There is still too much emphasis on health being viewed and studied from the perspective of disease. Health has always been more difficult to measure than disease and regarded as an intangible variable. However, we should go back to the principles of physiology to understand the dynamics and individual flexibility of an optimal health status. This is not a vague, holistic or complementary viewpoint but based on biological principles of homeostasis and ecology and backed by solid science. Technology is rapidly progressing and allows us to measure dynamic processes in stead of clinical endpoints. This is revolutionising the way we look at the effects of nutrition and physical exercise and use these to improve health and wellbeing.

Renger Witkamp (1959) is professor in Nutrition and Pharmacology at the Wageningen University, which has been established in 2006 as a new academic chair. His mission is to bridge the principles of nutrition and medicines and their role in health and disease. The area between health and disease is a continuum with multiple processes being involved. This requires a personalized and multi-target approach which usually gives better results than the hammer.