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- NNEdPro Summer School 2019 & Save the Date 2020
Reflecting on Summer School in Applied Human Nutrition 2019 This year, over 5 days from 5-9 July, 24 students from over 10 countries across the globe gained a Foundation certificate in Applied Human Nutrition together hosted at Homerton College, Cambridge University. The course covered a diverse range of topics as wide as their backgrounds to immerse themselves in health and biological sciences and solved into contemporary and cutting-edge subjects. These included: Basic Concepts in Human Nutrition Nutrition Research Methods Nutrition in Disease Prevention Nutrition in Healthcare Nutrition Public Health and Policy With Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, this year’s edition of the Summer School was co-organised with the School of Advanced Studies on Food and Nutrition of the University of Parma, Italy, and had a contingent of internationally recognised lecturers in Cambridge for the occasion. Thank you to the faculty for taking the time out to teach the students. The course was accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Society for Biology. For more on curriculum and faculty, download the handbook from Summer School 2019 In pictures highlights View pictures from Summer School in Flickr here What happens next? Post the course, students were welcomed into the International Academy of Nutrition Educators (IANE) for one year and will continue to receive mentoring and opportunities to further advance their career in various aspects of nutrition. SAVE THE DATE: Summer School in Applied Human Nutrition 2020 Faculty, mentors, prospective students – save the date for Summer School 2020 taking place from 12-16 July 2020 in Cambridge We look forward to meeting you next year! – Team NNEdPro
- From the Desk of the NNEdPro Chair: June 2019
It is that time of year when we are excitedly counting days to our flagship summer events as we prepare to connect the world to Cambridge this July! The Nutrition Science Summer Programme that we run for the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education is now officially full and operating a waiting list – but there are still places to go at our Summer School in Applied Human Nutrition at Homerton College as well as our International Summit and the ISNN Congress, which promise to be a really stimulating 9 days of Cambridge educational events… do join us and put the word out as we hope to see you all this summer! Since my last update in May, we have completed a full membership and operations refresh and now stand at a strength of over 220 full members of which over 40 form our dynamic and international virtual core. At home base, the NEPHELP (Nutrition Education Policy for Healthcare Practice) roadshow in the UK is well under way as well as the preparation towards formal launch of a UK Regional Network and Coalition of key organisations over 2019. Last month we also successfully launched our already thriving new Brazil Regional Network after which we were present/active in the margins of the World Health Assembly. This month promises to be action-packed too as our Patron Lord Rana joins us to officially launch our relocated Nutrition and Vascular Studies Platform at Ulster University on 21st June, where we will also announce our intention to form a new Regional Network of Ireland. This month we will also be running a new two-day national nutrition course for Physiotherapists in the Netherlands (via the SOMT University), widening our professional horizons. In late June we are also running a series of key presentations at the World Health Organization HQ including a first of its kind training workshop in Nutrition for the WHO Global Internship Programme in Geneva which brings together several hundred of tomorrow’s shapers from across UN member states. Amongst our international events is also our presence next month at the 52nd conference of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior where we will open the membership scheme of the International Academy of Nutrition Educators in partnership with SNEB and Monash University to the wider world and this will be marked with the collateral launch of our repurposed US Regional Network in the margins of the congress. We look forward to meeting many of you next month in Cambridge! Very best wishes, Professor Sumantra (Shumone) Ray (NNEdPro Founding Chair and Executive Director) #NEPHELP #nutritioneducation #SumantraRay #UKNutrition
- From the Desk of the NNEdPro Chair
PANDEMIC TO PANDORA – Two months, Two Lessons and Ten Thanks Since our last newsletter sent in early February all our lives have changed in ways that we could not even have conceived just a couple of months ago! THE PAST TWO MONTHS Rewinding back to the beginning of February, the NNEdPro Global Centre Regional Networks programme ran a series of bi-annual workshops and fieldwork across the India network with activities spanning five states. This was followed through the rest of February by planned soft launches of three important network hubs in Switzerland, Italy and Mexico bringing the total number of network hubs to ten across the globe. Over the 2020/21 this leaves two more regional networks to be launched – one in Canada where this will consolidate our longstanding collaborations since 2014 and another in the Middle East where we have developed very promising new connections – additionally some of our existing networks are to be expanded to cover a wider geographical reach such as within the African continent. Attainment of these three remaining milestones will mark the completion of the roll-out of strategically placed regional networks linked with our vision of an International Knowledge Application Hub in Nutrition by 2025 (I-KANN-25), serving the needs of nutrition and health professionals across all of these regions. Within each regional network we will prepare to implement our two cross-cutting models: Nutrition Education policy for Healthcare Practice (NEPHELP) at the level of professionals and policymakers, as well as the Mobile Teaching Kitchen (MTK) interfacing with both professionals and the public. Back at base, in the first week of March we delivered a very well attended webinar on Nutrition and Cardiovascular Disease to our healthcare colleagues down under via the Australasian Society for Lifestyle Medicine followed by key note talks and a key presence at the hugely impactful inaugural annual conference of Nutritank at the Royal Society for Medicine. Do visit our past events page to have a look at the action packed weeks of from late January to early March. And then just over a month ago the tide