Goals & Impact

The growing and unsustainable burden of overweight and obesity on both healthcare systems and societal well-being worldwide calls for a cross-disciplinary strategy to identify its causes and design effective interventions.

Although overweight and obesity are highly preventable, healthcare initiatives and policies have not been effective, possibly because they have mostly focused on modifying individual behaviour, rather than addressing the broader, complex factors at play.

The PAS GRAS project is based on the premise that obesity is a complex and multifactorial disease, and that effective interventions must address all factors in an integrated manner.
PAS GRAS aims to prevent and reverse obesity and its associated metabolic complications in four age groups:

3–9

pre-pubertal children

10–18

adolescents

19–25

young adults

25–55

adults

To do that, the project will:

1

Determine which factors (such as lifestyle, mental health, socioeconomic factors, and environmental pollution) influence the development of overweight/obesity, and how they interact with individual psychological, genetic, and metabolic characteristics.

With this information, it will be possible to address the factors that are leading to excess weight at individual and regional levels. For example, this information can be used to develop personalised programs for people with obesity, or to inform policymakers about the main environmental factors causing obesity in their region.

2

Develop a personalised Risk Assessment Tool (RAT): a computer program able to predict if someone is at risk of developing obesity or obesity-related complications, based on the risk factors that person is exposed to.

Know more about the RAT here

3

Develop and implement personalised programs for people with overweight/obesity to achieve a healthy lifestyle, by combining lifestyle modifications with currently available treatments.

Know more: One of the project’s goals is to identify new molecules that can be used in obesity treatment. Taking into account a large body of evidence that suggests the Mediterranean diet is a well-balanced diet that promotes health and sustainability, this diet will be the basis for nutritional interventions in this project. Other lifestyle changes under study include increasing physical activity.

4

Develop and implement the PAS GRAS Campaign: a science-health literacy campaign to increase public awareness and knowledge about the science and evidence related to obesity, how to prevent it and reverse it. The PAS GRAS Campaign will be co-developed in collaboration with researchers, patients and members of the general public.

Read the details about the PAS GRAS campaign in the Research section on our website.
Check out the contents of the PAS GRAS Campaign on the Public Resources/Knowledge page on our website.

In sum, PAS GRAS seeks to provide everyone with the best possible knowledge and tools to prevent and reverse overweight/obesity, and to promote health throughout the life course.

This will have an overall positive impact on public health and healthcare systems: there will be fewer need to use medicines and surgery to reverse obesity, and people will have less obesity-related complications, such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

PAS GRAS will bring together research centers, healthcare units, patient associations, industry, schools, municipalities, policy makers, and all other relevant actors to drive effective change towards a healthier society.

The PAS GRAS project is organised into six Work Packages (WP):

wp1

Management, Ethics & Training

WP Leader: University of Coimbra

wp2

Risk stratification for obesity and its complications using markers of socioeconomy, lifestyle, brain function,  and energy metabolism

WP Leader: Uppsala Universitet

wp3

Identification of mechanisms  to target obesity, from nutraceutical  to pharmaceutical interventions

WP leader: Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology

wp4

Co-production of creative and interactive tools and interventions connecting health literacy-diet-physical activity across life course

WP leader: University of Coimbra

wp5

Identification of mechanisms  to target obesity, from nutraceutical  to pharmaceutical interventions

WP leader: Universitá degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro

wp6

Dissemination, Exploitation, Communication and Impact