Abstract
The recent quadriennial International Congress on Nutrition (ICN), organized by the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS), offered a forward-looking view of a field in transition. Some themes of interest to readers of the Food and Nutrition Bulletin emerged with clarity and urgency: food systems and sustainability, integration of climate and nutrition, healthy diets and affordability, and social dimensions of dietary guidance. Alongside these, the Congress underscored the continued vitality of fundamental nutrition science and the ethical and political imperatives that define our work.
A defining feature of this Congress was its focus on nutrition as both a biological and a systemic science. The growing attention to food systems and sustainability reflects a reorientation of nutrition research toward questions that transcend the individual: how food is produced, distributed, and consumed; how these processes affect climate, biodiversity, and equity; and how, in turn, these systems shape human health. Moreover, in alignment with the multidimensional nature of sustainable development, the language of “sustainable diets” has matured beyond purely environmental origins to encompass social justice, cultural acceptability, and affordability. Food-based dietary guidelines, once concerned primarily with nutrient adequacy, are now being reconsidered to account for environmental footprints, food processing, tradition, and social inequalities. The challenge before us is to articulate diets that are not only healthy and sustainable but also culturally appropriate, just, and achievable within the ecological and economic realities of the populations we serve.
It was also refreshing and timely to see the integration of climate change into nutrition discourse on such a prominent stage. Researchers presented new evidence linking environmental disruption to nutrient quality, food price volatility, and global dietary inequities. The concept of planetary nutrition, a fusion of nutrition science, global health, and environmental stewardship, has moved from the periphery to the mainstream. Equally prominent was the OneHealth framework, emphasizing that human nutrition cannot be separated from the health of animals, ecosystems, and the planet itself.
Discussions of diet quality and healthy diets were inseparable from questions of access and affordability. Several presentations revisited the cost and availability of nutritious diets, highlighting that the world’s poorest populations often face the highest relative cost of nutrient adequacy. New tools for diet cost modeling and food environment assessment are beginning to quantify these disparities, guiding policies to make healthy diets more attainable. Importantly, several speakers challenged the assumption that “optimal diets” can be defined without regard for inequality. Dietary guidelines must now consider affordability, food deserts, gender disparities, and cultural contexts, not as constraints but as integral parameters in defining what is possible.
While much of the Congress addressed food systems and policy, basic and clinical nutrition research remained an essential foundation. Sessions on metabolism, gut–microbiome interactions, nutrient sensing, immune function, and aging demonstrated the vitality of core biological sciences. Advances in nutritional biochemistry and physiology are revealing new pathways linking diet to disease risk, inflammation, and metabolic resilience. This scientific frontier intersects naturally with the rise of precision nutrition and personalized diet optimization. Leveraging omics data, biomarkers, and AI-based models, researchers are exploring how to individualize diets while still addressing population-level sustainability and affordability.
Nutrition at different stages of life—from conception to aging—was another thread running throughout the Congress. Early-life nutrition remains a cornerstone of public health, and new insights were presented into maternal and child nutrition, growth faltering, and developmental programming. At the other end of the spectrum, sessions on nutrition and healthy aging explored dietary strategies for maintaining muscle mass, cognitive function, and quality of life, including discussion of the “protein transition” for older adults.
Several sessions delved into the technical aspects of dietary assessment, including nutrient profiling systems, reference values, and diet optimization models that incorporate cost, acceptability, and environmental impact. The alignment of nutrient metrics with food-based approaches remains a moving target, but it is a necessary step toward coherent policy guidance. Similarly, the Congress demonstrated a deliberate effort to bridge research and practice, connecting molecular discoveries to clinical and public health application, and field implementation to global policy.
Beyond the scientific sessions, there was unease in the hallways, occasionally voiced during presentations, about the recent loss of research funding in our field, the contraction of public research institutions, and the shrinking opportunities for young scientists. These concerns transcend national boundaries. If the world needs nutrition solutions more urgently than ever, the erosion of the research base should alarm us all.
The Congress closed with a powerful statement that transcends science: a call to end the use of food, hunger, and starvation as weapons of war. The editors of the Food and Nutrition Bulletin join in this call. Nutrition is never neutral; it is moral, political, and humanitarian. Protecting the integrity of food systems and the people who depend on them is part of our collective duty.
Looking ahead, several reflections stand out. The first is the need to bridge scales, linking the molecular and individual dimensions of nutrition with population and planetary systems. This will require better tools and models that can translate across disciplines and levels of analysis. Second, equity must be treated as central, not optional. The push for optimal diets or sustainable food systems will fail if they remain inaccessible or unaffordable for large parts of the population. Third, the growing interdisciplinarity of nutrition calls for humility and collaboration; integrating ecology, economics, climate science, and behavioral research demands a willingness to learn from other fields. Fourth, translating theory into practice will mean working within the realities of rural livelihoods, informal markets, and cultural food traditions. Finally, the field must find its voice in advocacy. Whether confronting the weaponization of food, advising on regulation of harmful products, or defending funding for nutrition science, the community cannot remain silent. Protecting and supporting the next generation of researchers, particularly those from low-resource settings, is an essential part of that advocacy.
The ICN has reaffirmed that nutrition is no longer bounded by nutrients, food groups, or national borders. It is a multidisciplinary field that must integrate biology, behavior, environment, economics, social policy, and ethics. The coming decade will test our ability to work across scales from molecular biology to planetary systems while remaining grounded in human realities. At FNB, we invite research and reflections that connect these domains: from core science to public policy, from farm to fork, from local traditions to global resilience.
Below, we reprint in full the statement adopted by the IUNS at the close of the Congress.
Stop the Use of Food as a Weapon of War
Almost 4000 members of the global nutrition community from 120 countries came together in Paris from August 24–29, 2025, to discuss how to achieve sustainable food for global health. The event facilitated dialog and collaboration among academics and practitioners committed to achieving food security, eliminating hunger, preventing malnutrition, promoting health, and transforming systems for resilience in the face of climate change and other threats to human health and well-being. These urgent global commitments cannot be achieved without upholding the principles of rule of law, democracy, and realization of human rights, including the right to adequate food.
As we meet, food is being weaponized in several countries leading to widespread human suffering, starvation, and death, with lasting trauma and damage into the future for entire populations.
We, the global nutrition community, strongly condemn the use of food as a weapon of war and call for a stop now to these overt violations of human rights.