Four students from the Degree of Human Nutrition and Dietetics of the School of Pharmacy and Nutrition of the University of Navarra participated in the 8th edition of the "International Health Week", which took place at the beginning of March at UC Leuven Limburg (Belgium).

According to the students -LoreaDiez de Ulzurrun, Isabella Parilli, Maria Alessia Perez and Sofia Pi Oriol-, students of 3rd year of Nutrition and the International Nutrition Certificate, for them this event was an opportunity to learn about the international environment and participate in an event attended by 6 Schools from 5 countries (including ours) to expose and discuss about a specific topic . "In our case, it was Nutrigenetics and Nutrigenomics. During three intense days, we worked at group sharing knowledge and experiences together with students from Poland, Austria, Belgium, Holland and Spain itself", they detail.

The project "Nutrigenetics and Nutrigenomics", designed by the professor of Degree Pedro González Muniesa, counted with the partnership of five students from Leuven, who collaborated in the organization and documentation. "Our goal was to debate and generate new ideas about this area, for which, previously, we had prepared a short paper on the status of both disciplines in Spain, which we shared and contrasted with the other students."

First of all, Prof. González Muniesa gave a talk on these two concepts and on Precision Nutrition. "Then we were divided into five groups, each composed of one student from each country/university, so that we had different points of view about topic depending on home country. Already in groups, we had to reach different agreements on ethical, legal and economic aspects; on how to develop and implement these disciplines at the European level, and so on." Once the work was finished, each group presented their conclusions to the rest of the students and teachers.

"Once the theory was finished, we put on internship what we learned with a case of a family with different genetic predispositions to obesity, hypercholesterolemia, or intolerances to gluten and lactose. The goal was for each group to prepare an appropriate menu for these families, which we then tasted together," the students point out.

For them, "it was a positive and enriching experience. We met people from different European countries and cultures, we obtained information about Nutrigenetics and Nutrigenomics - a very innovative topic that we believe every nutritionist-dietitian should know - for which we thank the University and we hope it will be possible to repeat it in other courses", they concluded.