Nutrition Science
Program overview
The Australian health system spends billions of dollars each year treating preventable diet-related chronic diseases - including type 2 diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes. These key killers affect millions of Australians and disproportionately affect more vulnerable communities, including those with food insecurity.
The Nutrition Science research team is focused on reducing diet-related diseases through implementing innovative research techniques, with a commitment to reaching more vulnerable populations.
Together with healthcare partners, The George Institute for Global Health has established ‘Food is Medicine’ programs to provide fresh produce and medically tailored meals to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians experiencing food insecurity and chronic diseases. The team is currently conducting a series of world-class clinical trials to assess their effectiveness, alongside comprehensive program evaluations to inform future scale-up.
The Nutrition Science team also conduct analyses assessing global data to model the impact of population-level food policies. Our modelling work informs economically viable food policies that improve population health outcomes, and monitors compliance with and performance of existing policies. Our work also seeks to determine the role of dietary factors in the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic diseases.
Expected Outcomes
Our novel research challenges traditional systems and practices and endeavours to make real-world changes that facilitate the health of populations globally.
The George Institute’s Nutrition Science Program leads global collaborative and multidisciplinary work to drive change in the prevention and treatment of diet-related disease with a public health agenda.
Our key outcomes are:
- To develop sustainable ‘Food is Medicine’ programs that are integrated into the Australian healthcare system to address diet-related disease and food insecurity
- To inform public health and food policy that promote reductions in diet-related disease, especially in vulnerable communities
- To identify and develop solutions to factors that play a role in diet-related disease
