The conference united a multidisciplinary group of experts, including Dr Roberto Bertollini, chief scientist at the World Health Organisation, Professor James Hill and Professor Adam Drewnowski.
Dr Roberto Bertollini, chief scientist at the World Health Organisation, opened the conference by highlighting the reality of Europe’s health challenges, providing some startling statistics:
“In 46 countries in the European region, over 50% of the population is overweight and over 20% of the population is obese,” said Bertollini. “The WHO estimates that 63% of adults are not reaching the minimum recommended levels of physical activity and only 20% of 11-year-old girls and 30% of 11-year-old boys are reporting that they engage in at least one hour of daily moderately vigorous physical activity.”
Following on from Bertollini’s overview of the scale of the obesity issue, Professor Adam Drewnowski from the University of Washington talked about his new research: “We have found that low calorie sweeteners are actually a proxy for a healthy diet,” he said. “Users of low calorie sweeteners also eat a healthier, balanced diet and are more physically active. What we also discovered is that the future of health research needs to include targeted geographic and societal insight at a micro level in order to make it relevant. Local data can show, even down to postcode level, which neighbourhoods are most affected by obesity and diabetes. This gives us much greater insights into the environmental factors beyond what we consume.”
Following this, Professor James Hill, US obesity expert and professor of pediatrics and medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine, said the secret to better weight management is, “eat smarter and move more. Our research has found that making small changes daily, such as choosing low calorie food and drinks, can make a big difference over time when looking at weight maintenance.”
Professor Colette Shortt, chairwoman of the ISA, said: “Today, we heard from leading academics about the importance of tackling obesity and diabetes, and the way that low calorie sweeteners can play a role. We have heard that we are born with an innate preference for sweetness, therefore removing sweetness totally from the diet is not desirable nor pragmatic, which is where low calorie sweeteners can play a significant role providing sweetness with no or few calories.
“We are proud to stimulate and support the ongoing dialogue between the scientific community, policy makers, healthcare practitioners and industry to ensure we are all utilising the best possible evidence and resources to help tackle these modern health challenges.”
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