turned dramatically as our colleagues in Italy went into lockdown. By the second week of March, COVID-19 had gone from being a public health emergency of international concern (which we had alluded to with all humility in our January newsletter!) to an omnipresent pandemic permeating every facet of our global centre and leading to the cancellation of our showcasing event in the Cambridge Science Festival and subsequently the entire festival itself! As things in Italy and neighbouring countries began to spiral uncontrollably, the UK began to grapple, prevaricate and ultimately realise that a tidal wave was about to hit in the form of SARS-CoV-2 and the deadly disease that is COVID-19. As we cross Easter, the UK will have been in lock-down for three weeks and it is barely a month since our face to face activities were in full swing. Yet it feels like another era already. Many of us have spent much of March and now part of April working remotely and living in relative isolation (or in some cases completely so!) attempting wherever possible to maintain some semblance of normality for those of us lucky enough to do so whilst countless others either fall victim to COVID-19 or indeed battle bravely on the front-line of this invisible war and possibly the greatest generational challenge that most of us will experience in our lifetime as well as one that generations to come will mark in the books of history. Against this surreal backdrop of a world that will possibly never be quite the same again – a world where all borders and divisions, both natural and man-made, have been relentlessly permeated without discrimination – we are also witnessing an increasing number of small miracles in the form of the human spirit striving to combat COVID-19, ranging from selfless acts of kindness through to the prowess of science working for society, as well as the unshakeable resolve of healthcare and key workers who are putting their own lives on the line to serve others. I feel inspired to see that the NNEdPro Virtual Core as well as the wider membership is full of such miracle-makers including those members who are at the frontline in both clinical and societal settings as well as others who form part of the scientific and public health response. It is a real privilege to be working with such outstanding individuals! Whilst COVID-19 has been a threat like no other it has also ignited our will and skill to play a key role in rapidly pulling together as an organisation but also robustly pooling together scientific knowledge that might be of help. By mid-March we activated crisis management processes within the NNEdPro Global Centre to develop an organisational response appropriate to our position of being headquartered in the UK but with widespread central as well as regional networks. Whilst recognising that the dynamic needs of individual regions would differ, we established a centrally positioned Taskforce co-led by a front-line medical doctor with formal training in ‘Global Health and Catastrophe Medicine’ to help guide our activities through these disrupted and uncertain times. Following our initial Taskforce meeting we prioritised the safety of all members across our regional networks. In order to ensure this, ALL NNEdPro operations were moved online with immediate effect and indefinitely, in line with measures advised by the World Health Organization. This was roughly a week ahead of the UK at large, enabling us to gear up and continue current operations through virtual methods. Fortunately, in the Autumn of 2019 ahead of the current crisis, we transitioned to predominantly virtual operations and therefore had some lead time on this front. In addition, we immediately enacted several changes to our calendar of events including transitioning to virtual platforms wherever possible including our flagship summer school and summit. Despite best efforts there will still be cancellation of some events where conversion to online is not feasible but as far as we can see these will not impede our overall scientific and strategic goals for the year ahead. Our Directors and Governors have also rallied around all efforts which have benefited from the much more frequent counsel of the Directors in particular. Aside from considerations of safety, our Medical Director specialised in Occupational Medicine, has also been running a twice weekly online ‘Wellbeing Café’ to help the NNEdPro Virtual Core keep good spirits during this unprecedented time. Invariably, all our University lab-based as well as field-based activities across the board were suspended in mid-March until further notice and roles have been rapidly repurposed. Due to our wide-ranging activities worldwide, we have been monitoring the development of the pandemic and seeking expert advice to enable dynamic risk management across our central and regional networks. However, perhaps the most challenging part of this has been to remotely guide the risk management of field activities in lesser resourced settings such as our work in urban slums and rural villages in India. Whilst we were able to act very early to mitigate exposure to our researchers and participants/beneficiaries and this will hopefully save lives for now, it remains that saving livelihoods is a greater challenge, as is ensuring food security in the medium term. To this effect we have re-purposed our crowdfunding campaign for our champions in urban slums of Kolkata to help towards their survival but of course recognising that this is a tiny tip of a gigantic iceberg and we are therefore collecting insights from the field and attempting to pass these on to those concerned with mitigating the effects of acute food insecurity arising from the COVID-19 crisis. The efforts of our Taskforce (and particularly our science comms and digital leads) have led to the development of a dedicated Microsite collating useful resources for our members and stakeholders on COVID-19: https://www.nnedpro.org.uk/coronavirus. Within this Microsite we have specifically created a set of resources and information around COVID-19 and Nutrition: https://www.nnedpro.org.uk/nutrition-resources and our rapidly synthesised original blog bringing together a 10-point summary on diet, nutrition and the role of micronutrients has now been viewed online by over 2K people and is being translated and adapted for multiple regions. Also in production is an evidence-informed practice guidance piece in Complete Nutrition which is expected to reach well over 10K health professionals. Additionally, working closely with our journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health we launched a special collection on Nutrition and COVID-19 