My ultimate research ambition is to unravel the potential of food as medicine. I aim to provide medical practitioners with mechanistic evidence of how specific foods can be used as precision tools to prevent and treat disease. As a clinical diabetes dietitian and assistant professor within an academic medical centre, I am in a unique position to conduct cutting-edge, clinically relevant nutritional research. 

After my PhD at the Department of Internal Medicine, division of Vascular Medicine, and the Department of Psychology, I developed my independent research line at the division of Dietetics: ‘Metabolic Fasting and Precision Nutrition in chronic diseases’. Within the Internal Medicine research strategy, I work closely with the “Vascular Aging” theme. 

I study the effects of fasting (very low-calorie diet (VLCD)), mimicking the metabolic effects of fasting (ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting), and specific nutritional supplements (e.g. flavanols and seaweed) on metabolic and cardiovascular health outcomes and vascular aging in chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes. I’m currently supervising various research projects: 

• FLAVA trial, studying the effect of monomeric and oligomeric flavanols on microalbuminuria in patients with type 2 diabetes 

• E-DIET trial, studying the efficiency of the combination of e-health and face-to-face care during a very low-calorie diet 

• E-TIMED trial, on the effect of intermittent fasting on metabolic an vascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes 

• KETOACRO trial, studying the effects of the ketogenic diet on the health of people with acromegaly 

• SESMID, studying the associations between social economic status (SES), healthy diet and migraine 

• FASTMED trial, aiming to study the effects of Mediterranean diet versus Mysimba on liver fibrosis in patients with type 2 diabetes 

• Food Pharmacy trial, studying the effect of free healthy, sustainable food boxes for people with T2D and a low SES 

Furthermore, I have been studying the effect of ketogenic diet on hepatogenic adenomas, the effect of fatty acids and bile acids on Lp(a) during diet, and the effect of seaweed in diabetes. 

My social commitment is evident in my projects such as increasing sustainable nutrition in hospitals and improving the health of Erasmus MC employees with diet.