Join us for the next instalment of our series spotlighting international research.

This event is being run online and in person. We encourage those on campus to attend in person.

Lifting our eyes from the river: food environments as upstream determinants of health

Diet-related chronic diseases are among the leading causes of death and disability in Europe. Over recent decades, research and policy have moved upstream, from individual behaviour towards the environments in which people make food choices. In this presentation, I argue that this shift is necessary but not sufficient, because food environments do not arise in a vacuum. I will draw on my and others’ epidemiological studies and experiences with implementing food environment interventions to identify the wider system in which food environments are embedded. I will specifically focus on the commercial and political determinants shaping food environments, and how they may fluctuate over time and space. Lifting our eyes from the river means studying not only the food environment, but also identifying leverage points for change in the landscape that shapes the river.

Dr Joreintje Mackenbach is epidemiologist and associate professor at the department of Epidemiology and Data Science at Amsterdam UMC in the Netherlands. Her work focuses on how food environments affect food choices and health outcomes, and how political and commercial forces shape food environments. Joreintje is also co-founder of the Upstream Team, co-chair of the public health working group of EASO (European Association for the Study of Obesity) and co-chair of the Dutch Knowledge Network on Systems Thinking.

For more information on the Centre's spotlight series please email c21ph@bath.ac.uk.

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