Interactions in which we are calling for guiding evidence that might help us in this unprecedented global crisis. I am delighted that we already have several pieces in various stages of genesis that multiple authors around the globe are working on towards strengthening or collating the existing evidence we have on COVID-19/immunity/infection and its connections with nutrition as well as looking at the acute impact of COVID-19 measures on food security. As these outputs emerge over coming weeks our science comms team will have much to do towards disseminating key messages for potential uptake. We have also managed to quickly input to the design of an acute London-based study in a hospital intensive care unit looking at how nutritional status/intervention might be correlated with clinical outcomes in COVID-19. We hope that through these efforts we will soon understand more clearly where Nutrition is positioned both in the realms of prevention as well as intervention in relation to COVID-19. I am immensely thankful to all contributors and the Taskforce which has been working tirelessly towards enabling us to make a humble contribution of one more piece towards the jigsaw puzzle that we are all living. The members of the Taskforce are below: NNEdPro COVID-19 Task Force Co-Chairs – Dr Dominic Crocombe (Exec) & Prof Shumone Ray (Ex-Officio) Attending Members – James Bradfield Education/Events), Dr Luke Buckner (Key Projects), Emily Fallon (Public Health), Dr Lyn Haynes (Networks), Shane McAuliffe (Science Comms) & Sucheta Mitra (Secretariat) Corresponding Members – Matheus Abrantes (Digital), Martin Kohlmeier (BMJ NPH) & Pauline Douglas (also on behalf of Prof Dan Del Rio, Dr Celia Laur & Dr Minha Rajput-Ray) TWO LESSONS LEARNED Reflecting on these two tumultuous months, highlights two key lessons for me personally, which I would like to share. The first one stems back to 2009-10 when I was an NIHR Public Health Fellow in the East of England and visited the WHO HQ in Geneva to witness the global response to the H1N1 (Swine Flu) pandemic which was estimated to have led to about 575,000 deaths at that time after which it continues to add to the overall burden of seasonal influenza which continues to kill half a million people annually. This pandemic just over a decade ago also challenged global public health systems quite significantly but of course was in many ways less lethal both in terms of its transmissibility as well as its case fatality in comparison to the agent of the current pandemic. However, the lesson from 2009/10 was one of PREPAREDNESS along the lines of the old adage of failing to prepare being equivalent to preparing to fail! By 2010 public health agencies all over the world had actually prepared for an even worse viral pandemic and the WHO had defined a multistage process to help with a coordinated and timely response. But processes are only as good as the people who discharge them and with the passage of time this lesson had perhaps faded from many a memory both at the level of individuals but also organisations. COVID-19 reminds us once again in a manner that cannot be ignored that we must prepare for a future in which there may be other unprecedented global challenges whether this takes the form of pandemics or the effects of climate change. We cannot control nature but we can curb some of our own actions that contribute towards the precipitation of calamities and we can certainly train ourselves to be better prepared and not take for granted the liberties that we have all been afforded to date. There is also a second lesson that I learned five years ago. At the time of the H1N1 Pandemic as part of the healthcare workforce I felt at arm’s length from the disease itself. But ironically in January 2015 I suffered from a particularly severe case of ‘Swine Flu’ myself. As an H1N1 survivor I remember being isolated in a high dependency unit running an unbelievably high temperature for days and ultimately having convulsions as well as being unconscious. I developed pulmonary haemorrhage, couldn’t breathe and felt like I was drowning on dry ground and from needing oxygen I was soon on positive pressure ventilation. In short, I went in days from having no underlying health conditions to being so extremely ill that I was certain it was the end and so were a number of others. However, despite the severity of illness I bounced back just as dramatically, thanks to modern healthcare and perhaps a competent immune system. It has been five years since then that I have perhaps been on borrowed time. My lungs underwent all the classical pathological changes associated with severe viral and recurring secondary pneumonia taking three years for me to recover fully. Despite the setback in early 2015, the past five years has brought a sense of urgency whereby I have attempted to utilise as much time as possible towards facilitating a small but tangible contribution to the mission that underpins the work of our Global Centre. The lesson I learned in this process was that of GRATITUDE. To appreciate all that we have and not take for granted the most important gift of all and that is to be alive and have time on our side! Many of us will not only be alive and well but we are also well positioned with opportunities to make contributions to science and society which look beyond immediate or individual returns and convert the power of privilege into priority actions that are needed to collectively address the global challenges of our time and beyond. The COVID-19 pandemic once again reminds us that we are all susceptible but also that we are all connected and that those of us who are fortunate enough to be spared can express gratitude in innumerable ways, even incognito, for the benefit of those who are most affected or at risk across the populations that we serve. TEN TOKENS OF THANKS If we all look, I am sure we can identify at least ten things for which we can give tokens of our thanks. My own heartfelt thanks (in no particular order and all with equal emphasis!) at this time go to: (1) Healthcare professionals and key workers the world over for saving lives every single moment and keeping things functioning across society; (2) Policymakers and those who hold the power to intervene at population level whilst maintaining law, order and decorum; (3) Scientists – both in biomedical/health as well as social/behavioural sciences – particularly those contributing to guiding prevention as well as intervention; (4) Our members, collaborators, stakeholders and beneficiaries for being such a source of inspiration and dedication as we try to do our little bit; (5) Family, friends and immediate colleagues who are all affected