Grant: Operating Grant: Programmatic Grants in Food and Health - Full application

Our Overall Goal is to examine through clinical trials the value of diet to prevent and treat disorders associated with the Western diet and lifestyle, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes, rapidly implement research findings into practice, and potentially reduce the need for medications. Background: Nearly 30% of deaths in Canada are due to cardiovascular disease, costing $20.9 billion annually. Obesity prevalence is high and diabetes incidence is expected to double by 2030. These diseases are associated with unhealthy lifestyle, yet lifestyle change and particularly diet are underutilized, largely due to lack of proven effectiveness, in marked contrast to drugs. If diets are to play a role in the prevention and treatment of chronic disease, diets must be tested through clinical trials of similar size, scope, and rigour to those that established the value of drugs. The Network: To achieve our goal, we have brought together a network of investigators and researchers from across Canada with a wide range of expertise and interests, including nutrition, cardiology, imaging, endocrinology and metabolism, diabetes, genetics, psychology, clinical trials, epidemiology, primary care, and knowledge translation. The core group have just completed the first cross-Canada CIHR-funded multi-centre diet trial to lower serum cholesterol (JAMA 2011). The core members also have been (eg. CMAJ 2010) and are currently involved in other collaborative dietary trials. The current network is a major expansion of past collaborations and is linked also to the Canadian Atherosclerosis Imaging Network to permit our nutrition centres to employ the latest MRI technologies. We have an emphasis on rapid knowledge translation in keeping with the influence of our members and their research on dietary guidelines and we will provide unique training and career development opportunities for clinician-scientists, nutrition trialists, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.