World Food Day is celebrated at the Faculty of Medicine with a cycle of conferences

World Food Day is marked on 16th October, but the Faculty of Medicine (FMUP), jointly with the Cellular Biology and the Neurosciences Centre (CNC) will debate food and the impact of a balanced diet on health, from 12 to 13 October, featuring a cycle of conferences that gather experts, researchers and teachers.

This debate is all the more crucial in a time when society had to learn how to face confinement and lockdown, which pose a challenges in terms of what one should eat and the amount of food one needs to keep healthy.

During the pandemic, especially during lockdown, the risks of a poor diet were more visible, either regarding disruptive food behaviours or obesity issues, and the resulting diseases.

Experts will explain how a balanced nutrition can help fight infections, the importance of food choices in intestinal microbiota and the connection between sedentariness and problems with weight.

The sessions are targeted to the community in general and will be streamed to CPLP, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, namely Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde.

The experts' panel includes names as Kanthi Kiran Kondepudi and Mahendra Bishnoi, both from the National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI), in India, and Elisabet Borsheim, of the University of Arkansas, in the USA.

Refer to the following emails for more information: cpereira@fmed.uc.pt (Cláudia Pereira), ecarvalh@cnc.uc.pt (Eugénia Carvalho) e raqsoa@med.up.pt (Raquel Soares).