Abstract
The Bellagio Report on Healthy agriculture, healthy nutrition, healthy people is the result of the meeting held at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Lake Como, Italy, 29 October–2 November 2012. The meeting was science-based but policy-oriented. The role and amount of healthy and unhealthy fats, with attention to the relative content of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, sugar, and particularly fructose in foods that may underlie the epidemics of non-communicable diseases (NCD’s) worldwide were extensively discussed. The report concludes that sugar consumption, especially in the form of high energy fructose in soft drinks, poses a major and insidious health threat, especially in children, and most diets, although with regional differences, are deficient in omega-3 fatty acids and too high in omega-6 fatty acids. Gene-nutrient interactions in growth and development and in disease prevention are fundamental to health, therefore regional Centers on Genetics, Nutrition and Fitness for Health should be established worldwide. Heads of state and government must elevate, as a matter of urgency, Nutrition as a national priority, that access to a healthy diet should be considered a human right and that the lead responsibility for Nutrition should be placed in Ministries of Health rather than agriculture so that the health requirements drive agricultural priorities, not vice versa . Nutritional security should be given the same priority as food security.
Highlights
The group’s broad, overall concerns were with human health, child health, with societal economics, and with planetary ecosystems
The role and amount of healthy and unhealthy fats, with attention to the relative content of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, sugar, and fructose in foods that may underlie the epidemics of non-communicable diseases (NCD’s) worldwide were extensively discussed
The report concludes that sugar consumption, especially in the form of high energy fructose in soft drinks, poses a major and insidious health threat, especially in children, and most diets, with regional differences, are deficient in omega-3 fatty acids and too high in omega-6 fatty acids
Summary
The group’s broad, overall concerns were with human health, child health, with societal economics, and with planetary ecosystems. Our lifestyles – including where we live, our activity levels, economic well-being and exposure to stress – all affect human health. We are embedded in larger systems of agriculture, food cultures and food supply chains that can increase as well as decrease our chances of becoming and remaining healthy. While many substances in the diet may affect health, the meeting focused primarily on those elements where the scientific evidence shows the link to be strongest and where the impact on the epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCD) worldwide is greatest. 2. Agronomic, nutritional and medical sciences should not be subservient to business interests. The meeting focused on the following issues: 1) Health-oriented agriculture is needed to tailor the food chain to eradicate critical deficiencies and imbalances 2) Agronomic, nutritional and medical sciences should be independent of business interests. Omega 6/omega 3 fatty acid ratio, decrease the excessive production of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)). 2) Agronomic, nutritional and medical sciences should be independent of business interests. 3) Need for new forms of agriculture such as agroecology and urban agriculture. 4) Future dietary guidelines to be based on ecological (including climatological) as well as nutritional science. 5) Nutrition research should be the basis of food sciences research and not the reverse as it is
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