The power of food
The food we eat is essential in supporting health and preventing diseases across all stages of life. However, daily dietary choices are shaped by several factors beyond taste and nutrition, including food availability, affordability, marketing and the positioning of foods in retail/supermarkets, culture, personal preferences, social influences, food and cooking literacy, and psychological factors such as stress, well-being, and a busy schedule. There is a dire need for interdisciplinary approaches to ensure the right food reaches the right person at the right time, addressing the complexity of transforming food systems for sustainable healthy diets and implementing dietary recommendations for target populations.
Vision
The Power of Food Network aspires to connect experts across the disciplines that influence food “from farm to fork”, thereby bringing together food science, nutrition and health, epidemiology and social and behavioural sciences. The network seeks to leverage the power of food by combining
Three main perspectives
- Develop food products that align with current planetary challenges.
- Test their ability to sustain health and prevent diseases.
- Help individuals and society adhere to dietary recommendations.
Mission
- Start the conversation between key research actors and create actionable opportunities (combine disciplines and methodologies across departments and faculties as well as stakeholders outside of UCPH.
- Work to create feasible funding opportunities by engaging with funding bodies, to support projects that address inter-disciplinary synergies within the same funded project (e.g. optimising food products and testing their health effects OR test health effects of foods and diets while exploring needs and barriers from a consumer perspective).
- Create a forum of experts to be included in funding applications or as sparring partners for brainstorming, to facilitate synergies between disciplines and innovate the transition from labs and controlled interventions to real life implementation.
Members
The Power of Food Network - Selected Members
Catalina Cuparencu (chair)
Assistant Professor - Nutrition and Health
Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Faculty of Science, KU
cup@nexs.ku.dk
Morten Arendt Rasmusen
Professor – Data-driven systems biology
Department of Food Science, Faculty of Science, KU
mortenr@food.ku.dk
Iben Lykke Petersen
Associate Professor - Food Analytics and Biotechnology
Department of Food Science, Faculty of Science, KU
ilp@food.ku.dk
Agnetha Linn Rostgaard-Hansen
Postdoc
Danish Cancer Institute
agnrha@cancer.dk
Hanne Frøkiær
Professor - Immunology
Preclinical Disease Biology, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, KU
hafr@sund.ku.dk
Marta Guasch-Ferre
Associate Professor - Nutritional Epidemiology
Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health, KU & Center for Basic Metabolic Research
marta.guasch@sund.ku.dk
Wesley Dean
Associate Professor - Sociology of Food
Department of Food resource and economics, Faculty of Science, KU
wesleydean@ifro.ku.dk
Sara R. Jaeger
Professor - Food Consumer Science
Department of Food Science, Aarhus University
sara.jaeger@food.au.dk
Daniel Borch Ibsen
Associate Professor - Nutritional Epidemiology
Department of Public Health, Aarhus University
dbi@ph.au.dk
Allan Linneberg
Professor
Center for Prevention and Clinical Research, Copenhagen University Hospital - Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg
allan.linneberg@regionh.dk
Inge Tetens
Professor - Healthy aging and sustainable diets
Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Faculty of Science, KU
ite@nexs.ku.dk
Mette Roselund Sørensen
Researcher – Social determinants of dietary habits
Food, Nutrition and Sustainability, DTU
mers@food.dtu.dk
Qian Janice Wang
Associate professor – Consumer behaviour and psychology
Department of Food Science, Faculty of Science, KU
qjw@food.ku.dk
Michael Bom Frost
Associate professor – Sensory science
Department of Food Science, Faculty of Science, KU
mbf@food.ku.dk
Margit Dall Aaslyng
Docent
Food and Health Innovation, Professionshøjskolen Absalon
mada@pha.dk
Annemarie Varming
Researcher – Health Promotion Research
Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen
annemarie.varming@regionh.dk
Anne Ahrendt Bjerregaard
Postdoc
Center for Prevention and Clinical Research, Copenhagen University Hospital - Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg
anne.ahrendt.bjerregaard@regionh.dk