Finding Link Between Foods and Diseases.

• Position: Brief Article

An innovative approach to studying people's diets may drastically improve understanding of the link between what they eat and their risk of contracting such illnesses as heart disease and cancer. The key, according to Mariette Gerber of France's National Institute for Medical Research, is to study the overall diet as a network of complex interactions, not as nutrients in isolation.

She believes that current dietary research is beset by a "reductionist" viewpoint that needs updating. So-called single-agent studies attempt to isolate and examine the effects of a specific food or a specific nutrient. At issue, says Gerber, is the basic ability of such research methods to reflect the complexity of real-world diets. "When researchers focus on one particular nutrient or food, we do so in an attempt to ascertain its precise role in the body. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that a...