The Eurecat technology centre is to take part in an international nutritional intervention study under the European PAS-GRAS project to prevent and reduce the risk factors associated with overweight and obesity by promoting Mediterranean dietary patterns and acquiring healthy habits in childhood, adolescence and as young adults.

The Spanish Society for the Study of Obesity (SEEDO) reports that obesity affects around 23.8 percent of the adult population in Spain and more than 40 percent of children and adolescents are overweight. With over 650 million adults and 124 million children affected worldwide, “obesity has reached pandemic proportions, increasing the risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases and some types of cancer,” points out Antoni Caimari, the director of Eurecat’s Biotechnology Area.

To avoid this, “early prevention by adopting appropriate eating habits, promoting physical activity and encouraging a healthy lifestyle from childhood are essential,” he adds, noting that “rolling out nutritional strategies anchored in healthy patterns, such as the Mediterranean diet, is crucial to reduce the risk factors associated with overweight and obesity.”

Against this background, Lorena Calderón, a dietician and nutritionist and a researcher in the Clinical Studies Line at Eurecat’s Nutrition and Health Unit, stresses the importance of prevention from childhood since “an overweight child is up to five times more likely to become an obese adult and the main driver is poor eating habits.” This means “it is critical to take early action by putting in place nutritional strategies based on mindful consumption and healthy eating patterns such as the traditional Mediterranean diet, which is a benchmark dietary model associated with a healthy lifestyle due to the numerous benefits of the mostly plant-based foods it consists of.”

Accordingly, Eurecat’s Biotechnology Area through its Nutrition and Health and Omic Sciences units is engaged in the European PAS-GRAS project, a transdisciplinary initiative seeking to tackle the main determinants that contribute to the transgenerational risk of obesity, especially in the most vulnerable populations such as pre-pubertal children, adolescents and young adults.

As part of the project, the technology centre will be involved in a twelve-month multisite nutritional intervention study together with the universities of Bari in Italy, Uppsala in Sweden and Coimbra in Portugal which is anchored in a personalised adaptation of the Mediterranean diet coupled with a physical exercise plan and natural produce to mitigate risk factors associated with overweight and obesity.

The products used in the study will include foods such as mushrooms and Za’atar, a blend of Mediterranean herbs and spices such as thyme, which have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and digestive properties and “could be promising for reducing belly fat and improving risk factors associated with obesity,” argues Lorena Calderón.

“The findings of this study will furnish evidence for new strategies with the ultimate goal of reducing the prevalence of overweight and obesity by 15 percent among adults by 2050 through sustained behavioural change over time, which will also have a positive impact on offspring,” explains Sara Gómez, director of Eurecat’s Nutrition and Health Unit.

Projects such as PAS-GRAS that address obesity from multiple angles “are a crucial step towards tackling obesity from a holistic perspective by blending science, nutrition, genetics and socio-environmental factors to deliver personalised and sustainable solutions,” she adds.

The PAS-GRAS initiative aims to reverse and prevent obesity, averting the onset of related comorbidities. In doing this it takes an innovative approach and integrates data on lifestyle habits, mental health, socio-familial and environmental factors along with genetic and metabolic traits to enable individualised risk assessment and the design of nutritional interventions and personalised therapies to prevent and treat obesity.

Coordinated by the University of Coimbra, the PAS-GRAS project targets preventing metabolic, environmental and behavioural risks in the development of obesity in children, adolescents and young adults and is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme under the ‘Prevention of obesity throughout the life course’ call.

Global action to prevent and combat obesity

Obesity affects millions of people worldwide and World Obesity Day has been set up to advocate solutions and raise awareness with the purpose of building a healthier future for people globally.

The latest statistics from the World Obesity Federation predict that by 2035 more than one in four people in the world will suffer from obesity. These figures have a high economic and social impact at an estimated total cost of around €951 billion per year, with the highest costs in the regions of the Mediterranean and the Americas.