but never hesitate to think of others before themselves; (6) Teachers and educators who have found ways to ensure that the pursuit of learning can continue no matter what; (7) Innovators in all sections of society who are using ingenious ways to help us all retain the modern amenities that we have all become so used to; (8) The media and other forms of communication which have enabled us to stay excruciatingly up to date but also digitally more connected than perhaps ever before; (9) The supply of good food, clean water, comfortable accommodation and the economic as well as intellectual privileges which many not be available to so many when they need it the most; (10) The unique opportunities which both I and the NNEdPro Global Centre are continually presented with to make a positive difference in the world through our concerted efforts. I can also think of many more as I have had five years before this to reflect on the role of both preparedness as well as gratitude! THE PANDEMIC AND PANDORA’S BOX As we live through this pandemic, finding ways to not only survive but ultimately thrive, I cannot help but draw a metaphorical analogy to the well-known idiom of Pandora’s box. As most will know the box symbolises a source of great and unexpected troubles. The mythological story behind this described the box as containing sickness, death and despair which were released into the world. However, the one thing that was left behind was the most important attribute of all, the power of HOPE. This pandemic is of course very real, and it really is unimaginably bad. But this is not the first pandemic to have swept the world and it may not be the last. So as we all go through this together it is important that we continue to hold on to hope in all its forms which will help us persevere as well as preserve the momentum of our efforts to overcome this pandemic and any further challenges that the future may hold! I wish you all the very best of health whilst I offer my thoughts and prayers to those who have very sadly suffered loss already. I would like to close by lighting a ‘candle of hope’ which is something that has always guided me personally even at the most challenging of times so I would invite you to pass this message to one and all envisioning an increasingly brighter road ahead of us and one where we all walk together in solidarity HAPPY EASTER WITH HOPE FOR HAPPIER HORIZONS! Professor Sumantra (Shumone) Ray
- Summer School Stories: Helena Trigueiro
@@helenatrigueir1 My name is Helena Trigueiro and I am a Portuguese trainee Dietitian, soon to be registered by the Dietitians Portuguese Council. When I was in high school my passion for food and health resulted in me falling in love with nutrition. I applied to the University of Porto where I studied Food Sciences and Nutrition, and later continued as a Masters’ student. Her thoughts on discovering & attending Summer School 2018 The course content is extremely diverse: you can be learning about body composition in one morning, and in the next one be exploring case-studies or scientific papers. This remarkable chance to hear lecturers from all over the world is joined by their generosity in sharing information and data. Top Tips from Helena Another thing I would say would be to enjoy the experience outside the lectures: socialise, visit Cambridge and enrol in the evening activities NNEdPro suggests for you, it will be well worth it! Finally, this experience is very short but very intense: be a sponge. Ask when you don’t understand something, try to acquire as much knowledge as you can… and be happy. I am very honoured and very glad that I had this experience, I would unquestionably recommend it and it was one of the highlights of my year. Thank you NNEdPro! – Helena, Summer School / IANE 2018 #Nutrition #SummerSchool
- From the Desk of the NNEdPro Chair: March 2019
Reflecting on the last quarter The first quarter of 2019 has gotten off to quite a promising start for the NNEdPro Global Centre for Nutrition and Health. As an organisation, we have already seen a number of key dates in our calendar with milestones celebrated and achieved in the last few months. This included our three flagship events marking five years of operations across India in the month of February. This started with our Five Year Symposium in Kolkata, showcasing the results from our urban slums mobile teaching kitchens and its innovative micro enterprise phase, followed by a BMJ India Nutrition Masterclass held in New Delhi for clinicians from a range of different Indian hospitals, and finally a rural adaptation workshop organised in Sanghol Punjab on mobile teaching kitchens, connecting our urban work with the University of Cambridge TIGR2ESS programme spanning all zones of India to create sustainable food supplies as well as improve nutrition and health. 13th March marked the official opening of our new offices by Lord Balfe at the St John’s Innovation Centre in Cambridge, which symbolises our entry into a period of academic entrepreneurship. We were at the International Forum on Quality & Safety in Healthcare from 27th – 29th March in Glasgow where we conducted a NEPHelp workshop on ‘Food, fluid and nutritional care as key drivers to improve healthcare outcomes: The Nutrition Education policy for Healthcare Practice Training Package’ . We also had an important poster based on our paper: Time for Nutrition, and introduced our e-learning. Watch this space for more updates on these! During the first two months of 2019 I completed a secondment to the World Health Organisation’s Nutrition Directorate and have now been retained as a visiting consultant till the end of the summer in order to progress our joint strategy towards nutrition capacity building particularly in relation to health care and health systems. What we have in store Not only does all of this set the stage for the remainder of 2019 but it also allows us to focus on some of the immediate challenges before us, which are the capacity building activities that we now will focus on within the United Kingdom including the launch of our educational roadshow across different regions of the NHS to raise nutrition awareness in medical doctors and other healthcare professionals. Following the workshop at the BMJ Quality and Safety Conference in Glasgow, alongside the launch of our e-learning package, we will go to five different regions of the NHS in England to convey key messages and educational interventions. This will be followed by our Summer Events in Cambridge this July, particularly our Summer School and International Summit. This year we are also hosting the 13th Congress of the International Society for Nutrigenetics and