Nutrition & Non-communicable diseases

The importance of balanced nutrition

Too much tragedy

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like heart disease, stroke and cancer are now the leading cause of death around the world, causing 40 million people to die every year (the equivalent of 70% of all deaths worldwide). Not only are these deaths tragic, they’re also an increasing social and economic burden (the cumulative cost to society of the top five NCDs in 2025 is an estimated $46.8 trillion). However, in many cases, they could be avoided – and bright science has an important role to play.

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About NCDs

NCDs, also known as chronic and non-communicable diseases, are not transferable between people, are generally long-lasting, and they fall into four categories: cardiovascular diseases (like heart attacks and stroke); cancers; chronic respiratory diseases (like asthma) and diabetes (with diabetes type-2 linked to obesity). NCDs are linked to genetics, lifestyle, age group, activity level, behavior, and social environment. These include unhealthy diets, inadequate physical activity, smoking, and alcohol – as well as the increasing effects of indoor and outdoor air pollution.

Balanced nutrition

Unbalanced diets are a major factor in the prevalence of NCDs. Indicators that are linked to NCDs include increased blood pressure, a raised Body Mass Index (BMI) and high blood glucose. Balanced nutrition plays a key role in keeping these indicators at healthy levels and reducing the risks of NCDs. Of course, nutrition alone can’t prevent people from developing NCDs… but we can reasonably expect it to help reduce them.

Enabling healthy diets

Reducing sugar, salt & saturated fat

At DSM, we’re helping our customers to reduce sugar in food and beverages. Take our Maxilact® enzyme, for example. Its natural sweetness enables sugar reduction in all dairy products by up to 20% with no compromise on flavor, which benefits everyone. Meanwhile, in savory foods, our yeast extract ingredients like Maxarome® pack flavor into products like soups and sauces, while reducing the salt content by up to 50%. And for our customers looking for the rich, indulgent flavor in foods with low salt or saturated fats, like milkshakes and snack food, our ModuMax® taste modulator helps to create tasty food with an excellent mouthfeel.

On the way to protecting heart health

Our OatWell® nutritional product harnesses the scientifically proven health benefits of oat beta-glucan to reduce cholesterol levels, thus helping to reduce the risk of heart disease. In addition, our life’s™OMEGA supplement is a vegetarian source of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)/docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) omega-3 from algae that provides important heart health benefits throughout life.

Air pollution & nutrition

Did you know that better nutrition can help reduce the negative effects of air pollution, especially heart and respiratory conditions? Vitamins C, D, E and Omega-3s could all play a role here. 

Advocating

We work with a broad and diverse range of organizations across the world to shape and influence the nutrition agenda. We do so in different coalitions and partnerships addressing the different forms of malnutrition, as well as shifting the food system to healthy and sustainable production and consumption. This includes our long-standing partnership with the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Economic Forum (WEF).

FReSH ideas on food

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) programme, Food Reform for Sustainability and Health (FReSH), aims to drive sustainable and future-proof food systems, advocate the necessary dietary switches to improve peoples’ health within planetary boundaries, and understand and influence consumer behavior. We work in close cooperation with the EAT Foundation and the WBCSD partners - such as Danone, Unilever, Nestlé, Evonik, Cargill, Buhler Group and Kellogg - all while developing and promoting business solutions. We are an active member of the Leadership Committee and of various workstreams, such as ‘Proteins’, ‘Positive Nutrition’, ‘Food Loss and Waste’ and ‘True Cost of Food’.

Partners in Food Solutions

We’re a founding member of this multi-sector partnership, which also includes General Mills, Cargill, The Hershey Company, Bühler and Ardent Mills. Partners in Food Solutions serves more than 600 small and growing food companies throughout Africa, strengthening food security, improving nutrition and increasing economic development by making the food processing sector more competitive.

Sun Business Network

The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Business Network recruits and supports companies who pledge to contribute to the improvement of global nutrition. Our CEO Feike Sijbesma co-chairs the Advisory Group of the Network and is a member of the SUN lead group. Furthermore, we help with the Network’s recruitment and management of around 186 companies.

Sight and Life

Sight and Life is a humanitarian nutrition think tank aimed at eliminating all forms of malnutrition in children and women of childbearing age - thus improving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people. We work with the organization by exchanging, co-creating and advocating new scientific insights to help those who need it most.

TIFN

TiFN is a Netherlands-based public-private organization that pursues fundamental research in food and nutrition. Natural economic social and consumer sciences work closely together. TiFN has a strong focus on pre-competitive, long-term, strategic research. DSM collaborates with TiFN in different fields, some of which are nutrition and health, sustainable protein processing, sensory and structure.

UNICEF

We work with UNICEF to deliver better nutrition to at-risk children and mothers in Nigeria. Guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goal number two (ending hunger), our partnership focuses on nourishing mothers and children during the crucial first 1,000 days of children’s lives, from conception until age two. Another goal is to spur similar action in other countries where malnutrition is rife, as well as advocating best practices in micronutrient supplementation worldwide. 

Vitamin Angels

Vitamin Angels is dedicated to reducing child mortality among at-risk populations worldwide by advancing the availability, access and use of essential micronutrients, especially vitamin A. We work with Vitamin Angels to help expand their global reach and impact, especially in their efforts to work with local NGOs on locally sustainable micronutrient supply and distribution systems.

World Food Programme (WFP)

The DSM-WFP partnership, Improving Nutrition, Improving Lives, is stronger than ever since its inception in 2007, boosting the nutritional value of the food that the WFP distributes to vulnerable people. In fact, around 39.4 million people were nourished through our partnership in 2017. We also work with the WFP on training and development initiatives and employee fundraising campaigns.

World Vision

DSM and World Vision work together in a nutrition partnership that creates shared value for all stakeholders, including consumers. Our work involves investing in ways to get nutritionally improved foods to the most vulnerable people – through staple food fortification and bold new delivery systems for nutritionally improved food.

EIT Food

Supported by the EU's European Institute of Innovation and Technology, EIT Food is Europe’s leading food innovation initiative. Comprising a consortium of key industry players, startups, research centres and universities, EIT Food aims to collaborate closely with consumers to develop new knowledge and technology-based products and services that will ultimately deliver a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle for all Europeans.

Read more

  • Tackling malnutrition

    Everyone deserves the right to eat well and enjoy the benefits that good nutrition brings.which is why we’re fully behind healthier diets for all - within planetary boundaries.

  • Sustainable proteins

    We provide solutions for plant- and animal-based proteins and find new ways to produce healthy and diverse proteins to benefit farmers, consumers and the environment.

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