This week I am in Bogota and in Medellin, Colombia. I was invited to give a lecture on the global burden of non-communicable diseases at the International Days of FUCS university. I also gave seminars on the importance of nutrition in health and disease at the departments of Pediatrics, Cardiology, and Surgery at FUCS university and at CES university in Medellin. Great to meet so many new people and discuss potential collaborations!
This week I’m at the IUNS International Conference of Nutrition in Buenos Aires. Great to meet so many old and new friends and to present my research on nutrition and health in the Generation R and Rotterdam Study in three different sessions at this great conference. And honored to have been awarded an Early Career Award!
Last month I was interviewed for the Magazine Uitzicht about the importance of nutrition for women’s health. We discussed for example the importance of exercise and of vitamin D supplementation after age 50 for bone health and specific nutritional requirements during pregnancy.
I got the amazing opportunity to attend the New Investigators United course on gut microbiota from the European Association for the Study of Obesity. Thanks all for a great meeting!
Excited to talk about the ‘sense and non-sense’ of nutrition hypes at this event for medical students. It is so important to have more nutrition and lifestyle education in the general medical curriculum! Good initiative by Student & Voeding!
This week, Zhangling Chen and I attended the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Lisbon. Over 20,000 scientists from all over the world came together to hear about the latest research on diabetes! At this event, Zhangling presented her work on protein intake in type 2 diabetes and I presented our work on serum fatty acids.
Interviews at FunX radio are so much fun. This time I talked with Shay and Morad about what to believe from all the nutrition information in the media.
Link to the audio fragment (in Dutch)
I got an interesting question from a journalist this week: is it healthy to eat foods with charcoal? Apparently it’s a hype to add activated charcoal to foods to ‘detox’. My response: yes, this product works as detox if you have an acute intoxication with certain poisons, because it binds these toxins in the stomach and helps to eliminate then. But it binds not only toxins, but also certain vitamins, minerals, and medications. So if you don’t have an acute it’s not only nonsense but even potentially dangerous!
Link to audio fragment (in Dutch)
Link to video fragment (in Dutch)
Following our publication on phytoestrogens and menopausal complaints (JAMA, 2016), Volkskrant Magazine asked me what consequences soy food may have for men.
Link to the article (in Dutch)
Following my presentation at the European Congress of Obesity, I got a lot of media attention for our research on protein intake in early childhood. Protein is important for child growth, but a too high protein intake in specifically early childhood stimulates growth hormones that may increase obesity risk. We observed that children who eat a lot of protein in infancy not only have a higher BMI but specifically a higher body fat mass later in childhood.