Professor Teuta Gjuladin-Hellon from the University of Tetovo, Macedonia visited VAMK last week. She lectured on the worldwide problem of overweight and obesity.
- Today, diet-related diseases are leading contributors to human and economic loss, told Teuta Gjuladin-Hellon.
Students and personnel of VAMK and Novia participated in the lecture.
Diet is a cornerstone of all lifestyle intervention programmes for prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity, but so far, despite the knowledge and resources invested, no intervention has ever succeeded to curb, let alone prevent their galloping trends. Obesity has become a classic example of a wicked problem - a problem that is highly resistant to resolution due to the very complex multisectoral interactions.
- It seems as if one needs to cure all the problems across the society in order to tackle what initially seemed relatively easy to cure, simply by educating people to eat less and exercise more, said Gjuladin-Hellon.
According to Gjuladin-Hellon nutrition in the 21st is slowly moving away from the “one size fits all” to a more personalised approach that acknowledges biological variations among individuals.
- Nutrition as a science is offering new perspectives regarding health promotion, and prevention and treatment of diet related disorders – the fields of Nutrigenomics and Metabolomics. These are rapidly developing new bodies of knowledge that will change future research and practice in human nutrition.
Professor of Faculty of Food Technology and Nutrition Teuta Gjuladin-Hellon with VAMK rector Tauno Kekäle.
Photos: Susan Sundqvist, Eliina Salmela