This year the CMSM was again present at the after-ESPEN symposium. These sessions are organised by NESPEN, the Dutch branch of ESPEN, and discuss key talks and main takeaways of the ESPEN congress.
The talks covered a variety of topics, such as the loss and possible gain of muscle in elderly people, the role of IL-6 in fat burning, physical activity as a preventative measure for many disease types, and the functioning and measurement of the microbiome.
We were happy to see that topics such as quality of life, prevention, and lifestyle were gaining more attention throughout the talks.
However one subject that was painfully absent from the whole congress was sadly the topic of micronutrients. The talks still focussed on macronutrients, mainly proteins, and there seemed little room for the role of vitamins and minerals.
This was certainly a disappointment, but the congress did help us to stick a barometer into the field of nutrition, and showed us that there is still much room for improvement, and much need for efforts such as our own.