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The first challenge we face in this 21st century is to be able to feed all the inhabitants of this planet with safe and healthy food in a sustainable way. There are societies where the main problem is the availability of food, which leads to malnutrition and diseases of poverty (mainly communicable). In other societies, the availability of food is not the problem, but paradoxically there are cases of malnutrition due to poor dietary choices, which lead to the so-called wealth diseases (non-communicable), such as cardiovascular diseases as the main cause of mortality. The emergence at the beginning of 2020 of the emergency caused by the SARS-Cov2 coronavirus has made this situation a new challenge throughout the world, without distinction of countries with high or low income. The speech aims to address the importance of maintaining an adequate nutritional status to maintain good health, minimize the negative effects caused by COVID-19 as well as facilitate the recovery of patients. Scientific evidence regarding the role of micronutrients and bioactive compounds in strengthening the immune system will be reviewed, a synergistic beneficial effect based on their complementary mechanisms of action. It will also discuss the new concept of “planetary health diet” that considers the relevance of dietary choices, due to their implication for both human health and the environment, while maintaining available resources: water, land and soil. The ultimate goal is to deepen scientific knowledge so that it can be of use to society; promoting food security through healthy and sustainable eating.

The parabrachial complex has been related to the processing of both rewarding and aversive signals. This pontine area is activated after the gastrointestinal administration of rewarding nutrients, in taste aversion learning, and in response to the reinforcing and aversive effects of some drugs of abuse. Electrical stimulation of this region can induce, in different animals, preference or aversion behaviors towards a place in a rectangular three-chamber maze task. This study examined the effect of tiapride, a D2/D3 receptor antagonist, on the aversive or rewarding effects induced by electrical stimulation of the external lateral parabrachial subnucleus (NLPBe). As previously observed, administration of tiapride interrupted the aversive effect induced by NLPBe electrical stimulation. However, in contrast to the effects of dopamine antagonists on other rewarding systems, tiapride did not impair the place preference induced by NLPBe stimulation, an activation effect that is subject to tolerance. Tiapride administration also appeared to have no effect on the horizontal motor activity (crossings) of the electrically stimulated animals. We discuss the specific relevance of parabrachial reward with respect to other reinforcing brain components or systems, especially in relation to the preference effect of drugs of abuse, such as opiates, after dopamine antagonist administration.