The Peninsula
Sidra Medical and Research Center (Sidra) will hold an international conference next week on how the senses of taste and smell can help address and treat conditions like obesity.
‘Senses, Diet and Disease’ conference will be held between November 13 and 15 at Hamad Bin Khalifa University Student Center in Education City.
The conference is directed towards academia, researchers, physicians, health care providers and regulatory agents involved in the fields of chemical senses, nutrition, obesity and related disorders. ‘The first Qatar Olfactory Mini Symposium (QOMS 2016),’ a satellite half-day meeting will also be an integral part of the conference.
Sidra’s Chief of Experimental Genetics Professor Paolo Gasparini and Investigator, Dr Luis Saraiva will discuss how genes, smell, taste and food preferences can impact food intake and health status. “Science has progressed rapidly that we already have a good understanding of how our sense of taste and smell work at a peripheral level including molecular, behavioural and physiological stages. We are really keen to further discuss and explore how olfactory, taste and appetite systems interact and impact diseases and medical conditions like obesity, cancer or malnutrition. The potential of these senses and their interplay have tremendous potential in tackling issues like obesity – a growing health concern in the Gulf region,” said Dr Saraiva.
Obesity has become a major pandemic around the world, with massive social, economic and medical costs. In the Gulf region, overweight and obesity rates are among the highest in the world — posing even bigger problems in the population. Qatar has taken several measures to address its own obesity challenges in the adult population via health and well-being campaigns including the promotion of sports and health activities on National Sports Day observed in February every year.
Various international studies have highlighted the association between food cravings and obesity – with obese people more often experiencing cravings.
