Nutritional Science

Nutritional science examines how the chemical constituents of food—macronutrients, micronutrients and bioactive compounds—interact with the human body to support growth, maintain health and prevent disease. At its core lies the study of how proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals are digested, absorbed and metabolised, and how diet composition influences metabolic pathways, immunity and organ function. In recent years this field has expanded to embrace the concepts of nutrient density, dietary patterns and life-­cycle assessment, linking human health outcomes with environmental footprints. Efforts to characterise food environments, optimise nutrient delivery and tailor diets to individual microbiomes underpin strategies to address both undernutrition and the global rise in obesity and non-communicable diseases. As interest grows in sustainable and equitable food systems, nutritional science provides evidence-based guidance for policy, industry and consumers on achieving optimal diets that promote personal and planetary health.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Studies tracking retail food landscapes across nearly a hundred countries from 2009 to 2023 reveal a rapid transition towards chain-dominated brick-and-mortar and digital grocery sales. These shifts correlate with rising obesity rates, especially in lower-income regions, underscoring the need for real-time monitoring of food access and tailored interventions to promote healthy options amid global retail consolidation.

Advances in nutritional life-cycle assessment have introduced functional units based on priority micronutrients, demonstrating that environmental impact comparisons change substantially when footprints are calculated per unit of key vitamins or minerals rather than per calorie or mass. This work highlights regional variability and the limitations of single-score sustainability metrics, advocating for more nuanced interpretation in dietary guidance.

A microbiome-directed complementary food formulated with defined glycans has been shown to accelerate weight gain in malnourished children. Metagenome-assembled genomes pinpoint Prevotella copri strains as principal contributors to glycan breakdown, and gnotobiotic mouse models confirm that inclusion of these bacteria enhances growth and modulates host energy metabolism, paving the way for next-generation therapeutic foods.

Nutritional Science publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in nutritional science across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Nutrient density: The ratio of essential nutrient content to energy or mass in a food, indicating its ability to meet nutritional requirements per calorie or gram.

Functional unit: A defined reference measure—such as per 100 kcal or per unit of a specific micronutrient—used in environmental assessments to standardise comparisons of foods.

Nutritional life-cycle assessment (nLCA): An extension of conventional LCA that incorporates nutritional quality, enabling simultaneous evaluation of environmental impacts and food’s contribution to nutrient requirements.

Digestible indispensable amino acid score (DIAAS): A metric assessing protein quality by accounting for the digestibility and balance of essential amino acids relative to human dietary needs.

Food environment: The physical, economic and sociocultural context in which individuals obtain, prepare and consume food, shaping dietary behaviours and health outcomes.

References

1. Global food retail environments are increasingly dominated by large chains and linked to the rising prevalence of obesity. Nature Food (2025).
2. Levelling foods for priority micronutrient value can provide more meaningful environmental footprint comparisons. Communications Earth & Environment (2023).
3. Bioactive glycans in a microbiome-directed food for children with malnutrition. Nature (2023).
4. Prevotella copri and microbiota members mediate the beneficial effects of a therapeutic food for malnutrition. Nature Microbiology (2024).
5. Evidence for initiating food safety policy: An assessment of the quality and safety of donated food at an Australian food bank. Food Policy (2024).
6. Priority Micronutrient Density in Foods. Frontiers in Nutrition (2022).
7. Protein quality as a complementary functional unit in life cycle assessment (LCA). The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (2022).