Reflections from Experimental Bio

I just returned from the Experimental Biology conference in Chicago. It's a joint conference for several scientific societies, including the American Society for Nutrition. The tagline: "Transforming the Future through Science."

It was about as technoscientific as it sounds. As my first time attending, I was curious to see what the discourse in the field is like. Because my own research straddles social science, public health, and medicine, I've had a more difficult time finding my "people" within the field. Although I made a few good connections, it was clear fairly early on that most in the discipline are steeped within a reductionist paradigm to nutrition that often fails to take into account broader social context. As just a snippet of the programming:

Several sessions later on were more encouraging. Marion Nestle spoke on the conflicts of interest entrenched in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. I saw lots of people nodding in agreement throughout her presentation, but I have a hunch that their thought process, like mine, went something like: "Yes, this needs changing. But how do we shift the focus of the field given the direction it has gone for the past 30 years combined with industry interests?" Nestle herself had disclosed her financial interests. She's currently funded by an "independent" organization started by KIND Bar's CEO. All the more intriguing since Nestle herself keeps a running tally of industry funded research on her blog. 

Fun story: Several sessions were sponsored by the California Almond Board. Guess what we had for breakfast? And lunch. And snacks. (I will say, though, I've never had a fresher almond.) Maybe more ironic was ending a session in which there was fairly good discussion on processing levels of foods to retire to a lunch of deli meat on white bread. I've always wondered if nutritionists are perhaps at greater risk of bias in research (or at least hypocrisy) given modern food environments and the challenges presented by a culture of 12-hour days made easier by handheld food. Most of the fruit salad was eaten - lots of the bread was not. Trash cans were full later on of half-eaten sandwiches. A perfect backdrop to the session on food waste.