Publich Health Nutrition and Sustainable Diets
Led by Dr Kerry Ann Brown, this theme explores the challenges and opportunities for solving public health and planetary health problems related to nutrition.
Currently food systems (how we grow, sell, and eat our food) are neither good for planetary nor public health: they contribute to the over-exploitation of global natural resources and we have increasingly high levels of dietary-related disease and food insecurity.
The below projects explore changes to food systems and food environments, such as the implementation of a food policy or rising global temperatures, and the impact on food security and dietary-related disease.
Current projects
Public health nutrition
Food security and climate change
Past projects
2023-2024. Sustainable food consumption SW England research community. GW4 funded.
2022 - 2024. Process of developing sustainable food-based dietary guidelines around the world. Led by LSHTM, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Change & Health.
2021-2023. Chatham House background reports for integrating sustainability into the 2023 Nordic Nutrition recommendations.
2017-2024. Sustainable & Healthy Food Systems in India, UK, South Africa [SHEFS]. Wellcome Trust Our planet Our health programme funding.
2020-2021. One health photovoice exploration of Bedouin camel owner perceptions of zoonotic disease risk in Jordan. Bloomsbury Set, UKRI funding.
External engagement and outreach
Our projects often use innovative ways to engage communities in research and co-create research with communities, e.g., through the use of photography.
If you or your community wish to be involved, please contact Dr Kerry Ann Brown directly, or via the NIHR School for Public Health Environments Research at Exeter (SPHERE) or the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula (Pen-ARC) ‘how to get involved’ teams and mark your message FAO Dr Kerry Ann Brown.
Understanding the impact of energy [kcal] labelling on menus in England
Diet related disease, including obesity, is a major public health burden in England. In 2022, the government introduced a mandatory energy [kcal] labelling policy in England, which says that large businesses serving food for consumption outside homes [e.g., cafes and restaurants] must display energy [kcal] information at the point of purchase [e.g., on menus]. This project aims to evaluate the impact of the policy by examining how it may have affected our purchasing habits, changes in the availability and prices of food, and the views of young people on this policy and on healthy eating more broadly. Led by LSHTM, with Dr Kerry Ann Brown and Camilla Forbes at the University of Exeter.
Can meals on wheels improve nutrition and wellbeing?
There is a high prevalence of under-nourishment and malnutrition in community-dwelling older people. This leads to frailty, loss of independence and poor health outcomes including increased mortality and use of health and social care resources.
We are conducting a larger scale and longer duration study to determine whether daily provision of a highly nutritious meal (>40% daily energy requirements and >50% recommended daily intake for protein) for 12 weeks to under-nourished older men and women living independently in the community can improve physical, physiological and psychological outcomes.
Led by Prof. Jo Bowtell, Dr Mary O’Leary, Dr Lauren Struszczak at the University of Exeter, in partnership with Dartmoor Community Kitchen Hub, Torbay NHS Foundation Trust, and the University of Plymouth. Funded by the Torbay Medical Research Foundation, the Hadley Trust, Feeding Britain, and Devon Country Council.
Empowering youth through ecotourism and mangrove conservation in South Madagascar
In Tulear, Madagascar, deforestation and coastal exploitation combine with series social challenges such as poverty, sexual exploitation of young people, and limited access to education. This projects seeks to address these challenges through vocational training in ecotourism and marine biodiversity conservation, targeting improving the lives of women and girls in the community. Led by Bel Avenir, with Dr Kerry Ann Brown at the University of Exeter. OCEAN Blue Planet award, DfiD.
UKRI Centre for Net Positive Health and Climate Solutions
This climate and health centre is designed to find net positive solutions to climate change from resilient blue and green spaces, food system adaptations, and sustainable cities. Led by the University of Exeter and the UK Health Security Agency with Prof. Tim Taylor, Prof. Conny Guell, Dr Kerry Ann Brown, Prof. Richard Smith. Funded by UKRI.
