Food For Thought
Tuesday 9th & Wednesday 10th October 2023 'Food For Thought'-Obesity and Diabetes
The event was held at the Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue and simultaneously online.
Watch these videos from the prestigious Swiss Re/BMJ collaboration October 2023, all presentations are available bellow.
Swiss Re Website & acknowledgement
The Swiss Re institute website gives access to all speakers, and their presentations on its own website. On this site with the kind permission of Swiss Re, metabolichealthmalta.com has brought together those links including the CVs of the speakers, links to their further research, and to a survey where you can record your own comments if you wish.
Survey Monkey
If you would like to make specific comment or ask questions regarding the contents of these presentations, you can easily so by downloading this survey.
BMJ/Swiss Re: Food For Thought - Open Access Collection 2023
Introduction 2023
How do we maintain a healthy diet to avoid cardiometabolic disease, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes? How does the science and politics of food intertwine to influence our understanding of nutrition and cardiometabolic health? Nutrition is an important part of a public health response to prevent and treat cardiometabolic disease, yet there are major uncertainties and debates in this field.
This Food for Thought 2023 collection was developed in partnership with The Swiss Re Institute, and builds on the success of two collections in 2018 and 2020 on the science and politics of nutrition. The collection focuses on key issues within the field of cardiometabolic health and nutrition where there are debates or uncertainties, and brings together some of the world’s most thoughtful and influential voices, representing a range of perspectives and expertise, to examine the state of current knowledge and the quality of the evidence. The collection provides critical reflection and analysis of potential disagreement among experts including on the certainty of the evidence, which we hope can inform the agenda for further research and action for cardiometabolic health.
Food for Thought 2023: Rising to the challenge of obesity and diabetes, 10-11 October 2023.
A better understanding of the key nutritional mechanisms leading to metabolic ill health, including diabetes and obesity, could significantly improve population health.
This will be a focus of Food for Thought 2023: Rising to the challenge of obesity and diabetes.
Building on the success of two previous collections (2018 and 2020), The BMJ and The Swiss Re Institute once again partner to explore how nutrition can lead to better health outcomes and greater societal resilience against disease. The event will connect networks of nutrition research and practice with thought leaders and decision makers from business and government.
These articles are part of a series commissioned by the BMJ.
Open access fees for the series were funded by The Swiss Re Institute, which had no input in to the commissioning or peer review of the articles.
Commissioned by BMJ
Editorial:
Challenges of obesity and type 2 diabetes require more attention to food environment:
https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj.p2269
The narrative must shift away from individual choice on to structural factors.
Analysis:
High but decreasing prevalence of overweight in preschool children: encouragement for further action https://www.bmj.com/content/383/BMJ-2023-075736
Sarah Maessen and colleagues argue that identifying successful policies and practices in countries with falls in early childhood overweight can help enhance efforts and reduce within country inequities.
Evidence for clinical interventions targeting the gut microbiome in cardiometabolic disease
https://www.bmj.com/content/383/BMJ-2023-075180
Tarini Shankar Ghosh and Ana Maria Valdes evaluate the evidence for clinical effects of microbiome altering interventions on cardiometabolic traits.
Ultra-processed foods and cardiometabolic health: public health policies to reduce consumption cannot wait https://www.bmj.com/content/383/BMJ-2023-075294
Incomplete understanding of the multiple mechanisms underlying the link between ultra-processed foods and cardiometabolic health should not be an excuse for inaction argue Mathilde Touvier and colleagues.
Nutrition could prevent or promote non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: an opportunity for intervention https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj-2023-075179
Manuel Romero-Gómez and colleagues discuss how diet and modifiable factors can help prevent of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and the importance of engaging all society through awareness, education, and policy change.
Open Access Sponsored by Swiss Re
Open Access Sponsored by Swiss Re
Non-sugar sweeteners: helpful or harmful? The challenge of developing intake recommendations with the available research
https://www.bmj.com/content/383/BMJ-2023-075293
Valisa Hedrick and colleagues argue that current evidence on non-sugar sweetener intake is inadequate, and further research is needed to determine the health effects of individual non-sugar sweeteners, especially in specific population subgroups.
Social, clinical, and policy implications of ultra-processed food addiction https://www.bmj.com/content/383/BMJ-2023-075354
Conceptualising ultra-processed foods high in carbohydrates and fats as addictive substances can contribute to efforts to improve health, argue Ashley Gearhardt and colleagues.
Interwoven challenges of covid-19, poor diet, and cardiometabolic health https://www.bmj.com/content/383/BMJ-2023-076810
Carmen Piernas and Jordi Merino argue that suboptimal diet and poor metabolic health aggravated the covid-19 pandemic and require greater attention to increase population resilience and reduce health inequalities.
Food and mood: how do diet and nutrition affect mental wellbeing? https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2382
Poor nutrition may be a causal factor in the experience of low mood, and improving diet may help to protect not only the physical health but also the mental health of the population, say Joseph Firth and colleagues.
Challenges and opportunities for better nutrition science—an essay by Tim Spector and Christopher Gardner https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2470
The path to conducting better nutrition science entails recognising previous and inherent limitations and challenges and building on recent developments and opportunities, say Tim Spector and Christopher Gardner.
Listen to the accompanying podcast: https://www.swissre.com/institute/conferences/food-for-thought-bmj-2020.html