Prof Koh Woon-Puay

Professor, Healthy Longevity Translational Research Programme Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore

Dr Koh is Professor in the Healthy Longevity Translational Research Programme at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine in NUS. She received her MBBS (Honours) from NUS, her PhD in immunology from the University of Sydney in Australia, and postdoctoral training in epidemiology from the University of Southern California in USA. Being a population health scientist, Prof Koh’s research is in the epidemiology of chronic diseases such as cancer, cardio-metabolic, musculoskeletal and neurodegenerative diseases. Prof Koh is the Principal Investigator of the Singapore Chinese Health Study, a 63,000-strong cohort of middle-aged and older Chinese Singaporeans established for the long-term study of dietary and environmental factors of chronic diseases. She has co-authored about 480 scientific papers and is a recipient of the NMRC Clinician Scientist Senior Investigator Award. In her role as Assistant Dean and Director for the NUSMed Clinician-Scientist Development Unit, she mentors budding clinician-scientists in NUS.

Diet and Healthy Longevity – Examining the Fine Print in the Evidence

Maintaining a healthy diet is closely linked to longevity. While general advice includes increasing plant-based foods and limiting processed foods and sugars, questions remain if the high-quality dietary patterns, first developed in Western populations, can be applicable to our local cuisines. How about changes in diet after midlife - are they too late in improving health, and how much improvement is necessary? Further, while eating more vegetables and fruits is recommended in general, do fruits and vegetables have different effects with different ageing outcomes? How about specificities and varieties? Are certain fruits and vegetables better than others? Do we still need variety on top of quantity to have optimal effects? In this talk, I will present findings from the Singapore Chinese Health Study cohort over a twenty-year follow-up to examine the fine print in the evidence linking midlife diet to cognitive function, physical frailty and overall health in late life.