The Power of Nutrition: For the Smiles of 10 billion People.” was the theme for the 22nd IUNS-ICN that was held in Tokyo, Japan from December 6-11, 2022. The six-day congress had a line up of programmes that engaged participants in valuable discussions on a variety of nutrition-related issues, including food shortages, malnutrition, population growth, over-nutrition, diversification of dietary habits, threats to food safety, and the aging of society was attended by ~3500 people from all over the world.

Deputy Executive Director – SIFBI and Director - CNRC, Prof Jeya Henry and his Nutrition team was on hand to deliver and presented their work in 5 sessions and 2 posters:

1) Contribution of Asian scientists to global nutrition (presented by Prof Jeya Henry)
2) Affordable plant-based foods – Role in nutrition and sustainability (presented by Prof Jeya Henry)
3) Nutrition application of nutrition, dietetics and food science in public health interventions in Asia (presented by Sumanto Haldar)
4) Can health status and food composition affect glycemic variability? (presented by Darel Wee Kiat Toh)
5) Effects of Asian-based oil blends made from refined rice bran, flaxseed and sesame seed oils on lipoprotein particle size distribution (poster by Yi Ning Yong)
6) Plant-protein rich, low-calorie diet to improve metabolic health in prediabetic Chinese adults – A randomised controlled trial (poster by Sumanto Haldar)
7) Public Health Nutrition and Environment (chaired by Prof Jeya Henry)

SIFBI's Nutrition capability group, led by Prof Jeya, utilises evidence-based science to validate the concept of "Food: The New Medicine". Focusing on clinical nutrition, food structure, as well as sensory and ingestive behavior, their research integrates basic and translational food science and sensory science to understand how Asian diets influence the aetiology of chronic diseases.