Nutrigenomics. Underpinning all of our activities this year is also the advent of our external membership and mentoring scheme of the International Academy of Nutrition Educators (IANE) which sits within the NNEdPro Global Centre and works in conjunction with the Society for Nutrition Education and Behaviour in the United States as well as Monash online learning in Australia. This external membership and mentoring scheme offers a unique opportunity to receive one-on-one guidance towards becoming tomorrow’s nutrition educators and we are pleased to be welcoming our first external members as of February 2019 and is free for internal members. Do take a look at the events calendar for the months ahead, and I would be delighted to see as many of you as possible at our Summer Events this July in Cambridge where we bring the world to a common forum in order to move together with consensus around the next priorities and steps towards strengthening nutrition capacity for health. Very best wishes, Professor Sumantra (Shumone) Ray (NNEdPro Founding Chair and Executive Director)
- Behind the Scenes @ 10 Years | CN Article, June 2018
Meet the NNEdPro Core Team! What does NNEdPro mean to you? What is your motivation to be involved in NNEdPro? What do you think is the future of NNEdPro? The responses helped us gain an insight into the drivers behind our shared mission and vision, which we have summarised in our CN article: Behind the Scenes @ 10 years But don’t just read about us – come meet us in person during NNEdPro Nutrition Week 2018! The NNEdPro Core Team are integral to our annual Summer School and International Summit and will be there to answer your questions in person. Are you a professional or student with an interest in nutrition? Then our Summer School in Applied Human Nutrition from 14th-18th July 2018 is for you! Read more on the University of Cambridge Institute for Continuing Education website including how to register. The 4th Annual NNEdPro International Summit incorporates a Members and Stakeholders Global Strategy Workshop on 19th July, which is by invitation only, and our International Conference on Medical and Public Health Nutrition Education and Research on 20th July. #Summit #NutritionEvent #medicaleducation #NNEdProWeek #NNEdProWeek2018 #SummerSchool #CN #nnedpro10
- 10 top reasons to attend the 5-day Summer School in Applied Human Nutrition
Taking place from 5-9 July 2019, here we outline 10 reasons to attend the the Summer School in Applied Human Nutrition! The course is a unique, intensive programme that covers basic nutritional concepts, through current research and methods, to prevention, healthcare and policy applications. You will learn from a leading global faculty like no other! 40+ contact hours which includes a mix of learning methods including practical and interactive sessions, case studies, as well as self directed learning. 1:1 mentoring, which continues well after Summer School…. All attendees gain 1 year membership of the International Academy of Nutrition Educators which also includes mentoring. The opportunity to grow your nutrition knowledge network through networking events including a gala dinner and a social programme. The opportunity to gain a certificate and CPD for those suitably qualified. The experience of learning in the heart of the vibrant University of Cambridge at Homerton College Discounts including at the Summit on Medication Nutrition Education & ISNN Congress. Discount on BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health Article Publishing Charges. & much more! The NNEdPro Summer School in Applied Human Nutrition is delivered in strategic partnership with the University of Parma, School of Advanced Studies on Food and Nutrition. #nnedpro19 #nnedprosummerschool #nutritioneducation
- “Food is Medicine” – M2E Toolkit is now live!
“I think that More-2-Eat is just a start, and after the study is over we need to continue and that is something that speaks to me loud and clear, that this isn’t just something that stops after the study is over. We’ve got to keep going and figuring out how we can continue making it important, and that nutrition is important and that food is medicine.” – Dietitian & More-2-Eat Research Assistant Food is medicine. This statement is particularly relevant when 1 in 3 patients are already at risk of malnutrition on admission to hospital in the UK [1]. Following an extensive study by the Canadian Malnutrition Task Force on the prevalence of malnutrition, barriers to intake, etc., a consensus-based pathway for hospital nutrition care was developed. This algorithm, the Integrated Nutrition Pathway for Acute Care (INPAC) focuses on the prevention, detection and treatment of malnutrition [2]. To test INPAC in the real world, the More-2-Eat project was designed, that spanned five sites across Canada working towards implementing INPAC for one year. More-2-Eat was a great success and all five sites have integrated nutrition screening into their practice by using the subjective global assessment to triage at-risk patients and accurately monitor food intake. As a Key Collaborator on this project, NNEdPro is proud of announce the launch of the INPAC Implementation Toolkit! After months of consolidation, graphic design and collaboration, all of the resources used and practical learnings in this project are now online, available for open access by those interested in improving nutrition care in their practice. The toolkit focuses on “what” to do, highlighting all areas of INPAC. Understanding “how” to change practice is just as important as what to change, so the toolkit also includes sections on: More-2-Eat project is led by Prof Heather Keller, Schlegel-University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging and the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Canada. It is funded by Canadian Frailty Network (known previously as Technology Evaluation in the Elderly Network, TVN), supported by Government of Canada through Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) Program. Celia Laur, Co-Lead on NNEdPro Global Innovation Panel, is one of the main researchers on More-2-Eat and Prof Sumantra Ray and Pauline Douglas RD are Project co-Investigators along with assistance from Shivani Bhat in toolkit development. INPAC Implementation Toolkit: ACCESS NOW [1] Nutrition screening surveys in hospitals in the UK, 2007-2011,” BAPEN, accessed May 2017, http://www.bapen.org.uk/pdfs/nsw/bapen-nsw-uk.pdf, p.41 [2] Keller H, McCullough J, Davidson B, Vesnaver E, Laporte M, Gramlich L, et al. The Integrated Nutrition Pathway for Acute Care (INPAC): Building consensus with a modified Delphi. Nutrition J. 2015;14(63).
