Highlights from the 22nd IUNS-ICN International Congress of Nutrition
Written by: Kathryn Beck
The 22nd International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) International Congress of Nutrition (ICN) conference was held from December 6-11 in Tokyo, Japan. To highlight the connection PINES has with our members in Japan this article has been written in both English and Japanese.
Over 3,300 delegates attended this conference which consisted of two opening and one closing lecture, 8 plenary lectures, 32 special lectures, 8 special symposia, 124 symposia, two-panel discussions, 300 oral presentations and over 1500 posters. A range of educational tours were also available to take part in including one to the Japan High Performance Sport Centre which supports the nation’s top athletes. Highlights included seeing the athlete’s restaurant. The restaurant set-up includes a camera system with artificial intelligence that detects the chosen menu items and subsequently calculates the nutritional content of the meal.
Of interest was a symposium on space nutrition and another symposium co-organised by the Japan Sports Nutrition Association on the connection between sports nutrition research and practice. This session was chaired by Dr Kazuko Ishikawa-Takata (Tokyo University of Agriculture, Japan) and Professor Fiona Pelly (University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia).
Melinda Manore spoke first on her teams’ five-year research programme to improve sports nutrition knowledge, education and eating behaviours in high school football players. Within this research programme the WAVE Sports Nutrition Curriculum was developed as a two-year programme. The curriculum uses young people’s interest in sports to teach them about healthy eating and hydration. All content used in the intervention is available at https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/em9218 and can be used or adapted for young people involved in different sports and activities.
The next speaker was Wen Jin Chai from the National Sports Institute of Malaysia who provided a Malaysian perspective on sports supplements and doping awareness. She provided a great overview of the role of supplements in the athlete’s diet, including current scope of practice and some of the challenges faced in this area within Malaysia.
Professor Motoko Taguchi from Waseda University in Japan spoke on her team’s research on the prevention and early detection of energy deficiency in free-living athletes. She presented an update of research in this area, including a case study of an athlete presenting with low energy availability, and discussed techniques for measuring energy availability in athletes.
The final speaker was Professor Fiona Pelly speaking on food provisions and dietary support at major competitions including the Olympic Games over the past 20 years. This included the role that dietitians have played in reviewing menus and supporting athletes with their nutrition onsite. The first main nutrition input occurred in Sydney 2000, and the first PINES review of the menus occurred in Beijing, 2008. Over the years, the number of athletes following specific dietary regimes has increased from 16% in 2000 to 36% in 2018. Issues becoming increasingly important have been an increasing focus on food safety and a global focus on sustainability. Fiona presented some very recent research on outcomes from the expert review of the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Olympic Games.
Fiona Pelly also had the opportunity to visit Professor Motoko Taguchi, a PINES colleague from Wasada University, hear graduates present their research on energy availability and tour their facilities used for training, servicing and testing athletes. This included a clinic area, DXA and a very new MRI! Fiona also presented a lecture to the team at Wasada on her research over the past 20 years.
The first PINES session at an International Congress of Nutrition occurred in South Africa in 2005. It is great to see sports nutrition continuing to feature at this conference. See you in Paris, 2025!
