May 5th – May 7th 2010
1040 Brussels, Belgium
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Dear Friends and Colleagues,
It is our great pleasure to cordially invite you to the sixth edition of the EGEA conference, to be held in Brussels on 5 – 7 May 2010. The main theme of this year’s conference is the social and health benefits of balanced diet with a focus on the role of Fruit and Vegetables (F&V) among low income population. EGEA 2010 is co-chaired by Professor Ibrahim Elmadfa, Director and Professor at the Institute of Nutritional Sciences, University of Vienna, Austria and Lars Hoelgaard, deputy director general at the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development, European commission, Belgium.
F&V are an important part of a balanced diet and associated with various positive health outcomes. In particular increasing their consumption is an important public health strategy for weight management and reduction of chronic diseases risk.
Dietary guidelines almost universally encourage increased consumption of F&V. However, a large proportion of the population at the global level does not meet these recommendations, with a particularly low consumption among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups.
There is a need to promote F&V consumption among low income groups; however they face a series of barriers to healthier diets, including limited household food budgets. A number of factors may contribute to such low consumption, from individual level factors (i.e. internal to the individual: knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and cognitive factors) to environmental (i.e. external to the individuals: household and food shopping, catering environments, foods prices, availability, advertising, socio-cultural factors…).
Understanding cultural differences is important for successful environmental interventions to improve health behaviors and health outcomes, as are improved access and availability of F&V through policy and environmental incentives at different levels of the food system.
Thus EGEA 2010 will focus on a global, multifaceted approach that augment interventional and educational campaigns with policy and environmental strategies aimed to increasing F&V consumption particularly among youth and low income population.
Egea 2010 aims at gathering international high-level scientists, public health practitioners, economists, F&V industry representatives and decision-makers to further clarify the mechanisms through which F&V intake may contribute to disease risk reduction and to strengthen the knowledge base on the most appropriate and effective strategies to increase F&V intake in youth and in low income population.
An exciting and challenging scientific programme has been developed by a committee of leading experts, co-chaired by Professor Ibrahim Elmadfa and Lars Hoelgaard.
The programme will cover several interlinked areas including Science (e.g., healthy diet definition and the role of F&V in disease risk reduction); Environmental changes (availability, accessibility, advertising); Economics (e.g., the health cost of not consuming F&V and economic support for fresh F&V purchases); Sociology (e.g., dietary traditions and socio-cultural practices); and Policy (e.g., legislation and price controls to change consumption and discuss a European framework policy).
The objective of this conference is to find out salient determining factors, internal or external to the individuals, in order to define the rationale for interventions aimed at improving F&V consumption in young and adult European low income populations. Specific Interventions towards pregnant women especially those at high risk of poor nutrition related to their socioeconomic position are urgently warranted in Europe. Maternal health status and lifestyle practices affect not only pregnancy and birth outcomes but also the future health of the offspring.
The participation and mobilisation of well known experts from different sectors including politics are a testimony of the general will at European level to develop and apply policy, environmental and educational approaches to increase F&V consumption by making the healthy choice the easy choice.
Your contribution of abstracts is important in making this an exciting and successful meeting, and we look forward to receiving them.
On behalf of professors I. Elmadfa, L. Hoelgaard and the organising team I look forward to seeing you in Brussels!
Saida BarnatEGEA Scientific Coordinator
Egea 2010 organizers: Aprifel, Freshfel, Areflh and European Agriculture and Health Consortium