HIST363: Global Perspectives on Industrialization

In light of the huge body of evidence linking diet to health, many researchers are now studying the dietary intakes of different groups of people and attempting to tease out such esoteric factors as, for example, just how much omega 3 fish oil is necessary to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's; or how what dose of flavonoids should be consumed to reduce the risk of stomach cancer.

Most of this research is patently a waste of time. Current generations are, from an historical point of view, anomalous. Our historically low levels of physical activity and consequently food intakes mean that even those groups consuming the highest levels of berry fruits, green leaf vegetables or oily fish, are still well below optimal (mid-Victorian) levels of consumption.

For example, eminent scientists working with dietary elements thought to reduce the risk of cancer have commented that although 'pharmacological levels' of compounds such as flavonoids or salicylates have strong anti-cancer properties in vitro, there is little evidence that dietary (or 'physiological') levels of intake have any protective effects in humans.

In contrast the mid-Victorians, with their far greater intakes of fruits and vegetables, which were organic and in many cases contained significantly higher concentrations of phytonutrients than our intensively grown crops do [80–85] were consuming 'pharmacological' levels of these valuable and protective compounds. This would explain why they were so effectively protected against cancer, and heart disease, and all the other degenerative, non-communicable disorders. And it would also explain why, with our very low 'physiological' intakes, we are so terribly prone to these largely avoidable diseases.

We believe also that the on-going search for disease susceptibility genes is ahistoric and therefore largely misinformed. The mid-Victorian gene pool was not significantly different to our own, yet their incidence of degenerative disease was approximately 90% less [24]. In the high-nutrient mid-Victorian environment, the vast majority of the population was protected; and the combination of high levels of physical activity and an excellent diet enhanced the expression of a coordinated array of health-promoting genes [86,87].

As the nutrient tide has receded, increasing numbers of genetic polymorphisms have become exposed. [88], making current genome-wide association studies (GWAS) largely redundant (If we take this argument to an extreme, and progress to a diet totally devoid of micronutrients, all polymorphisms become disease-associated.).

It follows that the pharmaceutical industry's attempts to develop genomically derived and individualized treatments such as RNA interference and ISPC are unlikely to impact on public health. The steel vessel of Public Health is rent open, and the drug companies are selling us high-priced pots of caulk.

Do not, therefore, look to the drug companies to provide remedies for the appalling state of our health; nor to our politicians who seem unable, in many cases, to see far beyond the brims of their parliamentary troughs. Look, instead, to the food and beverage industries, and to a lesser extent the supplement companies, who may well step up to the plate with better designed foods and nutritional programmes once the currently profoundly counter-productive regulatory system has been re-drafted.