- Coffee and Health | NNEdPro Research
Globally, around 158 million bags of coffee are produced each year, with the Scandinavian nations, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Canada forming the top ten coffee drinking countries. [http://ico.org] So what, if any, are the health effects of our coffee consumption? Historically coffee was thought to have a negative effect on health by raising blood pressure but more recently research suggests that compounds in coffee, including polyphenols, are good for us, and there may be an association between coffee consumption and lowered risk of cardiovascular disease and some cancers. Team NNEdPro set out to investigate – keep reading to find two of our outputs on link between coffee and health! Grosso G, Micek A, Godos J, Pajak A, Sciacca S, Bes-Rastrollo M, Galvano F, Martinez-Gonzalez MA. Long-Term Coffee Consumption Is Associated with Decreased Incidence of New-Onset Hypertension: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis. Nutrients. 2017 Deputy Co-Lead of our Global Innovation Panel Giuseppe Grosso, based at the University of Catania, lead an analysis on the effect of coffee consumption on blood pressure. The analysis included seven cohort studies, involving more than 205,000 people – including nurses, post-menopausal women and post-graduates from across North America and Europe. The analysis found a linear association between drinking coffee and lowered risk of high blood pressure i.e. as we drink more coffee (up to 7 cups a day), the risk of developing high blood pressure appears to decrease. Good news for coffee lovers, but until further research is carried out on the effect of coffee on blood pressure we should stick to keeping salt intake low, aiming for a healthy weight and increasing our activity levels to keep blood pressure down. Godos, J., Micek, A., Marranzano, M., Salomone, F., Del Rio, D., Ray, S. Coffee consumption and risk of biliary tract cancers and liver cancer: A dose–response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies (2017) Nutrients NNEdPro Directors Daniele Del Rio and Shumone Ray, led by NNEdPro Collaborator Justyna Godos, carried out an analysis of observational studies on the effect of coffee consumption on biliary tract cancers and liver cancer. Five studies on biliary tract cancers, involving 1,375,626 participants, and thirteen studies on liver cancer, involving 2,105,104 participants, were included in the analysis. The findings showed that there was an inverse association between drinking coffee and liver cancer – as coffee consumption increases, the risk of developing liver cancer appears to decrease. However, no association was found between coffee consumption and biliary tract cancers, possibly due to the low number of studies investigating this and so more research is required to help draw out a conclusion. Overall then, some positive effects of coffee on health! These are just two our papers looking at coffee and health though – check out our Science Journals page for more studies and let us know what you think!
- Kia ora from ‘down under’: Experiences of COVID from Australia and New Zealand
Contributors: Melissa Adamski, Eleanor Beck, Jennifer Crowley, Breanna Lepre, Rachael McLean & Alyce N Wilson Since January 2020, countries worldwide started recording cases of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Now six months later we have witnessed different strategies of tackling the virus with varied effectiveness. With Australia and New Zealand both considered to have successfully flattened the curve, we thought we would give you an overview of our experiences from down under. At the time of publication, New Zealand has not recorded any new cases of local transmission of COVID19 for several weeks and has been basically declared ‘covid free’, even though there have been a number of cases caught at the border. Across the ditch in Australia, the number of new cases identified has rapidly decreased, with the majority of new cases being from returning travellers and detected whilst in quarantine. However, recently the state of Victoria in Australia has demonstrated just how precarious the situation is, with several local outbreaks across metropolitan Melbourne. New Zealand is in the fortunate position of being able to remove almost all lockdown restrictions, whilst restrictions continue to be eased considerably across most of Australia. Both Australia and New Zealand still maintain strict border controls that include limiting all overseas visitors, and strict quarantine for citizens returning home. New Zealand has had, at the time of writing, just over 1500 cases, with 22 deaths whilst Australia has had 7,920 cases and 104 deaths. Australia had its first case of COVID-19 on the 19th January whilst New Zealand didn’t have one until over a month later on the 28th February. Over the next few weeks, several COVID-19 clusters developed throughout both countries. Australia introduced initial travel restrictions on the 1st February, with a federal ban on the entry of foreign nationals from mainland China. Over coming weeks, these bans were increasingly widened with similar restrictions implemented in both countries. In mid-March, both Australia and New Zealand implemented policies which required all incoming passengers to self-isolate for 14 days. This was followed by full border closures to all incoming non-citizens and residents - the most rigid border controls ever experienced in both countries. On the 26th March, New Zealand went into a 4-week strict ‘stage 4’ lockdown: schools and other educational institutions, restaurants, bars, shops and malls were closed. Only supermarkets and other ‘essential services’ remained open under strict conditions that ensured physical distancing of customers. Similar restrictions were implemented across Australia but the extent varied by state and territory. None were as strict as NZ. Hospitals and health services cancelled elective surgery and procedures to clear beds for the anticipated surge in cases, whilst public health departments prepared for huge swells in contact tracing activities. The COVID-19 response has highlighted the importance of public health and exposed a long-standing under-investment in the public health workforce and system, as national health ministries/departments have scrambled to increase capacity. So how have New Zealanders and Australians responded to the situation? In general, New Zealanders have been remarkably compliant with the COVID-19 restrictions. Police have taken an educative rather than a punitive approach, although there have been a