Unleashing the power
of nutrition

The use of nutrition in clinical practice is challenging, not only because of the heterogeneity of diseases but also because of host characteristics that make them more prone for a progressive disease course and complications. For instance, the last decades we see increases in rates of obesity and metabolic syndrome and these patients have heightened (post)surgical risks and thus require extra attention of nutrition support specialists. Also the risk of an impaired nutritional status has often been paid too little intention, though substantially impacts disease outcome and overall wellbeing. Therefore, to optimally incorporate nutritional support in the clinic, we urgently need more information about the mode, timing, and adequacy of nutrition in patients. High-quality research is needed to lay the foundation for future clinical trials. At our NUTRIM symposium with the theme ‘unleashing the power of nutrition’, we will highlight some of the work in this growing area of research being performed in our institute and we look ahead to new developments in the near future.