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imageEuropeanen willen graag minder dik zijn, maar niet omdat ze door hebben dat obesitas leidt tot m.n. diabetes-2 en hart- en vaatziekten. We geven de voorkeur aan beter eten én de zgn. functional foods omdat we er liever slank uitzien.

Deze conclusie valt te trekken uit onderzoek onder Europese burgers in Frankrijk, Duitsland, Groot-Brittanië, Ialië, Polen en Portugal. De totale steekproef bedroeg bijna 6000 mensen, ca. 1000 per land.

Het gaat dus om de buiten- en niet om de binnenkant. De leider van het ondezoek, prof. Maria Daniel Vaz de Almeida van de universiteit van Porto in Portugal, schrijft in het Engelse blad Nutrition Foundation's Nutrition Bulletin (nr. 31, 239-246): “The survey findings are encouraging for development of novel dietary interventions combining nutrition and genetics to treat and prevent metabolic syndrome and related conditions.”

De voedingsindustrie kan er dus zijn voordeel mee doen, óók voor wat betreft het argument waarmee deze spullen in de markt moeten worden gezet. Niet met 'dit voorkomt diabetes' of 'dit helpt tegen hartinfarcten'. Wel met 'hier word je mooier en slanker van'. Helemaal mooi zou zijn: "hiermee krijg je het figuur van Sanne, Holland's Next Topmodel". Ik zie het contract al liggen, zodat we haar voortaan in virals en op TV zien: probiotica lepelend op de hometrainer en zuigend aan een Breakerzakje even snel de trein halend. Misschien wel in advertorials via blogs en de inmiddels interactieve sites van de Telegraaf en het AD ;-)

Als het werkt: prima! Het is altijd weer heel simpel.

Opvallend is trouwens wel hoe hoog het publieke bewustzijn is dat een hoog cholesterolniveau en een hoge bloeddruk niet gezond voor ons zijn. Nutraingredients rapporteert als volgt over bevindingen van het onderzoek:

Metabolic syndrome is a condition characterised by central obesity, hypertension, and disturbed glucose and insulin metabolism. The syndrome has been linked to increased risks of both type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Almedia's team had already established in a previous study that many consumers regard fruit and vegetables as functional foods – even though the proper definition of the term is foods that have added health or nutrition benefits beyond those that occur naturally.

Given this, they included fruit and veg in the list of seven ‘functional' foods or food products that were regularly consumed.

While 86 per cent said they consumed fruit and veg at least once a week, the next most popular categories were high-fibre products (50 per cent) and probiotic yoghurts (26 per cent). Vitamin/mineral fortified foods and cholesterol lowering foods were consumed by 18 and 17 per cent respectively, energy drinks by 10 per cent and weight loss products by five per cent.

As to the desired benefits, the three most common were a cholesterol-lowering effect, blood sugar control and weight reduction. Interestingly, appetite control ranked the least desirable – despite market researchers highlighting satiety as one of the hot new trends in health foods, and several recent ingredient launches to this end.

As may be expected from a European sample, willingness to consume genetically modified foods was low, with around 30 per cent saying they would avoid such foods.

“While we found a good acceptance of functional foods, this declined sharply if these contained GM ingredients,” wrote the researchers. Nonetheless, however the participants were seen to be more open to the idea of GM foods if the modification was to the end of making them more healthy, rather than other ends such as cost benefits and availability.

Consumers seemed to be quite open to the idea of genetic testing: 28 per cent said that they would be willing to have a test so they could follow a diet tailored to genetic needs. This could be good news for companies making inroads into the relatively new areas of nutrigenomics and personalised nutrition.

Overall, the researchers found that understanding of the term metabolic syndrome was low, with only around a third of participants having heard of it.

The researchers said that the findings imply the public is becoming aware that obesity is a growing problem, “but they do not associate it with metabolic syndrome and potential for chromic disease”.

Indeed, central obesity was seen as representing the lowest disease disk, suggesting that people are more concerned with the aesthetic implications than the health risks.

High blood pressure and high cholesterol levels were identified as presenting the greatest health risks, said by the researchers to be because of public health awareness campaigns.
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