Professor Raben, it’s great to meet you. Please tell us about your role in the project
I am the project co-coordinator from Copenhagen, working with the Coordinators in Liverpool. Further, I am leader of WP3, which concerns a 2-year randomised controlled trial (RCT) in adults and children.
From the beginning, the H2020-call on Sweeteners caught my inter-est. I had worked with this topic already as a young researcher, but found several years later that there are still many myths and beliefs about the effects of non-caloric sweeteners, among scientists, stu-dents, and lay people.
With this project we aim to achieve an even clearer picture of the effects of sweeteners on appetite, body weight regulation and safe-ty. In addition, we hope to reach a new understanding about their influence in the public domain and aspects around the sustainabil-ity of sweetener use.
Managing and and successfully completing the 2-y trial in WP3 will be an exciting project element as will seeing the outcome of the WPs focusing on consumer perception and overall sustainability.
Since it takes time to produce results in clinical trials, the first year of the project will mainly provide insight into the industry element of the project and, potentially, consumer surveys.
Anne Raben (AR) is Ph.D.in Human Nutrition and Professor in the Obesity Research Unit at the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports (NEXS), SCIENCE, University of Copenhagen, DK. She has over 25 years of clinical research experience with prevention and treatment of obesity and related diseases, eg type-2 diabetes and CVD. Her main focus has been on short and long-term dietary intervention studies, specifically studying the effect of amount and type of carbohydrate (ie sugar vs non-caloric sweeteners, low vs high-glycemic index, GI) and protein (animal and plant sources) on appetite and body weight regulation, glycemic and lipidemic control.
is Project Coordinator of the multinational EU project “PREVIEW” (2013 – 2018), PREVention of Diabetes through lifestyle Intervention and populations studies in Eu-rope and around the World (www. previewstudy.com, grant no312057). Further, AR is co-coordinator in a new Horizon2020 project “SWEET“. The main purpose of SWEET is to study the efficiency, safety and risks/benefits of single or combined use of different sweeteners. Their effects on metabolism, gut brain signalling, neuro-behaviour, and microbiota will also be studied as will sustainability, market related aspects, consumer perceptions and preferences. The project started 01-Oct-2018 and runs for 5 years.