Boost Your Body
fitter through functional foods ?
On the 18th of September, 2008, the 5th Xtrack symposium took place in Educatorium Hall of Utrecht University.
The symposium opened the series of ABC lectures organized by the Academical Biomedical Centre (ABC) Utrecht
and almost 400 people attended it. The symposium was the result of a collaboration of the Xtrack team with
Studium Generale. For more information on the day's programme, the lectures, the speakers and functional foods in general, you can download our booklet (2MB).
The subject of this year's symposium was functional foods: foods that can exert beneficial effects that extend beyond
the food’s conventional nutritional effects. These beneficial properties can refer to an improved stage of health
and general well-being, a reduction in the risk of chronic disease, or both. The Boost Your Body symposium
highlighted four different aspects of functional foods. Prof. Dr. Harry Wichers
from Wageningen University discussed the scientific perspective on functional foods. Dr. Nico van Belzen from ILSI Europe
covered the subject of health claims in relation to functional foods and Dr. Martin Foltz from Unilever
(supported by Dr. Wendy van Herpen) gave a company’s perspective on the field of functional foods and claims.
And lastly, Dr. Michael Heasman discussed a more skeptical view on the functional food trend.
Halfway through the symposium, the awards ceremony for the Xtrack Committee 2007 took place. The
awards for the best research proposals were handed out to Michiel van Gent and Kerstin Wirz.
At the end of the symposium, a debate took place covering the following two statements:
- In the future, functional foods will play a major role in improving health and optimizing fitness.
- Functional foods, Functional marketing? Companies improve public health more than the government does.
The symposium and the debate were both skillfully led by Prof. Dr. Rolaf van Leeuwen from the RIVM. We would like
to thank everyone who attended the symposium and helped to make it a success!
