Experts are convinced they are achieving new discoveries in health promoting food
Barely three years have past since the Antidiabetic Food Center opened at Lund University; its purpose is to achieve results that can help decrease the rising occurrence of diet related diseases. Today more than thirty experts are actively working to try and find new preventive diet concepts which can prevent metabolism syndromes.
“Overweight, obesity and high blood pressure are examples of syndromes that can lead to diabetes and cardiovascular diseases”, says Maria Johansson, the assistant centre manager.
The Antidiabetic Food Center is part of Vinnova’s VinnExc programme which will last until 2017. At the moment there are about fifteen ongoing projects at the Antidiabetic Food Center, and they all have the goal of identifying food related factors and qualities that prevent inflammation of the intestine. This is due to new research indicating that bowel health plays a big part in the development of diseases such as obesity and diabetes. In addition to new research findings the goal is also to find methods to apply the results in society.
“We are very confident and convinced that we will achieve results that can be passed on to the food and provisions market and also implemented in the health care system.”
Maria Johansson thinks that the selection of available preventive goods is not large enough, even if it has increased during the last couple of years.
“The selection of bread is getting better because of the increased use of fibres, but it still is not enough. The available goods are not as bold and innovative as they could be.”According to Maria Johansson the statistics show that what we eat is the single most important factor in determining an early death.
“Food plays a very big role. It is more important than both smoking and exercise. But personally I think it is very important that there is interplay between these factors, genes and general health.”
Facts: Antidiabetic Food Center
The Antidiabetic Food Center at Lund University is one of Vinnova’s ‘VINN Excellence Center in Research and Innovation; its goal is excellent research which in turn will lead to relevant research results. The research is carried out in collaboration with the university, trade and industry and the public sector. The Skåne Food Innovation Network is one of the main figures in supporting the research at the Antidiabetic Food Center. The total budget of the project is 210 million Swedish kronor.
Read more about the Antidiabetic Food Center.