Nutrition and ageing Not a new topic, but growing and evolving…
About the lecturer:
| Nick Kennedy | BA, BA[mod.] Biochemistry MA, MB BCh BAO MD FRCPI |
Nick graduated from Trinity in Biochemistry (1978) and in Medicine (1981). He was employed sequentially as a non-consultant hospital doctor in clinical biochemistry, several specialties in general medicine and finally in gastroenterology. He worked in the department of clinical medicine in Trinity in parallel with his clinical work at St James’s Hospital and retired as Associate Professor in Clinical Medicine (Nutrition) and Honorary Consultant in General Medicine (St James’s Hospital) in September 2023. During his academic career he served on numerous committees in College, acted as a tutor for a decade. He also supported the discipline of nutrition externally; was a founding committee member of the Irish Section of the Nutrition Society, a key instigator in the establishment of the Irish Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (IrSPEN), a council representative of IrSPEN at European level (ESPEN) for 3 years. He was asked to join the the first Irish statutory registration board for dietitians (the DRB in CORU) as a member from the education sector. He served for two 4-year terms and was nominated to chair the DRB during the second term.
Nick was elected to Fellowship of the RCPI in recognition of his contribution to the development of teaching in clinical nutrition to members of the RCPI. His clinical work at the coeliac disease clinic (St James’s Hospital) led him to be invited by the national patient organisation to be the Honorary President of the Coeliac Society of Ireland (CSoI). In that position, he was an active director on the Board of the charity for 15 years and represented it at the Association of European Coeliac Societies (AOECS) general assemblies for several years.
His research interests included areas of clinical biochemistry, clinical nutrition, public health nutrition, nutrition education and coeliac disease.
Nick has been interested in food and has taken pleasure in preparing and sharing meals since childhood. He began having food allergies as a small child and has navigated life with multiple food allergies ever since. This has strengthened his attention to food ingredients, food handling and preparation, food labelling and his awareness of the challenges faced by people with food intolerances generally. Nick is a keen baker and completed several short certificate courses in bread-baking at the National Bakery School (then in DIT).
About the talk:
I hope to increase awareness of the importance of food and nutrition in healthy ageing and will not address nutritional interventions or therapies in disease states. Some more recent concepts, such as nutrition and the gut microbiome, chrono-nutrition, nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics will be highlighted. Some practical pointers will be given for those interested in thinking further about food and nutrition in maintaining their health and quality of life.