Dietary emulsifiers presented A/Prof Emma Halmos, APD
Their role in gastrointestinal health and Crohn’s disease development and treatment
Are emulsifiers widespread in our diet? Should they be avoided for better gut health? Answering these questions, Emma Halmos, APD, provides a sweeping overview of over a decade of evidence; offering current conclusions on the role of emulsifiers in both the development and treatment of Crohn's disease. Providing advice on emulsifiers has challenges: they have not been well quantified in our food supply, their presence in specific food items is hard to predict, and spotting emulsifiers on a label isn't always easy. We hear Emma’s opinion on how we can navigate this with nuance.
Learn about:
• Why we can’t recommend a low emulsifier diet to treat active Crohn’s disease
• The impact of emulsifiers on intestinal permeability
• Abdominal ultrasound as an emerging tool for Crohn’s disease screening and monitoring
Emma Halmos is an Associate Professor of gastroenterology and senior research dietitian at Monash University, Alfred Health, and co-founder and Head of Research for the international dietitians’ organisation GI DREAM. Her expertise is the field of dietary management of gastrointestinal conditions, including IBS and IBD. Emma’s scientific achievements have had a major impact in academia and clinical practice. Most notably, her pivotal feeding study that demonstrated the low FODMAP diet was efficacious in treating IBS. This study launched a major change globally in attitude and enthusiasm towards dietary management and was featuring on the cover of Gastroenterology and has been cited >1800 times. Emma reputation is internationally renowned and she has presented her work at several national and international conferences, including being the first dietitian invited to speak at the plenary of ECCO, world’s largest IBD forum attended by over 8000 delegates. She was also lead coordinator for the first ECCO consensus guidelines for diet in IBD management. In her current leadership role, Emma is leading research into the role of therapeutic diets for IBD management, including assessment of the role of dietary emulsifiers in Crohn’s disease pathogenesis and treatment. Emma supervises PhD students, most of whom are dietitians and is passionate about inspiring and guiding other dietitians to enter into research.