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Bernhard Hennig,¹ Adrienne S. Ettinger,² Ronald J. Jandacek,³ Sung Koo,⁴ Craig McClain,⁵ Harold Seifried,⁶ Allen Silverstone,⁷ Bruce Watkins,⁸ and William A. Suk⁹

¹Molecular and Cell Nutrition Laboratory, College of Agriculture, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA; ²Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; ³Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; ⁴Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA; ⁵Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology/Hepatology, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA; ⁶National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, Maryland, USA; ⁷Department of Microbiology and Immunology, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York, USA; ⁸Lipid Chemistry & Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Food Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; ⁹Center for Risk and Integrated Sciences, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

Abstract
Background: Nutrition and lifestyle are well-defined modulators of chronic diseases. Poor dietary habits (such as high intake of processed foods rich in fat and low intake of fruits and vegetables) , as well as a sedentary lifestyle clearly contribute to today's compromised quality of life in the United States. It is becoming increasingly clear that nutrition can modulate the toxicity of environmental pollutants.

Objectives: Our goal in this commentary is to discuss the recommendation that nutrition should be considered a necessary variable in the study of human disease associated with exposure to environmental pollutants.

Discussion: Certain diets can contribute to compromised health by being a source of exposure to environmental toxic pollutants. Many of these pollutants are fat soluble, and thus fatty foods often contain higher levels of persistent organics than does vegetable matter. Nutrition can dictate the lipid milieu, oxidative stress, and antioxidant status within cells. The modulation of these parameters by an individual's nutritional status may have profound affects on biological processes, and in turn influence the effects of environmental pollutants to cause disease or dysfunction. For example, potential adverse health effects associated with exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls may increase as a result of ingestion of certain dietary fats, whereas ingestion of fruits and vegetables, rich in antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients or bioactive compounds, may provide protection.

Conclusions: We recommend that future directions in environmental health research explore this nutritional paradigm that incorporates a consideration of the relationships between nutrition and lifestyle, exposure to environmental toxicants, and disease. Nutritional interventions may provide the most sensible means to develop primary prevention strategies of diseases associated with many environmental toxic insults.

Key words: antioxidants, diet, disease, environmental toxicants, nutrition, pollutants, prevention. Environ Health Perspect 115:493–495 (2007) . doi:10.1289/ehp.9549 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 16 January 2007]

Address correspondence to B. Hennig, Molecular and Cell Nutrition Laboratory, College of Agriculture, University of Kentucky, Rm. 591, Wethington Health Sciences Building, 900 S. Limestone, Lexington, KY 40536-0200 USA. Telephone: (859) 323-4933, ext. 81387 or ext. 81343. Fax: (859) 257-1811. E-mail: bhennig@uky.edu

This publication was made possible by grant P42ES007380 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) , National Institutes of Health (NIH) .

The views in this article represent those of the authors and not necessarily the official views of the NIEHS or NIH.

R.J.J. is a consultant for GlaxoSmithKline. The remaining authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 26 July 2006 ; accepted 16 January 2007.