Livia Augustin is a nutrition researcher at the National Cancer Institute Pascale in Naples (Italy) where she conducts diet trials in women with breast cancer. She is part of the steering committee of the Nutrition and Oncology study group for the Italian Society of Nutrition (SINU) and proponent of the Consortium of Lifestyle trialists in Breast Cancer Survivors. In the late 1990's she hypothesized that a high dietary glycemic index may be relevant in carcinogenesis given the higher surges in blood glucose and insulin compared to low glycemic index diets. She started and led the investigations of the glycemic index in cancer risk at the National Cancer Institute in Aviano (Italy) and St. Michael's hospital in Toronto (Canada). She is the proponent and investigator of a RCT involving low glycemic index Mediterranean diet for the reduction of breast cancer recurrence and cardiometabolic risk factors in women with breast cancer (DEDiCa study). She conceived the International Carbohydrate Quality Consortium (ICQC) with worldwide experts (www.carbquality.org). Dr. Augustin has been an invited speaker at international scientific conferences, has more than 100 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and textbook chapters and she is an active reviewer for international scientific nutrition journals.

Rocco Barazzoni, MD, PhD is Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, director of the Postgraduate School of Sports medicine and consultant in Internal Medicine at Trieste University Hospital. His previous posts include Assistant Professor of Medicine and Research Fellow at Mayo Clinic and Foundation, Rochester, Minnesota. He is the current Chairman of the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) and President of the Italian Obesity Society (SIO). He also co-chairs the ESPEN Special Interest Group on Obesity. He has participated in the Editorial Boards of several journals including Diabetes. His research focuses on nutritional and hormonal regulation of energy metabolism and related mechanisms in both clinical and experimental models in the settings of obesity, its metabolic complications and malnutrition. Professor Barazzoni has published more than 200 papers (h-index=49) in international peer-reviewed journals, including original research as well as editorials and guidelines.

Neal Barnard, MD, FACC, is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, DC, and President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Dr. Barnard has led numerous research studies investigating the effects of diet on diabetes, body weight, hormonal symptoms, and chronic pain, including a groundbreaking study of dietary interventions in type 2 diabetes, funded by the National Institutes of Health, that paved the way for viewing type 2 diabetes as a potentially reversible condition for many patients. Dr. Barnard has authored more than 100 scientific publications and 20 books for medical and lay readers, and is the editor in chief of the Nutrition Guide for Clinicians, a textbook made available to all U.S. medical students. As president of the Physicians Committee, Dr. Barnard leads programs advocating for preventive medicine, good nutrition, and higher ethical standards in research. His research contributed to the acceptance of plant-based diets in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. In 2015, he was named a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. In 2016, he founded the Barnard Medical Center in Washington, DC, as a model for making nutrition a routine part of all medical care. Working with the Medical Society of the District of Columbia and the American Medical Association, Dr. Barnard has authored key resolutions, now part of AMA policy, calling for a new focus on prevention and nutrition in federal policies and in medical practice. In 2018, he received the Medical Society of the District of Columbia's Distinguished Service Award. He has hosted four PBS television programs on nutrition and health. Originally from Fargo, North Dakota, Dr. Barnard received his M.D. degree at the George Washington University School of Medicine and completed his residency at the same institution. He practiced at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York before returning to Washington to found the Physicians Committee.

Andrew W Brown, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Biostatistics Core Director for the Center for Childhood Obesity Prevention with Arkansas Children's Research Institute. He has conducted research using simulation, in vitro, ex vivo, animal, and human observational and interventional models. He conducts “research on research” through qualitative and quantitative research summaries, characterizing reporting practices that perpetuate scientific misinformation, and evaluating methodological and statistical choices that may lead to misinterpreted research. He has received local, regional, and national recognition, including the Mead Johnson Award from the American Society for Nutrition. He is a Fellow of The Obesity Society, has served in leadership roles with the American Society for Nutrition, The Obesity Society, and the American Public Health Association, and is a member of AAAS, American Statistical Association, and Sigma Xi. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in Biochemistry from Iowa State University with a graduate minor in Statistics, earned his doctoral degree from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln in the Interdepartmental Nutrition Program with a minor in Statistics, and completed postdoctoral training with the UAB Nutrition Obesity Research Center, emphasizing meta-research, rigor, reproducibility, and transparency.

