European Chapter of the American College of Nutrition

The European Chapter of the American College of Nutrition has been established in November 2001 as a professional organization to promote scientific endeavor in the field of nutritional sciences. It represents an ideal bridge between United States and Europe for a continuous, bidirectional flux of scientific knowledge and experience, which will enrich two different, but not so distant, realities in the field of nutrition and metabolism. It will work to create a network among Universities and Hospitals representing different Countries from East to West and from North to South of the old Continent. Rapid changes in diet and lifestyle resulting from industrialization, urbanization, economic development and market globalization are having a significant impact on the nutritional status of populations.

The processes of modernization and economic transition have led to industrialization in many countries and the development of economies that are dependent on trade in the global market. While results include improved standards of living and greater access to services, there have also been significant negative consequences in terms of inappropriate dietary patterns and decreased physical activity, and a corresponding increase in nutritional and diet-related diseases. Because of these changes in dietary and lifestyle patterns, diet-related diseases – including obesity, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and stroke, and various forms of cancer – are increasingly significant causes of disability and premature death in both developing and newly developed countries. They are taking over from more traditional public health concerns like undernutrition and infectious disease, and placing additional burdens on already overtaxed national health budgets. In the near future we will have to face such big problems, trying to solve them in the best way.

HEAD OFFICE

Internal Medicine at the Catholic University,

Rome, Italy.
phone: 39-06-30154395
fax: 39-06-3054392
e_mail: gmingrone@rm.unicatt.it

PURPOSE:

Enhance the understanding of the relationship beetween diet and the initiation prevention and treatment of diseases.
Promote educational programs in nutrition and metabolism.
Contribute to the training of scientists, physicians and dietitians expert in nutrition and metabolism with a cultural background deriving from their formation in more than one European University.
Allocate human resources in nutritional and metabolic research, allowing the exchange of scientists among University, public or private research structures and pharmaceutical or food industries.
Promote the exchange, for short or prolonged period of time, of personnel, mainly teachers but also students, nurses and dietitians among European Universities.
Reinforce the scientific collaboration among research centers involved in different areas of metabolic research, such as genetics, biochemistry, physiology, clinics, mathematics, etc. In such a way, a scientific investigation can be analysed from different perspectives to improve focus on the core of the problem.