two decades,
We look at an event of importance in 1943
About Trans fats: World War II
There was a need for glycerin to make explosives.
The glycerin is made from fat.
The butter is basically fat.
The US government asks its people to support the army
Not to eat butter, and as an alternative, eat trans fats.
Therefore, trans fat sales have exceeded expectations in this decade.
Because it was a cheaper alternative, people continued to buy it
Even after the end of the war.
For decades, nutrition experts have acknowledged
That these trans fats are really very useful for health.
Experts began to classify saturated fat and animal fats as diabolical products
If you look at the cover of Time Magazine for 1984,
You will see that animal fat and saturated fat are meshed.
Decades after the adoption of trans fats
Much in the food chain,
We find that trans fats are becoming a guel in the world of nutrition.
Scientific research has stated that “trans fats are very harmful to your health”
This scientific research became very convincing during the following decades,
So much so that in 2015
The FDA has issued a decision to ban trans fat,
So much so that they were given to food manufacturers everywhere
A three-year timeout to prevent trans fat in their products
What happened during the following years?
We have been told that animal fats and saturated fats are harmful to us.
There was dawn a few fat era.
Food makers in Besser have started with the mainstream
And began to make all their products low fat.
Now, we know that fat has a good taste.
And we eat it for this reason.
So why, when we remove all the fat from our food,
Does not taste like a carton?
Well, if we look at the labels on food preserves,
You will see, yes, the content of saturated fat is very little,
But look what happened to sugar.
In order to preserve the taste of these foods
Food manufacturers have put large amounts of sugar in their products
Now we know that sugar is the bad new ingredient.
We have changed the amount of fat we eat,
We changed the types of fat we eat,
But what happened to us as we did so?
Most of you have seen such a picture before:
It describes human evolution through time.
Millions of years have passed since the evolution of this timetable.
But look at what happened in the last century,
As a result of changing our diet.
We have pushed this schedule further.
When we were in the age of thinking about the kind of fat we eat
We were thinking about doing the right thing by changing its type,
What Happened to Obesity?
The trend to reduce fat began in the 1970s,
The level of obesity increased significantly in the following decades,
In parallel with,
A very high rise in the incidence of chronic diseases, worldwide
It is expected to continue this course for decades to come.
The chronic diseases I am talking about are diabetes,
Cardiovascular diseases, cancer, inflammatory diseases,
Neurological diseases are all increasing
And frightening statistics that about 50% of the world’s population
Now suffer from one of these diseases.
Does this happen to adults?
What about future generations?
What do our children eat?
What is life expectancy?
This is a scary illustration.
I will refer to one statistical information on it.
That in the United States, in the previous decade alone,
The rate of diabetes in children increased by 23%.
Food and lifestyle choices are among the causes of diabetes in children.
These children do not choose their food.
But their fathers are the ones who choose for them to eat.
What is the life expectancy of these children
When their lives begin with this state of health?
What quality of life do we expect for these children?
This is unique, my grandmother.
She lived for 101 years without chronic diseases.
This was largely based on her choice of lifestyle,
And the foods you ate.
Can these children aspire to life as a unique life
And get a good life?
You may say after looking at health statistics,
The answer is no.
But the real question is, can we change their fate?
When we changed the foods we eat,
He had a great impact on our health,
Now 50 percent of the world’s population lives with chronic diseases.
Therefore, it is clear that food has a big impact.
Now, food is not the only factor that affects our health.
Our way of life, the place we live in this world,
Of course, our genetic genes,
But the difference is that we choose our food.
Why do I care?
I’m a immunologist. Study the immune system.
What did this enter into fat and chronic diseases?
Well, it has turned out to be a great income.
So I care. It’s fire
All the fat that I was talking about
Then the ability to set fire to your immune system
The process of “infection”
Now, inflammation really is good
When bacteria or viruses attack our bodies
But, the way your body perceives bacteria and viruses
Is the same as your body’s perception of fat
Which you place inside your body
So, when we eat fat,
It activates your immune system to ignite this fire,
The inflammation begins and continues
So, why is it a problem?
Why do we care so much about inflammation?
Does this all mean “chronic diseases” that I continue to mention?
Well, we know that inflammation is, basically
It is the engine of all these diseases.
When inflammation begins,
You will be exposed to the growth of cancer,
Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and a large number of other diseases
What we need is to make sure
We find ways to extinguish this fire
And make sure that we do not have an out-of-control infection
This is our real chance to be able to try
Change the font in the graph,
We try to change the course of chronic disease.
And make the graph like this.
So, this is bad news.
Many bad news about fat,
Bad news about chronic diseases, has reached epidemiological dimensions,
So, I hear you asking, “Will you tell us good news?”
The short answer is “yes”
So, scientific research told us that
Trans fats are very harmful to our health.
And they are harmful.
But the same scientific research shows us
What is useful for our health in our food products.
Here began the era of good fats.
Finally, we have kinds of useful fats,
We could have heard about Omega 3.
Once again, food makers went to the mainstream
In strengthening their products in Omega 3.
What’s great at Omega 3?
These are also fats that are distinguished by your immune system.
But the difference is that these fats do not ignite the fire of inflammation,
It extinguishes this fire
It is anti-inflammatory
Therefore, it gives us the possibility to control this inflammation,
To enable us to try to reduce and prevent risk
Of these chronic diseases.
This is part of the functional food family that I spoke about initially
We’ve all heard about these functional foods,
We watch TV ads all the time telling us,
“It is useful for your heart, for the safety of your brain,
It is beneficial for its intestinal peace “
These foods are functional
It was a revelation to all food makers everywhere,
Because they showed that science sells.
