2018_03_21_FAR_nutricion_voluntarios

Experts from the research center in Nutrition (CIN) of the University of Navarra are looking for volunteers from 18 to 60 years old -men without overweight and women with and without overweight- who want to participate in a new study. The research will analyze the usefulness of a plate specially designed to indicate the appropriate portions of different food groups, as a useful tool to improve the per diem expenses on a daily basis.

At the end of the project, participants will receive a free gift of a plate from design similar to the one used in the study. They will also receive information on healthy nutrition - in particular, on how to correctly combine and choose the food groups at each meal using this subject instrument -; they will complete different tests and try out various menus on site.

The study will take place at the Metabolic Unit of Nutritional Intervention of the CIN and for its development 94 volunteers (68 women and 26 men) are required. The goal consists of comparing the acceptance and effectiveness of using a plate where the recommended portions of different food groups are marked; or eating on a standard plate of the same dimensions but without images or delineations. In addition, volunteers will use special equipment that includes experimental glasses to measure visual effects. Those interested in participating can do so by phone or whatsapp 644720497 or preferably by e-mail nutconduc@unav.es.

As detailed by Eva Almirón, manager of this project, "as this is a study to observe the practicality of using a specific dish such as guide to eat healthy, we do not intend that the volunteers change their diets or the physical activity they do". According to this dietician, who holds a PhD in Biology from the University of East Anglia (UK) and a Master's degree in Nutrition from the University of Washington (USA), the aim is to "offer them this new tool that can help them to eat better and control the right amounts of each food".

A subject dish already tested in the United Kingdom

This project has its origin in the work of Almirón herself as a researcher in obesity at the Human Nutrition Research of the Medical Research Council in Cambridge (UK): "There we carried out programs of study with several dietary instruments for weight control. Among them, with a commercial dish similar to the one we are going to test, which had been designed by US dieticians and chemical engineers, together with other health professionals. "What we have done," he continues, "is to adapt the design plate to make it more applicable to the Mediterranean per diem expenses ."

In addition to this researcher, in the project works the student of doctorate of the CIN Angelina Vargas (Master's Degree E-MENU by the University of Navarra) and they have the scientific advice of Alfredo Martínez -Full Professor of Nutrition, director scientific of the CIN and researcher of CIBEROBN-; Santiago Navas -director of the line of Personalized Nutrition of the CIN- and Jeff Brunstrom, of the department of Experimental Psychology of the University of Bristol (UK).