Dr. Laura Chiavaroli is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto and Affiliate Scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital. Dr. Chiavaroli's research program leverages collaboration with stakeholders to develop and test strategies for the translation and implementation of clinical practice guidelines and public health policy related to dietary patterns for the prevention and management of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. She leads large interdisciplinary teams in the co-design of digital tools leveraging the latest technology and behavioural interventions with testing across diverse communities and settings. She also leads the design, conduct, analyses, and interpretation of large pragmatic randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and embeds practices to address equity, diversity, indigeneity, inclusion, and accessibility throughout.

Dr. Guasch-Ferré is Associate Professor and Group Leader at the Department of Public Health and Novo Nordisk Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She is Deputy Head of the Section of Epidemiology at the University of Copenhagen. She also holds an appointment as Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA. Her research focuses on dietary and lifestyle epidemiology and prevention of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). She has incorporated high-throughput -omics techniques, primarily metabolomics, into traditional epidemiologic analyses to gain insight into underlying mechanisms that may explain associations between dietary factors and CVD and T2D. The research group she leads aims to advance the field of precision nutrition through the integration of -omics data and evaluating their association with diseases using large cohort studies and clinical trials with dietary data and metabolomics. Dr. Guasch-Ferré's research activities have resulted in numerous manuscripts (>140, H-index 40) and she has been awarded several competitive European and American grants. She received the Sandra A. Daugherty Award for Excellence in Cardiovascular Disease or Hypertension Epidemiology and Prevention from the American Heart Association (2021). She is the P.I. of an NIH-funded project entitled “Circulating plasma metabolites, lifestyle factors, and mortality risk”.

David J.A. Jenkins is an University Professor, and a professor in the Departments of Nutritional Sciences and Medicine, University of Toronto, a staff physician in the Division of Endocrinology, Director of the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Center, and a Scientist in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital. He was educated at Oxford University. He has served on committees in Canada and the United States that formulated nutritional guidelines for the treatment of diabetes and recommendations for fiber and macronutrient intake under the joint US-Canada DRI system (RDAs) of the National Academy of Sciences. He also served as a member of Agriculture Canada's Science Advisory Board (2004-2009) on the future direction of Canada's agriculture and agricultural research. He has spent much time working with the food industry to develop products for the supermarket shelf and, for example, helped to initiate Loblaw's (Canada's largest supermarket chain) 'Too Good To Be True' and most recently their popular “Blue Menu” line of products ( for cardiometabolic health). His research area is the use of diet in the prevention and treatment of hyperlipidemia and diabetes. He has over 400 original publications on these and related topics. His team was the first to define and explore the concept of the glycemic index of foods and demonstrate the breadth of metabolic effects of viscous soluble fiber, including blood glucose and cholesterol lowering. His group developed the cholesterol-lowering concept of the dietary portfolio that has entered guidelines in many jurisdictions (e.g. CCS, Heart UK etc.). He is co-chair of the International Carbohydrate Quality Consortium (ICQC) that promotes research and recommendations on the use of carbohydrate foods and their components. He believes in the therapeutic value of plant-based diets and their components and the diets that are advocated have to be environmentally sustainable and reduce the human footprint on the planet.

Dr. Kahleova is a board-certified endocrinologist, with a PhD in human physiology and pathophysiology, and a board certification in lifestyle medicine. She serves as a director of clinical research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and her research focuses on nutrition treatment of obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disease. As a member of the American Diabetes Association and as a board member of the Diabetes and Nutrition Study Group of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, Dr. Kahleova is involved in the process of updating the nutritional recommendations for people with diabetes.

