For the first time in Portugal, a medical school will host a Food Research Laboratory (LIA). The NOVA Medical School (NMS) project was inaugurated on October 8, 2020, in Lisbon.
Providing practical training on food to Portuguese medical students is the priority of LIA. What role does food play in health and disease control? What are the secrets to better prepare high quality nutritional foods? How to prevent the formation of carcinogenic compounds? These are just some of the questions that will be tackled by LIA.
When transposing science to the table, the goal is to intertwine health and food so that future doctors acquire knowledge to help improve the quality of life among general population.
NMS invests in transversal education, research and innovation, following the example of other prestigious international medical schools, such as Harvard Medical School.
Students of Medicine and Nutrition Sciences are not the only ones targeted. The Laboratory will also promote training for the community. People with specific pathologies can benefit from learning how to prepare meals that will improve their health condition. Children's food education will not be forgotten either: LIA will teach the little ones the basics of the Mediterranean diet.
A pioneering project in Portugal, the LIA comes at a time when the current pandemic has highlighted the risk of mortality and morbidity from chronic non-communicable diseases, many of them the result of inadequate food choices, dietary patterns and unhealthy lifestyles.