Research summary
We are what we eat—and too many of us eat highly processed foods that offer few health benefits. Dr. Michael Rogers, Canada Research Chair in Food Nanotechnology, hopes to change this by making processed foods more nourishing.
Our bodies don’t digest ultra-processed foods made from refined sugars, salts, starches and oils the same way they do their whole-food counterparts. When ultra-processed foods become staples, people are more likely suffer from obesity and other chronic health conditions. Rogers and his research team are coupling state-of-the-art synchrotron and light imaging with the most advanced robotic gastrointestinal systems to study every level of food structure—from nano to macro—with the aim of engineering healthier foods.