Dr. Kendall is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, and the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Center, St. Michael's Hospital, and an Adjunct Professor in the Division of Nutrition and Dietetics, College of Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Saskatchewan. He was educated at the University of Toronto, where he obtained his Honors BSc, MSc and PhD. His primary research interest is the role of diet in the prevention and treatment of chronic disease. Dr. Kendall has over 250 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals. His research on the Portfolio Diet, which combines cholesterol-lowering food components, has been included in several guidelines as an effective dietary strategy for cholesterol reduction. He has also conducted much research on the role of healthy dietary patterns, including low glycemic index diets, in the control of type 2 diabetes. Dr. Kendall is a founding member of the International Carbohydrate Quality Consortium (ICQC), Chair of the Diabetes and Nutrition Study Group (DNSG), and Director of Glycemia Consulting and the Toronto 3D Knowledge Synthesis and Clinical Trials foundation.

Prof Lean established the Department of Human Nutrition 1990 with a 'broad-focus' strategy for translational, integrative, research and teaching. He is the only doctor on the GMC Specialist Register for Human Nutrition, as well as Diabetes and Endocrinology and General/Internal Medicine. His main focusses are obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and health promotion. include DiabetesUK Rank Prize Lecture (2014) and Banting Memorial Lecture (2020-21), Tenovus Medal for Research (2017), FRSE (2018), Rank Prize for Nutrition Research 2024. Visiting professorships at Otago University and University of Sydney. Over 400 Original articles with G-Scholar, H-Index =125. Outside work, plays and makes violins, cycles, and climbs mountains.

Dr. Simin Liu is an epidemiologist and physician-scientist whose work unites molecular genetics, nutrition, clinical medicine, and public health. He is a Professor of Epidemiology, Medicine, and Surgery and director of the Center for Global Cardiometabolic Health (CGCH) at Brown University. He also holds an adjunct professorship at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Liu's research is mainly concerned with the etiology of complex diseases with special emphasis on identifying strategies for their prevention and control. Dr. Liu's research group conducts both experimental and observational research that government funding bodies, private foundations, and industries have supported in identifying and confirming multiple novel genetic and biochemical markers and gene-nutrient interactions for cardiometabolic outcomes in diverse populations. His work is among the first to link intake of carbohydrates, insufficiency of micronutrients and minerals, and changes in weight to a series of cardiometabolic outcomes (diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease) prospectively in national cohorts. Dr. Liu has published > 500 original research reports, some of which are among the most highly cited with an H-index of 153. He has developed and taught eight courses and directly supervised 123 trainees at Harvard, UCLA, and Brown University. Dr. Liu is an elected fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA), American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), American Epidemiological Society (AES), and a permanent member of the Epidemic Intelligence Service Alumni Association (EISAA). He has also served as a member and chair on committees/study sections/advisory boards for federal and international agencies, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the European Union, the British Medical Research Council (MRC), and the World Health Organization (WHO) providing consultations on issues related to pharmaceuticals, nutrition, and global health.

Vasanti Malik, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Chronic Disease Prevention. Dr. Malik's research uses a combination of epidemiological studies, clinical trials and evidence synthesis to evaluate dietary and modifiable risk factors for obesity and cardiometabolic diseases in different populations locally and globally, and on studying the intersection of diet, health and environmental sustainability. The goal of Dr. Malik's work is to generate evidence that can inform dietary guidance, public policies and programs to prevent chronic diseases and promote more sustainable food systems.

Dr. Mechanick is Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of The Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health at Mount Sinai Heart, and in the Cardiovascular Institute and Division of Cardiology, and Director of Metabolic Support in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He received his M.D. degree from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, completed Internal Medicine residency at Baylor College of Medicine, and completed Endocrine Fellowship at The Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Mechanick authored over 420 publications in Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Nutrition Support with 302 PubMed citations, over 90 chapters, and 11 books currently. He is the 2016-2017 Past President of the American College of Endocrinology, 2013-2014 Past President of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, and 2005-2006 Past President of the American Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists. Dr. Mechanick was appointed as a member of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN) Science Board for 2010-2013 and was the 2013-2015 Editor-in-Chief and currently Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the PCFSN quarterly publication Elevate Health. Dr. Mechanick currently serves as Chair of the Board of Visitors for the College of Computer, Mathematics, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland at College Park and was the 2011 recipient of the University of Maryland Industry Impact Award and 2011 University of Maryland Biology Alumnus Award. In 2016, Dr. Mechanick was honored as the Yogesh C. Patel Memorial lecturer at McGill University and in 2023, received an Honoris Causa Doctorate from Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, Romania. Dr. Mechanick is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, American College of Nutrition, and American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN), as well as Master of the American College of Endocrinology. In 2023, Dr. Mechanick was appointed President of the Scientific Advisory Board of the BetterMe Lifestyle Medicine Center in Bucharest, Romania. Dr. Mechanick also serves on the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) Board of Directors. Dr. Mechanick's research interests are in the fields of nutrition and metabolic support, obesity and lifestyle medicine, and network analysis of complex systems. Dr. Mechanick is responsible for training cardiology fellows at Mount Sinai in lifestyle medicine, nutrition, and metabolic support and serves as Chair of The Mount Sinai Hospital Nutrition Care Committee.

