May 04
On Site

Healthier Food, Healthier Minds

4th May, 2023

Book event

About this event

Healthier Food, Healthier Minds" aims to provide attendees with a better understanding of the connection between nutrition and brain health (mental health and cognition) and how this knowledge can inform product innovation, labelling and marketing.

The event brings together experts from various fields, including nutrition, psychology, neuroscience, and food labelling to share their research and insights on how diet can affect our brain health throughout life, highlighting the most effective foods and dietary components. The speakers will share examples of translation of research into product innovation, and the thinking and criteria behind packaging and making a nutrition or health claim.

Attendees can network with other professionals in the field and participate in interactive workshops and discussions to discuss the latest knowledge, consultancy, R&D and research opportunities.

Event talks

  • The brain introduced: Prof. Anne Marie Minihane

  • Gut Feeling: Targeting the gut for brain health: Dr David Vauzour

  • We are what we eat: Nutrition and brain vitality into older age: Prof Anne Marie Minihane

  • Can I make a health or nutrition claim: Prof Susan Fairweather-Tait

  • and more to be confirmed soon

Get to know the speakers

Anne Marie Minihane, Professor of Nutrigenetics

Head of the Department of Nutrition and Preventive Medicine Department, Norwich Medical School, UEA and Director of Norwich Institute of Healthy Ageing (NIHA)

Anne-Marie and team’s research programme investigates the impact of dietary components (marine omega-3- fatty acids and a Mediterranean-style dietary pattern) and APOE genotype on cognitive and overall brain health. Norwich Institute of Healthy Ageing (NIHA) is focused on providing agency, and the capability, opportunity and motivation to adopt healthier behaviours (eating, physical activity, socialisation, sleep etc.) aligned with recommendations, and also the translation of knowledge into food product innovation

In addition, at UEA, Anne Marie contributes to teaching Medical and Bioscience students, in the area of nutrition and disease prevention and therapeutics. She is an associate or deputy editor for several nutrition journals. When away from science she enjoys the outdoors, and in particular running, good food and wandering around supermarkets, social and historical fiction, and travel and its planning.

Dr David Vauzour, Associate Professor in Molecular Nutrition

Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, UK.

Dr Vauzour has a longstanding interest in the impact of food bioactive on (neuro)degenerative disorders and to develop novel strategies to delay brain ageing and cognitive decline. His recent interests concern how food bio-actives modulate the gut microbiome-brain axis in ageing and neurodegenerative disorders and their underlying molecular mechanisms.

To date, Dr Vauzour has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and currently serves as the Associate Editor for the journals “Nutrition and Healthy Aging”, Frontiers in Neuroscience – Gut-Brain axis and Frontiers in Nutrition – Nutrition and Brain Health. In addition, he is a member of the editorial board of “Nature Scientific Reports (Neuroscience)”, PharmaNutrition and “Peer J (Pharmacology)” and currently sits on the ILSI Europe Scientific Advisory Committee.

Professor Susan Fairweather-Tait

Professor Susan Fairweather-Tait is a Professor of Human Nutrition, at Norwich Medical School, the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Her main research interests are mineral metabolism and requirements, in particular iron, and she has over 300 peer-reviewed publications. She has served on several national and international advisory committees, including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Panel on Nutrition. She is currently chair of the UK Nutrition and Health Claims Committee (2020-present) and the FAO/WHO expert group on nutrient requirements for children aged 0-36 months (2020-present).

She is a member of the UK Scientific Advisory Committee for Nutrition (SACN) (2021-present), the Food Standards Agency Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (2020-present), EFSA’s Working Group on Upper Levels of Nutrients, and she represents SACN on the Board of the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey. She was elected a Fellow of the American Society for Nutrition in 2017 and appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Nutrition Society in 2021.

Agenda

09:30 - 09:45

Welcome refreshments, registration

09:45 - 10:00

Introductions of hosts

National Institute of Healthy Ageing

Food Innovation Cluster

10:00 - 10:20

The brain introduced - Prof. Anne Marie Minihane

10:20 - 10:40

Gut feeling: targeting the gut for brain health - Dr David Vauzour

10:40 - 11:00

Can I make a health or nutrition claim? - Prof Susan Fairweather-Tait

11:00 - 11:15

TBC

11:15 - 11:30

Break for refreshments

11:30 - 11:50

We are what we eat: nutrition and brain vitality into older age - Prof Anne Marie Minihane

11:50 - 12:10

TBC

12:10 - 12:30

TBC

12:30 - 13:15

Healthy lunch and networking opportunities

13:15 - 14:00

Tour of NRP 


Tour to include Bob Champion (NIHA), Quadram Institute, John Innes, and a rep from NRP

14:00 - 15:30

Roundtables


Discuss amongst yourselves the findings of today and create debates.

15:30

Close