Health Effects

HEALTH EFFECTS area in the Nutritech research programme focuses on establishing the physiological effects induced by foods and diets, and on finding food factors relevant for health maintenance and reducing risks of chronic diseases. Our key targets are obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases and other aging-related diseases, such as Alzheimer disease.

WHY HEALTH EFFECTS? Public health is a both a key issue of our societies and a major driver in food business. While food technologies offer multiple possibilities for development of new foods and ingredients, we need to understand how foods influence our metabolism, and substantiate both health effects and safety. The expanding knowledge about genetic origin and pathogenesis of chronic diseases can be used for development of preventive measures also in terms of functional foods and ingredients.

WHAT DO WE OFFER TO INDUSTRIAL PLATFORM MEMBERS? We offer experise in substantiating nutritional and health claims of foods and diets, and for screening of functional ingredients. We search for new targets to serve as early biomarkers of disease pathogenesis, and help in identification of new dietary means in reduction the risk of chronic diseases. We also offer tools to evaluate the cost effectiveness of healthy foods and diets.

THE RESEARCH IS FOCUSED ON THE FOLLOWING AREAS:

Examples of ongoing international projects:

SYSDIET: Nordic Centre of Excellence “Systems biology in controlled dietary interventions and cohort studies” http://www.nordforsk.org/

HELGA: Nordic Centre of Excellence “Nordic Health - whole grain food” http://www.nordforsk.org/

HEALTHGRAIN: "Exploiting Bioactivity of European Cereal Grains for Improved Nutrition and Health Benefits”. www.healthgrain.org

NUCSYS: Systems biology of nuclear receptors: A nutrigenomic approach to aging-related diseases. Marie Curie research Training Network. www.uku.fi/nucsys

HEPADIP: Hepatic and adipose tissue in the Metabolic syndrome http://www.hepadip.org/

For more information please contact:
Prof. Kaisa Poutanen, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it