Medical Doctor and Nutritionist, Gabriele Riccardi is past Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases at the “Federico II” University in Naples, Italy and Chief of the Diabetes Unit in the University Hospital. His previous positions were President of the Master's Degree in Human Nutrition and Chairman of the Bachelor's Degree in Dietetics. He has been President of the Italian Diabetes Society and is now its Honorary President. He has participated in the Joint Committee of the European Society of Cardiology and the European Atherosclerosis Society, which has issued the Guidelines on Management of Dyslipidemias. Gabriele Riccardi has published over 450 research papers in prestigious scientific journals and has held invited lectures at major national and international conferences and in many universities all over the world. In recognition of his scientific commitment, in 2016 he was awarded the Celso Prize “for his innovative leadership and lifetime achievements in diabetes research”. His research interests are mainly related to dietary interventions for the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

Ulf Risérus is a professor of clinical nutrition and metabolism, and head of the clinical nutrition research unit at Uppsala University, Sweden. Risérus conducted his basic medical training at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden and earned a PhD degree in medicine and nutrition at Uppsala University in 2002. After 2 years of postdoctoral training at Oxford Centre of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Churchill Hospital, Oxford University, he has lead a research group at Uppsala University, targeting dietary prevention and management of type 2 diabetes, NAFLD and cardiovascular disease, with special focus on dietary fatty acids. Risérus has initiated and led a series of randomized feeding trials, demonstrating novel effects of different dietary fatty acids on liver fat accumulation and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Risérus has apart from fatty acid research conducted pioneering randomized studies on the metabolic health effects of a Healthy Nordic diet, with the first results published in 2011, and since then extended the research with larger clinical trials on this topic. Risérus has a H-index of 63, with >240 peer-reviewed publications and has >18.500 scientific citations. Risérus was the president of the Diabetes and Nutrition Study Group (DNSG) of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) between 2012-2018, and has been in the working committee of the recent European evidence-based clinical guidelines for dietary management of diabetes.

Distinguished Professor of Nutrition and Director of the Human Nutrition Unit - University Rovira i Virgili (URV) and ICREA Academia Investigator. CIBERobn Principal Investigator and Coordinator of its Nutrition Programme. He is currently Director of the Catalan Nutrition Centre (CCNIEC), President of the World Forum for Nutrition Research and Dissemination (INC), and a member of the expert panel of the Diabetes and Nutrition Study Group (DSNG). Prof Salas' research has focused on human clinical trials to evaluate the effects of foods, dietary compounds and dietary patterns on obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. Since 2005, he has been one of the principal investigators of the PREDIMED study (n=7447 participants) and is currently the coordinator and chairman of the steering committee of the PREDIMED-Plus study (n=6874 participants), two large clinical trials for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and mortality. PREDIMED-Plus is a multi-collaborative project involving 30 research groups and has received national, European, Canadian and US grants. Through all these projects and collaborations, the group has developed skills in precision medicine using different OMIC methodologies, in particular metabolomics and metagenomics, which we are now implementing in epidemiological and clinical studies. He is also involved in two prospective national and international cohort studies: CORALS (children followed for 10 years) and LEDFERTYL (men of reproductive age). He has published more than 750 scientific articles with more than 45000 citations and an SCI H-index of 100, has published 14 books and has supervised 32 PhD students. Has been named one of the world's most influential researchers by Clarivate Analytics and Standford University.

