Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55454, USA.
Proc Nutr Soc. 2013 May;72(2):200-6. doi: 10.1017/S0029665112003011. Epub 2013 Jan 14.
Food synergy is the concept that the non-random mixture of food constituents operates in concert for the life of the organism eaten and presumably for the life of the eater. Isolated nutrients have been extensively studied in well-designed, long-term, large randomised clinical trials, typically with null and sometimes with harmful effects. Therefore, although nutrient deficiency is a known phenomenon, serious for the sufferer, and curable by taking the isolated nutrient, the effect of isolated nutrients or other chemicals derived from food on chronic disease, when that chemical is not deficient, may not have the same beneficial effect. It appears that the focus on nutrients rather than foods is in many ways counterproductive. This observation is the basis for the argument that nutrition research should focus more strongly on foods and on dietary patterns. Unlike many dietary phenomena in nutritional epidemiology, diet pattern appears to be highly correlated over time within person. A consistent and robust conclusion is that certain types of beneficial diet patterns, notably described with words such as 'Mediterranean' and 'prudent', or adverse patterns, often described by the word 'Western', predict chronic disease. Food is much more complex than drugs, but essentially uninvestigated as food or pattern. The concept of food synergy leads to new thinking in nutrition science and can help to forge rational nutrition policy-making and to determine future nutrition research strategies.
食物协同作用是指食物成分的非随机组合在生物体的整个生命周期中协同作用，并且可能在进食者的整个生命周期中协同作用。孤立的营养素已经在精心设计的、长期的、大规模的随机临床试验中得到了广泛研究，通常结果为无效，有时甚至有害。因此，尽管营养素缺乏是一种已知的现象，对患者来说很严重，并且可以通过摄入孤立的营养素来治愈，但当这种化学物质不缺乏时，孤立的营养素或其他源自食物的化学物质对慢性病的影响可能不会产生相同的有益效果。似乎关注营养素而不是食物在很多方面都是适得其反的。这一观察结果是这样一种观点的基础，即营养研究应该更加强调食物和饮食模式。与营养流行病学中的许多饮食现象不同，饮食模式在个体内部似乎随着时间的推移高度相关。一个一致且强有力的结论是，某些类型的有益饮食模式，特别是用“地中海”和“谨慎”等词来描述的模式，或通常用“西方”一词来描述的不良模式，可以预测慢性疾病。食物比药物复杂得多，但基本上没有作为食物或模式进行研究。食物协同作用的概念为营养科学带来了新的思考，并有助于制定合理的营养政策，并确定未来的营养研究策略。
