Massimo Collino, Andrea Mancini, Martine Morzel
Massimo Collino, University of Turin, Italy, Andrea Mancini, Edmund Mach Foundation - Agricultural Institute San Michele All'Adige, Italy, Martine Morzel, Centre des Sciences du Gout et de l'Alimentation, France
Title: Biomarkers in nutrition and health
Biography
Biography: Massimo Collino, Andrea Mancini, Martine Morzel
Abstract
Traditionally, dietary recommendations have been set at the average population level. However, current research is increasingly showing that the risks, benefits and nutritional requirements strongly vary between different population groups and even individuals, depending on their genetic or other characteristics. For example, European citizens generally consume too high levels of salt, sugar and saturated fat. However, there are significant individual differences in tolerance levels of these food constituents among consumers. More research is needed to better define these individual differences in health responses to diets by validated, nutrition and health-related biomarkers. There is a need for biomarkers determining the intake of specific nutrients or food components (for example by using food metabolomics) and to complement the more traditional dietary assessment methodologies. Further, biomarkers that reflect the nutrition-related health status at both individual and group levels are crucial to demonstrate the health effects of certain foods. The workshop will describe few recent projects granted by European ERA HDHL Cofunded Call Biomarkers in Nutrition and Health, within the Joint Programming Initiative “A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life” (http://www.healthydietforhealthylife.eu/, JPI HDHL), which has been established to coordinate research in the areas of food, diet, physical activity and health in order to achieve tangible societal and health impact and to strengthen European leadership and competitiveness in this field.