The Nutritional Epidemiology group at Lund University was established by Elisabet Wirfält. In 2017, Emily Sonestedt became the PI. Since then, the group has been growing. Currently, Emily supervises five PhD students to add to the list of current and former Master and Bachelor students that have passed through Our Team.
Nutritional epidemiology is a field that uses epidemiological methods to examine associations between diet and disease. As a group, our overall aim is to create and diffuse knowledge within the human nutrition field so that we achieve a healthier society. To do so, we use large population studies to investigate whether dietary composition influences the risk of developing diseases such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes and cancer, and whether genetic factors influence the observed relationships. Clarifying the importance of dietary habits is of great significance for public health because eating habits, in contrast to many other factors, can change during the life cycle.
Currently our Our Science revolves around the role of sugar consumption in the development of cardiometabolic risks, the role of genetic variations in the salivary amylase gene (AMY1) and starch intake on cardiometabolic risk, and the association between dairy products and cardiovascular disease.
ith this blog we hope to bring you closer to the research that we do in our group, whether you are a fellow nutrition scientist, a researcher from a different field, or a nutrition enthusiast. Follow us and we will do our best to keep you up to date in the Nutritional Epidemiology research field.