Next generation health claims based on resilience: The example of whole-grain wheat

Abstract

Health claims on foods are a way of informing consumers about the health benefits of a food product. Traditionally, these claims are based on scientific evaluation of markers originating from a pharmacological view on health. About a decade ago, the definition of health has been rephrased to ‘the ability to adapt’ that opened up the possibility for a next generation of health claims based on a new way of quantifying health by evaluating resilience. Here, we would like to introduce an opportunity for future scientific substantiation of health claims on food products by using whole-grain wheat as an example. Characterization of the individual whole wheat grain food product or whole wheat flour would probably be considered as sufficiently characterized by the European Food Safety Authority, while the food category whole grain is not specific enough. Meta-analysis provides the scientific evidence that long-term whole-grain wheat consumption is beneficial for health, although results from single ‘gold standard’ efficacy studies are not always straight forward based on classic measurement methods. Future studies may want to underpin the scientific argumentation that long-term whole grain wheat consumption improves resilience, by evaluating the disruption and rate of a selected panel of blood markers in response to a standardized oral protein glucose lipid tolerance test and aggregated into biomarkers with substantiated physiological benefits, to make a next-generation health claim for whole-grain wheat achievable in the near future.