number of prosecutions. Support for the Prime Minister and the Director General of Health has been high. The popularity for the Director General is so high that there has been a production of T shirts, tote bags and tea-towels featuring his face! Primary, secondary and tertiary students moved online. Universities have tried to consider the impact of online learning, with two of New Zealand’s leading Universities announcing a 5% increase in marks for all Semester 1 courses. These unparalleled times have also meant a rapid shift to novel approaches to teaching, with the need for innovative ways to teach clinical skills and practical elements online. The use of telehealth clinics in the University of Auckland Nutrition and Dietetic training programme has enabled the ongoing development of some core clinical and communication competencies during the pandemic, and exposed students to a varied case-mix. It has also provided opportunities for the development of new techniques for educating patients in the online environment. Food Science and Nutrition Laboratories have also been taught online. Dedicated teaching staff have been using their kitchens to demonstrate science. For example, a disperse system was demonstrated by making mayonnaise! The pandemic saw Australians and New Zealanders act in unpredictable ways. Across both countries, mass panic buying occurred. In Australia, panic buying and supermarket spending escalated throughout March. Canned and dried foods were particularly popular with sales rising by 180 per cent. Toilet and tissue paper sales doubled whilst there were also huge sales in flour, rice and pasta. In New Zealand, panic buying occurred pre-lockdown and also saw many staple ingredients stripped from supermarket shelves including pasta, rice, bread, soaps and hand sanitisers. With cafes and restaurants closed, people turned to home cooking. In mid-April, the five most searched recipes on google in Australia were banana bread, bread, pancakes, pizza dough and biscuits. Flour, yeast and baking powder were in short supply throughout supermarkets in Australia and New Zealand, as people rediscovered the pleasure of making bread, with ‘kneading’ branded a new form of relaxation. Fruit and vegetable growers quickly moved to on-line ordering and home delivery as farmers markets and small food suppliers were closed. Calls to support local business and food producers were widely supported. Food banks saw an increase in demand. The Australian Foodbank, Australia’s largest hunger relief charity, noted a 50% increase in demand for food relief. The demand on food banks and charities has not abated as restrictions are gradually lifted which may be due to rising unemployment rates. Across Australia and New Zealand, unemployment has significantly increased and likely amplified the number of food insecure households. Many Australians and New Zealanders are finding themselves in tough financial times despite large support packages announced by both governments. In New Zealand, the end of strict lockdown unfortunately saw a media frenzy over the opening of takeaway and fast food business, that pre-empted long queues of people, some forming from the early hours of the morning, when doors finally opened after four long weeks. Indigenous communities in both Australia and New Zealand have led initiatives to protect their communities from the threat of COVID19. Māori communities, who were substantially over-represented in impact from the 1918 influenza epidemic and are over-represented in many adverse health outcomes in New Zealand, were particularly concerned. Several isolated Māori communities, in the far North and the East Cape of the North Island, set up road blocks to restrict visitors to their regions and communities. These were largely supported by local police, despite some Conservative Parties’ opposition. Other Māori whanau (extended family) and iwi (tribes) set up community care and response initiatives to support the most vulnerable. The result has been that we haven’t seen the decimation of Māori communities that was seen in 1918. Despite this, some have criticised the lack of Māori representation in the face of the government response to COVID-19. There is no doubt that as an economic downturn hits, equity for Māori, minority groups and the socioeconomically disadvantaged must be a primary consideration in the government’s response. In Australia, First Nations communities have been instrumental in advocating for their communities across all levels of the response. Early involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clinicians, public health practitioners and researchers has been fundamental to effective and successful action, including the design of culturally safe and appropriate pandemic preparedness and response plans for communities. A Government appointed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Group on COVID-19 prepared and delivered a number of key actions and activities including: legislative changes (to limit non-essential travel by visitors to remote communities), identification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as a priority group in the COVID-19 response, health service planning working closely with the Aboriginal community controlled health sector (to scale up COVID-19 testing, staff training and expansion of telehealth services), establishing rapid testing in remote communities and expanding testing sites, infrastructure planning (to provide space for isolate and quarantine in communities where overcrowding exists), improved epidemiological surveillance of cases among First Nations Peoples and a whole suite of targeted health promotion and communication materials for First Nations communities. Both Australia and New Zealand have been incredibly successful in preparing, managing and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. In New Zealand, as a general election looms in September, some politicians are agitating for a speedier opening of businesses and borders to stimulate the economy. Whilst others criticise the government’s response as having been too restrictive. We wait with nervousness for a possible ‘second wave’ of cases as restrictions are lifted. Many see the situation in New Zealand and Australia as a triumph of good leadership, science informed decision making and public health practice. We hope many things continue: buying local food and produce, baking and cooking from scratch, strengthening community action, more time with family, breaks from takeaways and fast food, evidence informed policy making, and a focus on equity into the future.
