Project rationale

The steady increase in average life expectancy in Europe has led to an increased proportion of the population aged ≥ 65 years and this is expected to double by 2060. Given the age-related increase in chronic diseases, population ageing represents a major societal challenge.

An epidemic of overweight/obesity, metabolic syndrome and cardio-metabolic diseases is emerging at planetary level, and healthy nutrition represents a critical help to counteract this trend. unfortunately, simplistic guidelines failed totally or partially, mainly because of the complexity and heterogeneity of nutrition/dietary habits in humans.

EURODIET will tackle such complexity and the urgent/unmet need of integrated studies by investigating how the combination of variables usually analyzed separately (ethnicity/geography, sex/gender, socio-economic status/education, previous dietary habits, physical activity and smoking) affects adoption of healthy dietary habits and conventional as well as novel metabolic and inflammatory biomarkers in a large number of adults spanning from 50 to 79 years of age.