Historical and contemporary perspectives of the nutrition transition - Dr Cornelia Guell

The MRC Epidemiology Unit seminar 'Historical and contemporary perspectives of the nutrition transition' by Dr Cornelia Guell was recorded on 5 July 2022.

About this talk
Global shifts in dietary patterns away from fresh produce towards highly processed foods are also experienced in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Many SIDS lead global rates in obesity and noncommunicable chronic diseases, and drivers for their ‘nutrition transition’ are complex and include an increasing reliance on cheap nutrient-poor food imports. This talk will share perspectives from Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Fiji and make a case for the need to understand the temporal complexities and lived histories of food practices to inform contemporary public health strategies for healthier local diets.

About Dr Guell
Dr Cornelia (Conny) Guell is the interim co-director of the European Centre for Environment and Human Health with Dr Ben Wheeler.

Conny is a medical anthropologist with an interest in a) socio-cultural environments of health and social theoretical approaches to health behaviour and behaviour change with a focus on food systems and mobility practices. b) methods development of participatory, citizen-science approaches and knowledge exchange; and c) policy and historical analysis of structural approaches to noncommunicable chronic diseases.