When you have a food product,
And you have scientific evidence that it is beneficial to health,
There will be a big market for it.
Of course, the functional food market has become very large over the past decade,
It is expected to grow doubly in the coming decades.
But science also looked at natural foods.
What happened to other foods
Which can prevent inflammation?
We know that there are a large number of anti-inflammatory foods
Which, by consumption, can be distinguished
By your immune system and prevent inflammation
Thus reducing the incidence of chronic diseases.
There is real power in food. But did we not know this in advance?
Well, Hippocrates knew
In 431 BC, he said,
“To make food is medicine, medicine is food”
This was long before a research know-how,
And even before technology can prove
That, in fact, is often true.
So, what does the future look like?
If you browse the Internet and look at shopping
In the future, you’ll find pictures like this:
The existence of displays on food boxes in a nice way and carefully
Showing all imaginable information
You may want it for this food.
Its source, its growth method,
Nutritional value, its utility to health,
How and when you should eat,
This is the future shopping.
So some web pages suggest
We will have car shopping centers
Where we can shop without leaving your cars.
But what will happen when we walk around shopping malls in the future,
If functional foods give us a possibility
Control our health?
The corridors where we now walk in the shopping center,
What would it look like?
When you go to the shopping center now,
You’ll find corridors that mostly did not exist for ten years
Gluten Free, Organic, Whole Foods.
There are corridors of different kinds of foods that we have not seen before.
So, what will be our future shopping experience,
What if food is broken
Each according to the health benefit it contains?
Can we find a conduit of foods
Good for the heart?
Or improve metabolism, improve brain health,
And many other things?
Is this possible?
Will we be free to choose foods?
Which we think gives us health?
But wait,
Do not we have this freedom in advance?
Do not we know what food is useful to us?
However, chronic diseases have reached epidemic rates.
What do we actually do with our choice of food?
Now, the development that occurs for our food
And the future of our shopping,
It will not happen in isolation.
Will happen amidst a global challenge to what we are facing now.
One is aging
All the world’s population is aging.
If we look at statistics in Ireland alone, we will find that in 2050,
There will be 1.4 million citizens over age 65.
As age progresses
The increase in chronic diseases.
And what can also happen and grow during the next century
In parallel with this?
Well, there will be great technological progress.
We have seen what has happened over the last 100 years
We are using technology now in a way that we have not seen in 100 years.
So, what will be the form of technology in the future?
We started to wear Vittbit devices,
People have begun to pay attention to their health
We have technology to measure and follow our health,
And give us some information and feedback.
There is a possibility in the future
To have the technology we wear,
You will be able to detect every aspect of our health,
In real time, and every day.
We will see the effect of things
Which we do daily, and the food we eat daily
On our health.
This will generate a large amount of data.
So who can be interested in all this data?
You may think that a company that your health insurer follows may be interested.
You may think that this data is useful for your treating physicians,
This may help them determine the type of medical care you should receive.
But chronic diseases make medical care prohibitively expensive.
Health care systems spend more than 80% of their budget
On people with chronic diseases.
The situation is not sustainable.
Insurance companies remember
They spend three of every four dollars
On people with chronic diseases.
She says this will not be sustainable.
So, what will happen to our medical insurance?
Well, but we have a system,
It is possible that your economic situation determines access to health care
Fast access to health care,
And of course, how well your health care is.
What if your health condition adds more to this in the future?
What if we could see the kind of danger that is
Leads to the growth of chronic disease?
And what if the insurance company puts this as a factor in its accounts?
What if the burden is on us
To take responsibility for managing this risk,
To make sure we do everything we can
To make sure that this disease will not affect us?
What if he refused to do this
Choosing bad food and choosing a bad lifestyle makes you uninsured?
Risk is everything.
[What will happen to health insurance]
What did the insurance sectors do about this risk?
Let’s look at the auto insurance sector.
Car insurance companies provide technological means
Put it in your car,
You monitor your performance and your leadership.
In the same way, insurers can be able to monitor your health
On a daily basis
Here, the information you get
Show them how careful you are and how you are a good car leader
The more careful you are, the less risk you will have,
The lower your premiums, the more you are entitled to insurance.
What if insurance companies did the same thing in the future?
What if all the information we generate
Using all future health devices,
You will provide them with information
And how to change our health on a daily basis,
And what effect you do every day
Your health?
What if they could get this data,
What if their access to these data is compulsory,
To avoid a complete collapse of the health care sector?
What if all national health insurance companies,
Have all our health-care systems taken the same approach?
They can use this data,
They are developing a complex arithmetic system,
They can expect the risk of being chronically ill.
But more importantly, which concerns us here,
It is possible to impose a kind of strategy
Which can be followed
To manage and reduce the risk of disease.
A large part of this will be related to your food,
Because we know how the food you eat
Affects your health and determines the risk of infection.
So, is it our commitment to eating a particular one that enables us to manage risk,
Will this enable us to access health care services?
the question is:
Who will choose food for you in the future?
Will insurance companies require you to eat what you eat,
Food will not become a choice, but a way of life,
To meet the criteria
Are you sure you have access to health care services?
Is it very possible?
Is this possible to happen?
Can we avoid this?
Well, the answer is “yes”
Next time when you go to the mall
Think about what you’re putting in your shopping cart.
And ask yourself:
“Are the foods I choose and put them in the shopping cart,
My children will be affected in the future
So that they will not be able to choose what to do?
A thank you
(clap)
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