For an earlier PREVENTOMICS blog post, project partner OCU conducted a large survey to identify which behaviour changes end users perceive to be the easiest and the most difficult. According to the people surveyed, the lifestyle habits easiest to change were the following: Eating better (e.g.: more fruit and vegetables, less processed products, etc.): 52%. Doing more…
Obesity is a multifactorial syndrome associated with metabolic illnesses, such as type 2 diabetes, altered blood lipids and cardiovascular diseases. Genetic and environmental factors, as well as their interactions are main drivers of obesity, which make both, treatment and prevention difficult. In fact, the contribution of genetics to obesity and adiposity traits has been attributed…
Combating the obesity epidemic is one of the greatest challenges of modern times. Although diets for weight loss have been around for more than 2,500 years, they have obviously not been particularly successful, as rates of overweight and obesity have continued to increase across the world over the past several decades. According to the World Health…
Obesity and gut microbiota Obesity is a major concern in modern societies, especially in developed countries, since it’s prevalence has tripled worldwide since 1975 [1]. The World Health Organization reports that 39% of adults aged 18 years and over were overweight in 2016, and 13% were obese [2]. Obesity is usually defined as excess of…
Selection, balance, variety, prevention… It is well known that nutrition is one of the pillars of health. “We are what we eat” as the saying goes, but although there is more and more information on how to eat, overweight, a penchant for junk food, excesses and illnesses caused by poor nutrition are present in many…
Combating the obesity epidemic is one of the greatest challenges of modern times. Although diets for weight loss have been around for more than 2,500 years, they have obviously not been particularly successful, as rates of overweight and obesity have continued to increase across the world over the past several decades. According to the World Health Organization (2016), Europe…
Obesity has reached epidemic proportions worldwide and, especially when accompanied by group of disorders known as metabolic syndrome, is the common factor of reduced lifespan. Diagnosis of metabolic syndrome allows the identification of people at two-fold increased risk of cardiovascular disease and five-fold increased risk of type 2 diabetes. According to the International Diabetes Federation,…
Because eating well is a bet on health In recent decades, developed societies have experienced a food overabundance and this is reflected in the increase in life expectancy. At the same time health problems, such as obesity, have appeared, which highlight the lack of balance between nutrition and health. World Health Organization data clearly show…
There exist many approaches which try to recommend healthy diets. Most of them, however, are mainly observational, use food diaries, and have led to erroneous recommendations by assuming that the same diet is right for all people. But new tools, findings and emerging information technologies have changed the landscape for nutritional science and underscored the need to better individualise…
Is personalised nutrition an effective tool for preventing diet related diseases considering potentially higher costs? Nowadays, many people suffer from the well-known global health problem called obesity. Obesity is often caused by poor dietary patterns, which might lead to different diet related diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and heart diseases [1] [2]. Thus, prevention of…