News Commentary #1,320 – MedTech | Food In The Future..?

Seemingly, MedTech platform (reviewed here) decided to add a little variety to the news feed again and this time decided to acquaint us with the topic of food and its production in the future.

At the moment this platform is monitored on EN within 33 days and paid around 380% from $200 of investment. The overall online work (also including a sleeping mode which is the biggest part of time for sure..) is around 840 days.

*I think it was the strategy of the admin to create the program and let it work a lot of time exactly on sleeping mode to build some community around and may be ( and hopefully ) to increase the stable income which can help the platform to work more after switching to a normal / regular mode with current investment plans. Nearest future will show..

Well, i hope next part of news will be linked to some new features or developement of the workflow. However those things are alsways up to each admin only.. Let’s read the news for today:

The future of food

We don’t need to stress how important a role food and eating play in our lives. Food is at the base of the hierarchy of our needs, it is essential for our survival. It shows the creativity of humankind perfectly: food exists in the richest variety of ingredients, forms, shapes, tastes and colours all over the world.

The advent of novel health tools will radicalize an activity as old as life itself: food consumption. Indeed, innovation and technology will help us be more conscious of our food consumption. The latest technologies can help us better understand what we eat, how we should eat, and even stretch the boundaries of the food industry. Let’s take a closer look at how technology will shape the future of food.

Everyone knows that eating is also a key social event in every society and groups. Providing food and eating has been a common activity for humans since the Stone Age: men hunted mammoths in groups while women collected edible berries, and then they gathered to eat the prey together.

This notion has not changed a bit. The stove or the fireplace has been the central part of every household for millennia. Families gather around in the kitchen, share their food and their stories around a meal. Eating brings people together, initiates discussions, bridges or even separates people based on differences in taste.

The radical technological changes, innovations and societal upheavals of the 20th and 21st centuries have also left their marks on our food and eating habits. Fast-food restaurants vs. healthy lifestyle; conscious cooking vs. random eating patterns; obesity in the developed world vs. hunger/famine in the developing countries; mass food production vs. local farming; are there any clear trends in this cacophony? What does the future of food and eating look like?

We don’t know what we eat. Where did that eggplant you had for lunch come from? And where was the chicken bred? Although ingredients are listed on most of the products we buy, more often than not, we have absolutely no idea where our food comes from, and what substances it contains. This is more concerning given our increased reliance on prepackaged food over fresh ones.

The solution might come from food scanners. One remedy to our ignorance would be having a list of exactly what ingredients and how many calories a meal contains, and what allergens and toxins might be in it. Although the technology is promising, development is very much in its infancy and there are still hurdles that must be overcome.

We don’t know what we should eat. So food scanners tell me what I am eating, great! But how do we know what we should or shouldn’t eat? One day scientists state that animal milk is unhealthy, the other day that it isn’t. According to one diet, you should not eat carbohydrates, another one says you should have food from all kinds of colors on your plate.

No wonder people are puzzled by the food question and often have a frustrated connection to eating. It is also logical that intuitive eating is getting more popular. It says that you should pay attention to your body and its needs – eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full.

The solution might come from nutrigenomics. This new hybrid field combines genetics and nutrition science. Since our genetic makeup varies from individual to individual, it inadvertently affects how we react to food we consume. With the increased availability and accessibility to DNA sequencing services, we can now have a better idea of what we should eat. Nutrigenomics tries to understand how nutrition affects our metabolic pathways, and what we can do to get the most out of nutrition in a personalized way.

We don’t know how we should eat. After discovering what we are eating and what we should, eating habits should be examined a bit more thoroughly. Apps can help educate us about our eating habits and nutrition. Another solution involves using tech-aided utensils to improve our ingrained eating habits. A smart fork, for example, helps control the pace at which you eat, as eating too fast leads to poor digestion and weight control.

We don’t know whether food creation should be limited to one industry. Lately, there is a trend for challenging the boundaries of food creation and combining cooking with various disciplines. One of the most well-known fields is molecular gastronomy, which blurs the boundaries between chemistry, physics and food production. In a restaurant experimenting with molecular gastronomy, such weird meals could fall on your plate, as transparent ravioli, solid cocktail or Aperol gel.

Another direction is the combination of food creation with engineering. Eventually people may start printing out food at home. Those who want to turn to technological solutions instead of spending time preparing and cooking meals will have a chance to use 3D printers at home.

Half of the world is obese, the other half is fighting hunger. Globally, about 39% of adults are overweight and worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975. On the other hand, the WHO provided some disheartening statistics about famine worldwide. About 820 million people don’t have adequate nutrition. That’s around one in nine people globally. Poor nutrition causes nearly half the deaths in children under five years old. The list goes on and will aggravate the COVID-19 pandemic.

We believe technology will not replace the social component of eating but rather, it can extend this component. Novel technologies also hold the potential to solve global problems from obesity to hunger. These are the opportunities that disruptive technologies provide us today. Let’s use them wisely.