The Erasmus Plus funding SPIRIT project, which has been running for three years, includes three European partners, namely Spain, Cyprus, and Portugal, together with Asian partners, namely India, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, which always contributes to socializing exercise and healthy nutrition to prevent infectious diseases in Asian countries.

This time, the Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) SPIRIT Project provided a workshop at the Sumatra Update on Nutrition Science (SUNS) 2023 event at the Truntum Hotel, Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia on 9-12 November 2023. The theme was "Local Food Source and Knowledge in Daily Practice to Enhance Health and Longevity.” This symposium was attended by 202 participants consisting of 108 specialist doctors and 94 general practitioners from all over Indonesia. At this SUNS event, four workshops were held: a cooking class workshop attended by 38 participants, a Sports Nutrition and Longevity Workshop attended by 41 participants, an Obesity Workshop attended by 38 participants, and Clinical Nutrition Therapy attended by 30 participants.

SPIRIT also contributed to the Sports Nutrition workshop by discussing Basic Nutrition on Sport by Prof. Dr. Dina Keumala Sari, M. Gizi, SpGK(K) from the Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan. The next topic is The Use of Supplements and Ergogenic in Sports by Dr. Fitriyani Nasution, M, Gizi, SpGK from the Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, then presented the topic of The examination of Body Composition in Sport by Dr. Iflan Nauval, M. ScIH, SpGK (K), SpKKLP, AIFO-K from Universitas Syah Kuala, Banda Aceh. This workshop ended with an interesting topic, Sport that can Enhance Longevity, delivered by Prof. Dr. Afriwardi, SpKO, MA. from Universitas Andalas, Padang.

For four days, all participants were given various topics about nutrition and exercise in preventing non-communicable diseases and how nutritional management can increase fitness and longevity. Exercise is an interesting topic to discuss, and nutritional therapy, which is the main topic that comes from local food, provides discussion topics for participants who are interested in clinical nutrition. Furthermore, it plans to implement SUNS in 2025, which will be implemented continuously.

Author: Renny Julia - Staf Humas

Interviewee: Prof Dr dr Dina Keumala Sari, M Gizi, Sp GK (K) - Dosen

Photographer: Istimewa - Istimewa