Eat five fruits and vegetables a day, limit fat, sugar, salt… Behind these public health messages are hidden research teams, first and foremost that of Mathilde Touvier, who directs the Inserm nutritional epidemiology research team (EREN) since 2019.
For this epidemiologist, nutrition is at the crossroads of health, politics, ecology, anthropology or even art. “This daily act says a lot about us, and is far from trivial for our health and that of the planet”she said during his inaugural lesson at the Collège de France, given on Tuesday April 11 in front of a full house. She will occupy the annual public health chair there, created in 2018 in partnership with Public Health France.
A consecration? Rather a virtuous circle. This 43-year-old researcher has already received several awards, including the Inserm Research Prize in 2019 and, two years later, that of the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation. By choosing nutrition, Mathilde Touvier combines scientific knowledge and public health, two of her passions.
His team connects all kinds of epidemiological work, carried out on patients, healthy subjects and collaborates with teams conducting research on animals, cells, etc. “To date, we have published several thousand studies in scientific journals, and just as many presentations in international congresses, including a large number of publications from NutriNet-Health – the first web-cohort launched in 2009 for which we are still looking for volunteers. »
It’s his team (Inserm-Inrae-CNAM-Sorbonne Paris Nord University-Paris Cité University), attached to the Center for Research in Epidemiology and Statistics (Cress), which showed for the first time in 2018 possible links between ultra-processed foods (AUT) and the risk of various pathologies such as cancers, cardiovascular diseases, depressive symptoms or diabetes. Prepared meals, cakes, sauces… the TUEs which invade supermarket shelves are composed of ingredients of industrial origin, such as hydrogenated oils, maltodextrin (sugar resulting from the hydrolysis of a starch or starch) and other flavor enhancers. Since then, other studies have corroborated these results. Finally, the National Health Nutrition Program (PNNS) recommends reducing the consumption of TUEs.
The researcher wants to go further. “There are more than three hundred additives, including sweeteners and nitrites, on the European market. Our teams of statisticians, dietitians and computer scientists carry out colossal work to detect additives present in foods, verify compliance with the information on the packaging, integrate tens of thousands of composition data from different sources and link them with consumption data from the NutriNet-Santé cohort, to study the link with the risk of pathologies”details the doctor of nutrition.
You have 64.75% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.