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The Dietary Science Foundation invests in targeted dietary interventions
16/04/2024
Through specially designed dietary interventions, it is possible to influence various disease mechanisms. The Dietary Science Foundation is now announcing a total of 1.6 million Swedish kronor over two years for researchers who want to investigate the effects of targeted dietary interventions on different diseases.
The food we eat not only provides energy and nutrients, but it also affects our biochemistry and can alter the composition of our gut flora. Therefore, food can truly be considered medicine.
A telling example is how a ketogenic diet can be used to treat epilepsy. Children who are not helped by medication and who experience many seizures per day can, in some cases, become essentially seizure-free if they follow a ketogenic diet. Why the diet has such a good effect is uncertain, but it seems to dampen inflammation in the brain and also affects the levels of various neurotransmitters.
The food we eat can influence several diseases
Our food choices also influence our blood sugar and insulin levels, especially in individuals with abdominal obesity. Elevated blood sugar is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and insulin can stimulate cancer cells to grow. High insulin levels are also a well-known explanation for women who have problems with ovulation, a condition known as polycystic ovary syndrome. The reason is that insulin can increase the levels of free testosterone in women.
Furthermore, what we eat affects our gut flora and gut health. There are hypotheses that various dietary interventions that affect the intestinal environment could prevent food allergies and also have an effect on autoimmune diseases, to name a few examples.
Aims to strengthen the science
While our knowledge of the body’s chemistry and gut flora clearly indicates that different dietary treatments can affect certain diseases, this is rarely utilized in healthcare. A key reason is the lack of decisive evidence that dietary treatments are truly effective – large clinical studies on humans are lacking.
To strengthen the science in this area, the Dietary Science Foundation is now announcing 1.6 million Swedish kronor for clinical studies of targeted dietary interventions. You can read the full announcement via this link. The Dietary Science Foundation encourages researchers to submit proposals for studies by May 15, 2024. We will prioritize projects that break new ground in this area and are relevant from a patient and societal perspective.
Finally, our warmest thanks to all of you who support the Dietary Science Foundation. It’s tremendously meaningful. Targeted dietary interventions could potentially play a much larger role in healthcare than they do today. The field is underdeveloped, and there is much to be explored. Your support enables us to strengthen the science. So THANK YOU!