Ursula Schwab, PhD, is a professor (nutrition therapy) at the University of Eastern Finland and leads the curriculum of nutrition. She works also as a clinical nutritionist at the Kuopio University Hospital. Her expertise is in planning and conducting randomized controlled dietary interventions regarding the effects of diet, e.g. the Healthy Nordic Diet and the quality of dietary fats and carbohydrates, on lipid and glucose metabolism, low grade inflammation, type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease including nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics, lipidomics and metabolomics approaches. She has been involved in updating the Nordic and Finnish Nutrition Recommendations, the European nutrition guidelines for diabetes, and several national good practice guidelines, e. g. on dyslipidemia, diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Dr. Sievenpiper is a Clinician Scientist who holds appointments as a Professor in the Departments of Nutritional Sciences and Medicine and Nutrition theme lead in the MD Program at the University of Toronto and Consultant Physician in the Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism and Scientist in the La Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael's Hospital. Dr. Sievenpiper completed his MSc, PhD and PDF training in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto. He completed his MD at St. Matthew's University followed by Residency training in Medical Biochemistry at McMaster University leading to his certification as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada (FRCPC). He has established an internationally recognized research program focused on using randomized trials and epidemiological approaches to address questions of clinical and public health importance in relation to diet and cardiometabolic disease prevention with a particular interest in the role of carbohydrate quality and plant-based dietary patterns. He is directly involved in clinical practice guidelines development for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease in Canada and Europe. He is the recipient of numerous awards including a Stanley N. Gershoff Memorial Lectureship Award, Insulin 100 Emerging Leader Award, Khursheed Jeejeebhoy Award, CNS Young Investigator Award, PSI Foundation Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship, Diabetes Canada Clinician Scientist Award, Banting & Best Diabetes Centre Sun Life Financial New Investigator Award, among others. He has authored > 280 scientific papers and was recognized as a 2023 Highly Cited Researcher (top 0.1% of researchers).

Joanne is a professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, She teaches Advanced Human Nutrition, a writing intensive course twice yearly. 4With the help of current and former graduate students (n=90), she has authored more than 350 scientific articles on dietary fiber, carbohydrates, whole grains, protein, snacking, gut health, brain health, and sustainable agriculture. Joanne was a member of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) She is a Science Communicator for the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) and a member of numerous scientific societies, including the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) and the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) Dr. Slavin has given more than 400 scientific presentations around the world Dr. Slavin grew up on a 119 acre farm in Walworth, Wisconsin which she owns and manages She has BS, MS, and PhD degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a Registered Dietitian (RDN)

Professor of Medicine, Department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism, Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium. Luc Van Gaal studied medicine at the University of Antwerp, where he graduated in 1978. He obtained a specialist degree in internal medicine and afterwards in endocrinology and metabolism in 1983. Since then, he has become responsible for the Metabolic Unit at the Antwerp University Hospital. In 1992 he became Professor of Medicine at Antwerp University and is currently -as an emeritus professor- honorary consultant at the department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism of the University Hospital. Professor Van Gaal's main clinical and research interests are related to obesity, type 2 diabetes and lipid metabolism. He is a member of many scientific, national and international societies and a member of the Editorial Board of a series of scientific journals. He was a board member of the Belgian Association for the Study of Obesity (BASO) and Past-President of the Belgian Endocrine Society and the Belgian Diabetes Association. He is as a founding member of the International (IASO) SCOPE programme. In 2000, he was the co-President of the 10th European Congress on Obesity, organized in Antwerp in May 2000. He participated to and/or featured as (country) coordinator or principal investigator a number of clinical (outcome) trials in the field of obesity and diabetes. He recently also became interested in the obesity associated liver disease (NAFLD - MASHD) He is also involved in a number of EU consortia for metabolic diseases. He has published more than 500 papers in international medical journals, mainly in the areas of general endocrinology, obesity, diabetes and lipids and has contributed to a number of textbooks about obesity.