Abstract
I
JMF is now in its 21st year, and while the publishing landscape has become significantly more crowded with new nutrition, food science, and metabolism journals, JMF remains the only peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the biomedical effects of food constituents and their role in preventing and treating disease. This mission is now more relevant than ever. The burden of chronic disease in both developed and developing countries is now further stressed by both an aging population and an unabated obesity epidemic for which the medical and economic consequences are simply not sustainable. Medicinal Foods (in all forms, from functional foods to nutraceuticals to medical foods) occupy a key position alongside pharmaceutical approaches to manage and extend the health span of our aging population, and JMF is uniquely positioned to address the evolving understanding of these problems.
As our field evolves and matures, so too must the journal. JMF will continue to publish high-quality articles covering the breadth of the field, from discovery and characterization of medicinal food bioactives through preclinical and clinical translation and population perspectives. However, the top of the “discovery funnel” is overflowing and the field needs to emphasize high-quality translational work. Accordingly, we will devote greater attention to translational work, with an emphasis on appropriate models. Identification and characterization of novel bioactives is important, but articles of this nature will be subjected to greater scrutiny and will need to be accompanied by clear demonstration of translational relevance. In addition, medicinal foods, similar to novel pharmaceuticals, have a great track record in managing all manner of disease in mice; I think we can all agree that is not our goal, but there remains a relative paucity of successful application to humans. Hence, special emphasis will be given to validation of preclinical models and, of course, to high-quality clinical and population research.
We must also direct special attention to safety. Some 500 years ago, Parcelsus taught his now famous dictum that “All things are poisons, for there is nothing without poisonous qualities. It is only the dose which makes a thing poison,” and this is still a centerpiece of modern toxicology. Although pharmacological application of this dictum is clear, it is no less important (but all too often minimized or altogether ignored) in medicinal food applications. True safety is an elusive thing to prove, but actively characterizing the toxicological, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamic properties of bioactive food components and their interactions with other food bioactives as well as with pharmacological agents is of critical importance as our field matures. I look forward to seeing more preclinical and clinical studies of this nature submitted to our journal.
This journal was founded with a robust vision; in his opening editorial introducing JMF in 1998, Sheldon Hendler spoke of coupling “Farm to Pharma” to optimize health and life span. This remains a compelling capsule of our vision today; to fulfill it, we will be soliciting articles and focused special issues dedicated to applications of medicinal foods to healthy aging, extension of both health span and life span, and integrated management of the multiple diseases that cluster together in the “metabesity” syndrome that the silos of pharma have difficulty addressing.
I look forward to your research contributions to JMF!