2003–2018 · lebanondiet.org archive

Conferences and events, 2003–2018

The old site’s “Activities”, “News” and “Events” sections were mostly announcements — a conference programme, a date, a venue. Collected in one place they show what Lebanon’s nutrition professionals were meeting about for fifteen years.

2003 — the LDA’s third international meeting and a congress in Ankara

In 2003 the Lebanese Dietetic Association announced its third international meeting for June, together with a “Nutrition and Optimum Health” conference. The site also carried the second announcement of the IV International Nutrition and Dietetics Congress at Hacettepe University in Ankara, whose themes were new concepts in food and nutrition sciences, clinical nutrition, catering, nutrition in different cultures, nutrition and cognitive skills, special dietary foods and food–drug interactions; contact went through the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at AUB.

19–21 February 2004 — “Fighting Together Cardiovascular Disease”

A symposium of the Lebanese Task Force for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease of the Lebanese Order of Physicians, held at Beit al Tabib under the patronage of the Minister of Health, with the WHO and ten scientific societies including the Lebanese Association for Nutrition and Food Science. Its objective was a unified national strategy for screening and managing cardiovascular risk factors.

The programme ran from risk scoring (from Framingham to SCORE, with a guest lecture from Denmark) and prevention in high-risk patients, through the metabolic syndrome, hypertension and dyslipidaemia, to a session on preventing cardiovascular disease at low cost — where the association’s president spoke on lifestyle intervention — and closed with a public session on awareness of obesity and diabetes.

2005–2009 — international congresses relayed to members

• First World Congress of Public Health Nutrition — Barcelona, 28–30 September 2006, with pre-congress activities on 25–27 September.
• 3rd International Conference on Polyphenols Applications in Food — 26–27 October 2006: two days on the health effects, bioavailability, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food-industry uses of polyphenols, and European regulation (EFSA).
• 10th European Nutrition Conference (FENS 2007).
• International Conference on Practical Approaches to the Treatment of Obesity — Harvard Medical School, in its 22nd year: plenary lectures and concurrent sessions on the medical management of overweight and obesity.
• Food and Function 2009 — Žilina, Slovakia, 9–11 June 2009, on nutraceuticals and functional foods.
• A Food Standards Agency (UK) notice advising pregnant women to limit caffeine.

Around 2010 — child and adolescent nutrition

A conference on “Current Challenges in Adolescent and Child Nutrition” brought Dr. Susan Lanham-New of the University of Surrey to Beirut to speak on nutrition and bone health in children: bone mass increases linearly through childhood, which makes it the critical period for building peak bone mass, with the strongest association between calcium intake and bone mineral status in the earliest years. The conference recommended that public officials, schools and families work together on obesity prevention, that schools teach nutrition from preschool to high school, and that children get an hour of physical activity regularly.

Scientific Conference on the Basics of Balanced and Sensible Nutrition

Opened before 327 participants by the association’s president, the conference aimed to update the Lebanese community on advances in nutrition and to “quell misconceptions” with evidence — “there are no bad foods, only bad diets”. Its headline finding was the rise of obesity in Lebanon: between 1997 and 2009, prevalence had increased by 67 per cent among men and 55 per cent among women.

Other speakers covered dietary patterns of Lebanese adults — a Western pattern of red meat, fats and sweets raised obesity risk compared with the Lebanese pattern of bread, olive oil and burghul —, the doubling of paediatric obesity in the region in ten years, the Oldways approach of “managing rather than banishing” foods, hydration physiology, and the role of policy-makers and the beverage industry.

16–17 May 2012 — Dietary Management of Metabolic Syndrome

A two-day conference at Issam Fares Hall, AUB, organised by the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences and the Department of Clinical Nutrition at AUBMC with the Lebanese Academy for Nutrition and Dietetics. Sessions covered the pathophysiology of the metabolic syndrome, dietary patterns, fructose, dyslipidaemia and its nutritional management, probiotic and prebiotic interventions, blood pressure and salt, renal failure, diabetes and medical nutrition therapy, exercise, and the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in the Lebanese population. Speakers came from AUB, AUBMC, Maastricht University, Sultan Qaboos University and Al-Faisal University.

2012–2013 — paediatric nutrition, medical nutrition therapy, breast cancer

• 7 December 2012 — “Ensuring a Healthy Start for the Pediatric Population”, Maamari Auditorium, AUB: early-life nutrition and physical activity in the first 1,000 days as prevention against adult non-communicable diseases.
• 8 November 2012 — opening of the Beirut Cooking Festival at Pavillon Royal, Biel, to which members were invited.
• 2 February 2013 — First AUBMC Nutrition Conference, “Medical Nutrition Therapy: Challenges and Solutions”, Issam Fares Hall.
• 25 October 2013 — public lectures day “Prevent and Treat Breast Cancer: The Role of Nutrition”, with the International Breast Cancer and Nutrition group of Purdue University.

2015–2018 — the LAND years

• 30 January 2015 — news of two awards: the 2014 Susan Bulkeley Butler Leadership Excellence Award to Dean Hwalla from the International Breast Cancer and Nutrition group at Purdue, and the 2014 BLC Bank Business of the Year Award to committee member Sawsan Wazzan for the Diet Center.
• 12 April 2016 — “Nutrition and Food Research Conference: Trends and Challenges in the Middle East”, Lebanese American University, Beirut.
• 29 September 2016 — “Nutrition and Food: Ongoing Journey for Better Health”, Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences.
• 3 April 2017 — “Nutrition for Physical Activity and Health”, a multidisciplinary sports-nutrition workshop with the Nutrition Department at FAFS, AUB, combining nutrition, medicine and sport for students, members and practising dietitians.
• 11 December 2018 — LAND Special Event at FAFS, AUB: a meeting for all dietitians with a keynote on new evidence for the prevention of cancer by nutrition, followed by updates on LAND activities and the process of the professional order.

Original addresses on lebanondiet.org

The content above was published on the old site at the following addresses, which now redirect here — /Events.aspx, /Events/*, /News.aspx, /News/*, /About-Us/Press-Releases.aspx, /conference/*, /article.asp?id=17…57 — Restored from the Internet Archive on 20 September 2026; text condensed and edited for readability, facts and dates kept as published.

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