Associate Prof. Matti Jauhiainen is a walking encyclopedia on in lipid metabolism and heads up research projects at the Finnish National Institute of Health and Welfare and at the Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research (Helsinki). This month we were delighted to welcome him to the Nightingale Nest to present recent findings in lipidology with the topic “Overdose of energy – rich diet: lipid metabolism becomes distorted".
Prof. Jauhiainen highlighted the impact of dietary trends on cardiometabolic health, detailing how foods containing high-energy carbohydrates (HFCS) have been linked to dyslipidemia and other molecular reflections of the metabolic syndrome. This included observed changes in both the number and particle size of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) in patients with abdominal obesity and type 2 diabetes. Of key importance is the fact that small LDL particles also feature an increased concentration of apolipoprotein B (apoB 100), making them a useful determinant of coronary heart disease risk.