This Perspective introduces the Food Coherence System (FCS), a hypothesis framework that treats food as an instructional input affecting bioelectric regulation, mitochondrial membrane potential, redox dynamics, inflammation, and autonomic recovery. Food Coherence is defined as support for stable, low-noise, goal-aligned signaling across tissues, and the paper proposes the “bioelectric mutagen” construct for dietary patterns that increase regulatory noise and impair recovery. The work is explicitly not medical advice and does not replace existing nutrition, toxicology, or UPF frameworks, it complements them by adding a measurable “regulatory coherence” axis. Falsifiable predictions, candidate biomarkers, a provisional Food Coherence Index, and preregistered experimental protocols are provided to bound or refute the model. Version 1.0 (Jan 29, 2026) of “The Food Coherence System: A Bioelectric Dimension for Nutrition Science and Toxicology (Perspective)” refines the framework into a more explicitly hypothesis-generating, testable, and reviewer-safe form. This release strengthens scope clarity by adding a crisp limitation statement in the abstract (hypothesis-generating, no medical advice, intended to complement, not replace existing nutrition and toxicology frameworks). What’s new in this version (relative to the prior upload) Scope / boundary clarification added near the start to reduce “grand unification” anxiety and keep claims appropriately bounded. Keywords added to improve indexing and journal submission readiness. Functional food relevance is strengthened by framing the FCS as a mechanism-oriented evaluation lens tied to measurable regulation endpoints (recovery dynamics, volatility, return-to-baseline), rather than static biomarkers alone. Operationalization upgrades: clearer measurement stack and proposed composite scoring for early studies (FCI/FCI-style composite), emphasizing time-series endpoints (HRV recovery, inflammatory variability, redox stability). Explicit falsifiability: adds preregisterable experimental protocols and refutation criteria, tightening the paper as a testable Perspective rather than a narrative construct. Expanded keyword set and positioning toward functional food design (this version explicitly includes “functional foods” among the indexing terms where applicable). Core intent (unchanged) The paper still proposes Food Coherence (FC) as a measurable axis describing whether dietary inputs tend to support stable, low-noise bioelectric signaling and resilient recovery dynamics, and introduces “bioelectric mutagen” as a systems-level construct (not DNA mutation) to motivate targeted, testable studies.
Hensgen et al. (Thu,) studied this question.