- Autumn Newsletter: Executive Summary
In the couple of months since the end of summer newsletter we have had a plethora of activity within the realms of the NNEdPro Global Centre particularly in September, followed by a phase of consolidation in October and here we are in the last couple of months of this very unusual pandemic year of 2020. It seems like a moment ago that the world was going into lockdown in March and now 8 months later we are in lockdown again, at least from where I write, in Cambridge. But between these two goalposts we have all done some major pivoting in our transformation to a truly digital and virtual organisation! This was epitomised with the successful completion of our Summer events, which were held virtually for the first time - the 5th Annual Summer School and 6th International Summit on Medical and Public Health Nutrition and Research – spanning the globe and between them involving well over a hundred people from over 30 countries. At this year's summit, we recognised members of our Global Innovation Panel, including volunteers, for their continued dedication and outstanding contribution to the work we do. Furthermore, we announced our new junior ambassadors and winners of the NNEdPro-Nutritank Kids’ Kitchen Club Challenge. A vibrant Global Strategy day, saw members of the NNEdPro Virtual Core and Strategic Advisory Committee assembled online to shape the implementation of our refreshed strategic plan for 2021-2025. We also launched our new initiative: The International Knowledge Application Network hub in Nutrition 2025 (I-KANN-25). The International Academy for Nutrition Educators has also been thriving in its first full year since pilot and now has over 130 subscribing members and over 2020 will have run a series of 12 webinars and online journal clubs linked with key topical themes. Whilst much of our research attention has been focused on the work of the dedicated Nutrition and COVID19 Taskforce over the past months we have simultaneously driven new research with Ulster University and the Swiss Re institute in Nutrition and Cardiometabolic Risk whilst continuing our efforts in Global Challenges research with the University of Cambridge especially in India and areas of international development. This autumn we have strengthened our pre-existing relationship with Imperial College London School of Public Health in 'living epidemiology' work based on the South London Cohort. On the education side our University relationships with Parma for the summer school, Monash for IANE and Wollongong for medical nutrition education continue to thrive. Looking back over the year, we have increased our digital connectivity across the consortium of collaborators and partners that enable our academic work as well as its application. Finally, over the past 10 weeks we have also had a series of very productive regional network steering meetings culminating in the Brighton Showcase hosted by ERimNN/BSMS rounding up inspiring case studies of work from across the stakeholders of our UK and Ireland Regional Network which also hosts the Nutrition Implementation Coalition enabling us to move forward as a vanguard of four organisations – NNEdPro, ERimNN, Culinary Medicine and Nutritank – with a common voice especially on nutrition capacity building in health systems. I hope you enjoy the round up in this issue of our newsletter particularly encrusted with a number of gems from our partner journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health, as we work together to synthesise and apply nutrition knowledge relevant not only to the pandemic but more widely towards our mission of tackling food and nutrition insecurity in multiple forms! By Professor Sumantra Ray RNutr Founding Chair and Executive Director
- The NNEdPro Nine
During Global Strategy Day 2020, members of the NNEdPro Global Center for Nutrition and Health assembled virtually to discuss our vision and key strategic priorities for 2021-2025. 1. To become a globally recognised apex body for interdisciplinary knowledge exchange in nutrition, health, and closely related domains. 2. To continue to lead sustainable voluntary regional networks for nutrition knowledge exchange and advocacy across the globe, aligning to relevant national and international organisations. 3. To continue to deliver a range of ‘gold-standard’ nutrition education programmes that encourage capacity building across international networks, driving the inclusion of nutrition in clinical education and practice. 4. To advance priority nutrition research through basic science, human interventions, population studies, evidence syntheses and an associated publication platform. 5. To work towards minimising nutrition and health inequities by empowering individuals and driving systemic change for underserved populations. 6. To drive the implementation of nutrition knowledge into policy, practice, and wider food and health systems, by providing leadership, advocacy, as well as encouraging collaboration with like-minded individuals and organisations. 7. To function as an agile nutrition think-tank with high quality infrastructure for provision of consultancy services. 8. To facilitate the funding and commissioning of nutrition related projects in priority areas. 9. To increase focus on sustainability and climate change within food and nutrition related research and practice.











