European project: PROMISS -Prevention of Malnutrition in Senior Subjects in the EU-

Holistic approach

Existing data from scientifically well-established prospective aging cohorts and national nutritional surveys from Europe and ‘third countries’ will be combined with new data from short- and long-term intervention studies in older persons at risk. Its holistic approach will provide insight in the causality of the links between diet, physical activity, appetite and malnutrition and underlying pathways, thereby providing the necessary evidence to develop optimal, sustainable and evidence-based dietary and physical activity strategies to prevent malnutrition and enhance active and healthy aging.

PROMISS will also deliver food concepts and products as well as persuasive technology to support adherence to these strategies. In close collaboration with stakeholders, PROMISS will translate these strategies into practical recommendations to guide policy and health professionals at EU- and Member States level.

Optimeal: determine sustainability and nutritional effects

To determine sustainability as well as nutritional effects of the developed dietary strategies we will use the user-friendly tool Optimeal®. The tool is able to find the shortest route to an adequate diet relative to habitual diet. One of the benefits is that it can take older adults’ preferences into account, which will help to identify the most effective interventions. Coupling this tool to an extended and for PROMISS adapted database with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) calculations offers the unique opportunity to determine sustainability as well as nutritional effects of the developed dietary strategies.