Food: The Sum of Its Parts or a Part of the Sum?

As a passionate advocate for fresh produce, I often wonder why it’s such an uphill battle promoting fruits, vegetables, and nuts. After all, these foods provide the essential nutrients required to keep us alive. While the science backs fruit and veg, food trends, fads, and the marketing dollars of fast and processed food often obscure their value.

This week, listening to an enlightening conversation between Mark Ferguson, CEO of neXtgen Agri and Dr Anneline Padayachee, a food science and nutrition expert, gave me renewed hope. Dr Padayachee reminded me of fresh produce’s essential role in our health—a truth often overlooked... So why don’t we treat fruit, vegetables, and nuts with the reverence they deserve?

Nutrition science, Dr Padayachee explained, has been reactive for much of its history. Developed in the late 19th Century alongside discoveries of vitamins and minerals, with an early focus on preventing diseases caused by nutritional deficiencies, like scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) and anemia (iron deficiency), it was flourishing by the 1940s.

However, post-war trends favouring convenience and affordability sidelined the importance of nutrient-rich food.

As women entered the workforce, families sought quicker, cheaper meals, with nutrition falling victim to industrialisation. One health issue was traded for another: malnutrition due to a lack of protein became rare, but diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions took its place. Processed foods, engineered for convenience and shelf life, often lack the natural goodness found in fresh produce.

Today, fruits and vegetables are often dismissed as simple, healthy sides. But they’re far more than that. I was comforted to realise at this point in the conversation that the science of food was in its infancy, and that our industry has a huge opportunity to further understand its role in human life.

Notably, Dr Padayachee’s stated that the future of nutrition begins on the farm. How we grow and process our food has a profound impact on the health of our communities. The idea that nutrition starts at the source should be a guiding principle for farmers, policymakers, and consumers alike.

We must also shift our focus from reactive nutritional fixes to proactive food systems that promote health before a consumer even makes a purchase. Dr Padayachee pointed to salt reduction in processed foods as an example. A 10% reduction in sodium could have a monumental effect on public health without consumers having to change a single habit.

Which brings me to my headline – is food the sum of its parts or parts of the sum? The sum I refer to is the sum of Australian healthcare? Surely there is more work to do to understand the relationship between fresh produce consumption and human health – proactively, for a change.

Ultimately, nutrition is not one-size-fits-all, but we often apply blanket rules and misconceptions about what truly nourishes us. The truth is fresh produce is not a side, it’s a key player in the health equation and we must give it the priority it deserves.