WCFS - Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences | Food Summit 2004: Diet and the Metabolic Syndrome

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2005: Making sense of food

2004: Diet and the metabolic syndrome

2003: Mining food microbes

2002: Texture Dynamics

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Food Summit 2004: Diet and the Metabolic Syndrome

The Food Summit entitled ‘Diet and the Metabolic Syndrome’ was held on 8 to 10 December at the Conference Centre, ‘De Wageningse Berg’, in Wageningen. Leading experts from the USA and Europe, representatives of WCFS partners and WCFS scientists attended the three-day workshop on the role of diet in the prevention and treatment of the metabolic syndrome and it sequels.

"The Food Summit is organised once a year for a maximum of 80 participants. This year, we had many more people applying than we could accommodate, demonstrating the keen interest in the workshop topic," says Ms Rianne Hermus, member of the organising committee. The workshop set-up is intentionally informal with 25-minute talks by experts interspersed with and followed by in-depth discussion.

Metabolic Syndrome

"Diet and metabolic syndrome is arguably the most pressing issue in nutrition and health of our time", explains Prof. Martijn Katan, also member of this year’s organising committee. "Metabolic syndrome is a constellation of diseases including insulin resistance and diabetes, unfavourable blood lipids, hypertension, and low-grade inflammation."

According to Summit organiser, Prof. Ronald Mensink: "metabolic syndrome is not a medical syndrome as such because there is no core abnormality that leads to the other symptoms and diseases. Rather, it’s a convenient statistical concept to group together a number of metabolic abnormalities that often accompany obesity."

About 20% of adults in affluent societies have metabolic syndrome, and the number is rising rapidly. "The obvious treatment is weight loss", says Martijn Katan. "But many people find it very difficult, if not impossible, to maintain a permanent weight loss in an environment that continually urges them to eat and also where physical activity has largely been eliminated."

The Food Summit addressed dietary options to treat metabolic syndrome.

Body fat

A number of conclusions can be drawn from the workshop. According to Dr Patrick Schrauwen also on the organising committee: "There is ‘good’ and ‘bad’ body fat, and the most harmful are the tiny droplets that accumulate in the liver and muscles of obese people. "Studies in animal models suggest that these tiny fat stores are responsible for insulin resistance, and also suggest new avenues to reduce insulin resistance in people who cannot lose weight. "These findings with animal models still need to be tested in humans", he adds.

"In general, fat that accumulates in and around the body’s organs 'abdominal fat' is unfavourable", continues Ronald Mensink. "This may help to explain why a reduction in body weight of only a few kilograms can have a profound effect on the risk of diabetes. Because, while a few kilograms may be only a small proportion of total body weight, it may well be a large proportion of abdominal fat."

"The workshop also concluded that fat accumulated on the hips and buttocks may be innocent or even beneficial", explains Patrick Schrauwen. "Storing calories in fat tissue appears to be fine as long as it is not stored viscerally or in organs. Fat tissue produces various hormones including adiponectin and resistin that may determine the impact of a particular fat store on health."

Diet

"The treatment par excellence for metabolic syndrome is weight reduction plus exercise", says Martijn Katan. "This treatment has an amazing efficacy in preventing diabetes, and no other dietary or drug intervention is in sight that has the same effect on reducing the risk of diabetes.

"Diet provides options to correct other symptoms of metabolic syndrome, notably hypertension and dyslipidemia. The full DASH diet (low-fat dairy, fruit, vegetables, low-salt) is as good a treatment for hypertension as the best monotherapy with drugs. A portfolio of dietary interventions to improve blood lipids is as effective as the drug, lovastatin. However, dietary treatment is not yet in sight for other components of the metabolic syndrome including vascular function, blood coagulation, and low-grade inflammation. Research is accelerating in these areas," says Martijn Katan.