The 2007 Food Summit ‘Eating stress away’was focused on the potential role of diet in modulating acute and chronic stress responses.
Stress plays a major role in modern society and is thought to contribute to the occurrence of a variety of health disturbances. In order to understand how food can affect stress responses, the current knowledge on the definition of ‘stress’ and its effects on our body has been presented by key scientists. Current developments in methodologies, models and industrial views were important topics. The role of diet on stress-induced changes in brain, metabolic, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular functions have been discussed from an integrative perspective. Key questions were: how to measure stress and stress responses, how to develop relevant biomarkers and tools/technologies to measure them, and which (human and animal) models are available to study these issues. The organising committee had put together an interesting group of speakers, both from abroad and from the Netherlands. The Food Summit 2007 has taken place at Kasteel Vaalsbroek in Vaals, from 3 to 5 December and was on invitation only.