Barbara Bray was invited to speak at the first Food Matters Live event in Dublin in November 2024 as part of the Positive Nutrition session. Below, Barbara shares her highlights and reflections:

Speaking engagement:

I spoke in the Positive Nutrition session alongside Dr. Conor Kerley from Phytaphix and Alice Moffitt from Ibec. The session was beautifully chaired by Claire Mac Evilly. I shared findings from the PROMED-Ex study, led by Dr. Claire McEvoy at Queen's University Belfast, which looked at the impact of a protein-enriched Mediterranean diet and exercise on cognition in older adults at risk of undernutrition. I presented preliminary data from my Healthy Ageing Diet study, which will conclude in 2025 with a series of co-design workshops. These workshops aim to bring stakeholders together to identify foods commonly eaten by older people that are good candidates for product development to improve the nutrient value.

Innovative discussions:

I attended an engaging session on precision nutrition. My take-home from the round table discussion on developing a circular biomethane production system in Ireland was: “Innovation is about getting from an idea to an invoice.”

Networking:

I enjoyed meeting many online connections in person.