The chair group led by Prof Frans Kok focuses on nutritional needs to achieve and maintain optimal health throughout the life span. Dietary intake, nutritional status and functional outcomes are studied at the individual level. Research and training is concentrated on foods and nutrients, is physiologically oriented and targeted both at western and non-western settings.

The chair group covers the following research themes:

International Maternal and Child Nutrition aims to determine efficacy of innovative food-based approaches with focus on preventing micronutrient deficiencies.
Nutrition and ageing aims to identify dietary strategies that optimize nutritional status to slow down or reverse stages preceding ageing related pathologies (cognitive decline, sarcopenia, osteoporosis).
Clinical nutrition aims to develop evidence-based dietary strategies for optimal nutritional status tailored to individual patients before, during and after medical treatment.
Nutrition, physical activity and sports aims to study the interaction between nutrition and physical activity as well as the effect of nutrition on sports performance and recovery.

Expertise and facilities are available to study dietary assessment, food composition, levels of intermediary biomarkers, energy balance, body composition and body functions, and to carry out controlled human dietary intervention studies.