The current global pandemic of lifestyle related diseases connecting to obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) constitutes the major challenge of our time, and prevails in both western and developing countries. The diet is one the most significant lifestyle factor of importance in this respect, making the diet an essential target in a strategy aiming at prevention. My research aims to generate knowledge about food features that may be used for development of preventive foods against cardiometabolic diseases. For this purpose meal studies and semi-long term controlled dietary interventions are executed in healthy subjects, emphasizing effects on glycaemic- and appetite regulation, markers of inflammation and incretin stimulation. A specific focus in my research is on investigating the relationship between gut fermentation of dietary fibre (DF) and cardiometabolic risk-related test markers (the diet-gut-brain-periphery axis).  However, my research  it is not solely restricted to  this specific diet topic. Instead my interest regarding antidiabetic food include several additional food aspects, e.g. potential metabolic health effects of berries and other polyphenol rich foods, different sweeteners and effects of omega-3 fatty acids. Furthermore, there is increasing evidence that T2D and other metabolic diseases increase the risk of cognitive decline, dementia and depression. Thus, investigations of food features and metabolic variables on cognitive functions, brain protecting markers and mood is an additional topic of interest.

We have noticed that individuals respond differently to various food factors with respect to cardiometabolic risk markers, another aspect that we are increasingly paying attention to. For example, even if we in a majority of subjects repeatedly observe beneficial metabolic effects connected to colonic fermentation of certain DF, we have observed that a minor subgroup elicit non or just a minor effect on e.g. glucose regulation. We found that the differences in response to DF possible may be due to differences in the gut microbiota composition.  Such differences reinforce the need to consider individual metabolic responses to food and diet, and to investigate possibilities to develop target-oriented foods and meals with cardiometabolic disease preventive potential in subjects that respond differently than the average population (“personalized nutrition”).