Nutrition and brain health: It's a big deal for Nestlé

“Nestlé is in the midst of a strategic transformation into a nutrition, health and wellness company, and research & development will increasingly drive and contribute to the acceleration of this process as we go forward,” said Werner Bauer, Nestlé’s executive vice president.

The link between nutrition and cognitive function is an area that has been largely overlooked in the past. But recent studies looking at the potential protective role of foods like pomegranate and berries, green tea, and fish against cognitive impairment and the on-set of Alzheimer’s disease shows that this is slowly changing. Peter van Bladeren, director of the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne, told NutraIngredients.com that Nestlé would be looking at a range of new and existing ingredients and investigating novel ways of delivering and improving the bioavailability, thereby giving Nestlé a proprietary ingredient. “We can find a novel form of a natural ingredient,” said van Bladeren. “We now know that diet can have very beneficial effects on the mature and ageing brain,” he said. “As we have seen in the past 20 years with the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, we will see, starting now, the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases in the next 20 years,” said Dr. Sandrine Andrieu from the Toulouse University School of Medicine.

Courtesy of nutraingredients.com

Steve - it is very encouraging to see large food conglomerates starting to focus their energy on prevention. However, we still must keep a watchful eye. If using healthy ingredients equates to putting them in Nesquick or KitKat Bars, it will not do a darn thing for prevention of disease.