”Paradigm Shift in Nutrition and Diet:
Demand-Side Approach and Innovation”
N4G’s New Challenge: Bridging Nutrition Divides from Tokyo to France
PMAC Side Event
2024. 1 .23 Yasuhisa Shiozaki
Thank you for your kind introduction, Naoko. I am so pleased toparticipate this unique and epoch making side event, scientificallymainstreaming the role of nutrition and diet for better health.
Today, I would like to propose the need to shift our paradigm in nutritionand diet policy to much more personalized solution which derives fromdemand-side judgement with scientific evidence. It should be achieved
through full utilization of digital innovation in order to enjoy individual wellbeing in good health in a new “flat and inclusive” society with diversity,
paying due attention to nutrition and diet.
Japanese nutrition policy in the post-war era which includeｓ “school mealsystem”, “nutritionist and dieticien system”, “nutrition promotion
movement in local communities” and many other, have been said to be oneof the main determinants of achieving the longest longevity in the world.
As health environment changed as aging proceeded, so did the surginginnovations, especially in digitalization with scientific, data-evidenced
judgements become more central. As more inclusive the society
becomes, including cancer survivors, disabilities and people with foodallergy, more attention must be focused on the unique feature of health ofindividuals.
“Rapid aging with fewer babies” is the biggest challenge to thesustainability of our social security system. When I was the Health
Minister, I realized the importance of so-called “preventive measures” tokeep everyone’s health, thus avoiding long term care partially by proper“nutrition and diet”,

We have to admit that we have been putting too much emphasis on“idealistic solution” in general term on nutrition rather than what should bedone according to the precise health needs of each individual. Simply
put, we need a “paradigm shift” in nutrition and diet policy to somethingwhich could be called a “precision nutrition”, just like “precisionmedicine”:
So, we need,
Supply-side judgement ➡ Demand-side judgement
Aggregate data
➡ Personal data
Input-based evaluation ➡ Outcome-based evaluation
Quantity expansion➡ Quality improvement
Data silos➡ Data integration
In order to obtain individual’s daily scientific personal nutrition intake data
to be analyzed, taking pictures of meals by smart phones is not enough.
We need more science. So, we asked Nutrition Department Conference of
National University Hospital in Japan to invent a new application to“calculate out” the nutritional intake of individuals by self-answering toabout 20 questions in every 1～3 months and receive the advices forbetter diet. If you adjust the nutrition intake formula in the application toeach country’s food culture, you can apply this application to any country
including LMICs.
Preventive measures for better health under sophisticated but dynamic
digital health network system would necessitates consolidated andcomprehensive health data sets to make proper judgement including
clinical medical data, thus the policy to enhance the health and well-beingof every individual. I would like to stress here that nutrition and diet data
should be included in such health data sets as the integral, indispensable
part of these data sets.
Thank you very much.