Academy of Nutrition Sciences – three years on
The Academy of Nutrition Sciences (ANS) was established in 2019 to provide a collective voice for the nutrition science discipline, including those engaged in research, education and training, clinical practice, and nutrition science communication. It is a result of a longstanding collaboration between four organisations: the Association for Nutrition, the British Dietetic Association, the British Nutrition Foundation, and the Nutrition Society. These four organisations are the founder members of the Academy. The academy also seeks to reduce the levels of misinformation about nutrition and health and improve understanding of how evidence is scrutinised and evaluated to produce dietary recommendations.
The Academy has a strong interest in nutrition research excellence, development of the nutrition science discipline and application of the outcomes of rigorous nutrition science for public benefit. An interview with Professor Kevin Whelan, a Trustee of the Academy, describes how these interests are being pursued through a series of Position Papers and related activities.
The main audience for the Academy’s work is the nutrition science community/profession and its stakeholders (including government/policy makers and research funding agencies). Further information can be found here and the strategic priorities for the Academy are summarised here.
What are the main outputs of the Academy?
Aligned with its strategic priorities, the main outputs from the Academy are Position Papers (published open-access in peer-reviewed scientific journals) and blog posts published on the Academy’s website (academynutritionsciences.org.uk).
Position Papers summarise the status quo on a topic, identify challenges and opportunities, and make recommendations. Development of the Position Papers is currently via a working group led by Professor Christine Williams, Emeritus Professor of Human Nutrition at the University of Reading, and trustee of the Academy.
The Academy’s first Position Paper, published in December 2020 in the British Journal of Nutrition focused on the nature of the evidence base underpinning dietary recommendations and the systematic processes used by expert panels to ensure that rigour, relevance and consistency are brought to their conclusions. There were accompanying editorials in Nutrition Bulletin and the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, which highlight the Academy’s recommendations. The Position Paper also addresses some of the challenges inherent in studying diet-disease relationships and lessons learned over the past 45 years of evidence-based policy making in dietary prevention of non-communicable diseases such as cancers and cardiovascular diseases. One such challenge concerns the investigation of the biological mechanisms underlying diet-disease relationships through experimental studies, which in the Academy’s view has not been sufficiently exploited. A recent publication by one of the Position Paper’s authors, discusses this in more detail and the topic is explored in a blog published by the Academy in November 2022.
The second Position Paper on the use of nutrition evidence, published in November 2022 in the British Journal of Nutrition, focuses on the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation. A blog discussing why health professionals need to know about the processes in place to regulate the use of such claims has been published on the Academy’s website and accompanying editorials appeared in Nutrition Bulletin and the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics. These editorials summarise the recommendations and highlight the implications of the Regulation for nutrition and dietetic professionals.
A third Position Paper will be published in 2023, examining how evidence is used to guide individualised nutrition interventions. This is primarily achieved through the development of clinical practice guidelines, which are systematically developed statements that attempt to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice, guiding the practitioner and individual to implement treatments for specific clinical circumstances based upon the best available evidence.
Communicating with stakeholders
With the support of nutrition-trained volunteers and utilising communications expertise residing within its Member Organisations, the Academy’s Trustees are developing a communications strategy. The primary aim is to initiate a sustainable way to raise ANS’s profile and illustrate its work and value as a ‘voice’ for the nutrition/dietetics community with, in particular, the nutrition science community/profession, government/policy makers, and research funding agencies.
Central to this activity is development of an independent social media presence for the Academy, supported by volunteers, that will focus on amplification of the growing number of Academy blog posts published on its website. In addition to blogs publicising the Academy’s Position Papers described above, other recent examples include: comment on the implications of the Brexit Freedoms Bill for food safety and public health; several posts focussing on past successes and future challenges and opportunities for the funding of human nutrition research in the UK; news of a collaboration with the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), in the form of a letter to The Lancet, on the critical importance of data transparency; identification of ways to support training in nutrition for student doctors; a celebration of 100 years since the discovery of vitamin D; and a perspective on the global protein economy.
JANUARY 20, 2023